Lunch with the Farmers Company

Wednesday 19th September 2012

Peter Swanson, our Clerk, and I represented the Company at Lunch with the Farmers Company in The Farmers Fletchers' Hall which, appropriately enough is on the edge of Smithfield Market. The excellent beef we ate had had not had far to come.

The Master Farmer, Peter Faulkner, told us that, with wheat at £220 a tonne, he was much looking forward to dining at Bakers Hall. His guest speaker was a most impressive young farmer who had just been sponsored by the Company for a Nuffield Farming Scholarship. This had enabled him to visit 70 different businesses in a whole range of countries. It had been a huge help in figuring out how to grow his business (poultry) from a local niche to an enterprise of national scale, while capturing more of the margin for himself at the expense of the middle-man.

Food for thought!