The Notebook: Globalisation, vertical farming and indy cafes
The Notebook is where interesting people say interesting things. Today it’s Edwin Morgan from vertical farmers Harvest London.
Globalisation, as we once knew it, is dead”, the shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves boldly proclaimed to an audience in Washington last week.
The speech was as much about keeping Labour in the news as it was a marker of a global economic realignment. There is one area, however, where the debate over how much the UK needs to produce domestically is definitely heating up: food.
Last month, the Spanish government was forced to approve a €2bn emergency package to alleviate the impact of severe drought on farmers.
This matters to us because the UK imports considerable amounts of fresh produce from Spain (check the salad in your fridge). In fact, fruit and veg is the largest category of food imports, at over £10bn in 2021.
Combined with recent gaps on UK supermarket shelves, it now looks prescient of parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee to have launched, last November, an investigation into climate change and food security.
I gave evidence to the committee yesterday on behalf of Harvest London. We are a vertical farming company that grows herbs and salad indoors, year round in our farm in east London, controlling growing conditions including lighting and temperature to a fine degree.
Vertical farming can help with food security because what we produce typically can’t be grown year round in British fields. We use much less water, no chemical pesticides, and obviously don’t have to transport our crops from Spain, or even further afield.
This doesn’t prove that globalisation is dead, but when it comes to fruit and veg, I certainly want it to have been alive – as recently as possible, not sitting in a truck or warehouse for days.
Before Harvest London, I worked at an organisation long associated with free trade, the Institute of Directors.
Business lobby groups are strange creatures, smallish organisations sometimes dominated by people who want the limelight as much for themselves as their members. Because they seek media and political attention, these groups also deservedly receive scrutiny.
It seems the CBI has survived to fight another day, but their claim to be a unified ‘voice of business’ has been diminished. The paradox has always been that having lots of different groups means the message to government gets confused, but it’s also nonsense to pretend companies all agree.
There have been calls to merge some of the organisations, but I suspect it won’t happen because the companies themselves want quite different things from their memberships. Instead we will muddle on. At least until the general election provokes fresh calls for realignment.
Some good news
Talking of business and politics, one part of government that doesn’t make much noise, but is quietly doing good work is Innovate UK, which funds industrial research projects. I’m pleased to say that we have been awarded a grant to maximise the use of data from our next farm, in South London, to push the capabilities of the vertical farming industry forward. It’s good to praise as well as complain.
Never a better time to pop to the indy
Our current farm is in Leyton, and I live nearby in Bow, where I’m lucky to have Mae + Harvey, one of the best cafes in London.
Cafe feels a bit of an inadequate description. It does the basics really well – great coffee, friendly people, inviting atmosphere – but the frequently changing food menu is a notch above the usual. I moved to Bow mainly to be near their chicken sandwiches.
With food prices and bills hammering the hospitality industry, there’s never been a better time to support independent restaurants. Just not on Monday lunchtimes, I don’t want you taking my table.