Farming, the Biggest Job on Earth

Debating the future of food

Sarah Bell, Ben Ebbrell, Professor David Hughes Episode 5

This episode’s conversations were recorded at a dinner bringing together people from across the food industry to celebrate the role of farming over a shared love of food and to discuss the challenges the industry faces. The evening was held at FarmED in the Cotswolds, a demonstration farm owned by Ian and Celene Wilkinson. Dinner guests included farmers alongside chef Ben Ebbrell, of Sorted Food fame, Government representatives, retail supply chain managers, Claire Evans the headteacher of an inner-city primary school and Professor David Hughes, an immensely well-travelled professor of global food chains. Against the backdrop of increasing pressures for farming to be profitable, rising food inflation and the government’s recent Farm to Fork Summit, the timing of this episode feels fitting, bringing together a host of people who shared a meal and conversations around the future of food, and its sustainable production. The best conversations and the fostering of understanding, happen around food.