‘You‘d be half mad to be a veg farmer in Kent’
Vegetable farmers in Kent have revealed how they are adapting to survive –with some saying you have to be “half mad” to do it.
The Garden of England is home to a quarter of a million hectares of arable farmland, but some say its future as a growing giant is at risk.
With prices rising, the aftereffects of Brexit looming and the loss of farmland to housing, some worry the traditional career could be redundant in 20 years’ time.
Dickie Ovenden, who runs the small Green Lane Farm in Marshborough, near Sandwich, said: “You need to be half mad to do this I think.
“There are very, very few vegetable growers left.” Mr Ovenden runs a minor operation and does not sell to supermarkets. He says he can buy cauliflower in a big chain store cheaper than it costs him to grow it. Instead, he sells to smaller independent businesses such as The Kent Veg Box in Maidstone.
As more and more food is grown abroad and shipped in, the business is trying to buck the trend – but it is not easy. Bosses say they have to pay twice as much as supermarkets to stock shelves with veggies. Kent Veg Box founder Steve Oram said: “Even though our produce is grown just down the road, with the bulk-buying power that [supermarkets] have, they can shop around the world to find the cheapest – but not necessarily the best.” Mr Oram also has concerns that in a few decades, many Kent farmers will decide the struggle is not worth it. He added: “There will come a
point where people will just go ‘you know what, I’ve had enough of the struggle. I’m going to take an easier route’. “Having said that, you know they have existed before and the farmers we use are nothing if they’re not resourceful. “They will change to the market and they will adapt to the conditions.”
Some farmers are already making the move away – opting to sell their land for housing where they can make more money. Organisations are worried the loss of UK agriculture will have a big impact on what we can buy in the shop. Charles Hesketh, from the National Farmers Union, said: “We should be looking to maintain or enhance in certain areas the level of food we produce here because we are an island and it doesn’t make sense, in the long run, to be heavily reliant on imports.
“As we saw with, for example, the war in Ukraine and other issues when we had Covid, we’re very vulnerable to supply chain issues.
“If we can’t access those products from abroad and we’re not producing them here, the supermarket shelves will go empty.”
Despite the challenges, some are bucking the trend.
Jack Scott is thought to be one of the youngest farmers in Kent at 20 years old. He plants and picks in between his university studies.
Speaking at his land in Nonington, near Aylesham, he explained: “At the moment it’s tight but I’m the only employee so the cost is minimal.
“The fact that we’re supplying local restaurants and local supply chains also helps as they’re paying better than a supermarket would, but we are dealing with bigger wholesalers too so there is money there. There’s no one else my age doing what I do. Some do it working for other people but none of them do it themselves. “My friends at uni think I’m mental.”
Other, bigger companies are also trying to adapt to the everchanging industry.
Thanet Earth in Birchington is the largest greenhouse complex in the UK. It grows thousands of units of fruit and veg inside more than 50 hectares of land, allowing harvesting all year. However, even that has had to scale back due to labour shortages after Brexit.
One start-up business in Whitstable says growing food yourself could be the answer. Elliot Webb, founder of Urban Farm-it, which sends out growyour-own mushroom kits, said: “Part of what we are about is gifting food sovereignty back to ‘Joe Bloggs’ and enabling people to be able to grow food in methods they previously weren't able to do.
“We need to get a couple of generations to come through and improve the educational system to start gearing it towards this stuff. Currently education is geared around a consumer mentality and it needs to be switched.”