R2Kast - People in Food and Farming/All In

Coos, House of Commons and a fight with Robert Mugabe  Today we welcome one of those episodes I have less than no idea about someone’s sector! Neil Parish, who at heart is a farmer who grew tired of his father complaining about policy and taking little action.  So he did.  After about 15 years in council Neil had a shot at contesting Torfaen, a safe labour seat which he lost by...

For each week of my travels through Nuffield I intend on releasing a wee update of what’s been happening! This one is the pre-CSC in London followed by the first few days in Brazil…before it all went wrong! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Diversity, pigs and fatherhood! Back in July 2021 I phoned a guy called Flavian who I’d heard talk about casual racism in farming and spoke for about 2 hours on the phone and then released a ‘people in farming’ essay… a few months after he was on the podcast and now 3 years on it’s time for an update! He’s now a dad primarily, has his own farm with his partner, Nic, various diversifications and so...

Mobile phones, therapy and…farming? This was a great chat! It went in a direction I never expected!  Dan Smith works with Jamie’s Farm as a farm manager but by extension find himself moulding the futures of teens from poor background! I can’t sell this enough, listen. Dan is carrying out his Nuffield on how to inspire this generation to care about regeneration!  A deep and amazing d...

One could say this is faultless!  On this episode of the All In series we welcome instant social media success story, Luisa Hendry!  Luisa who from a young age lived all things rocks, whether that was films, TV or the real thing! Then at a school open day realised you could study it and it’s been her life ever since!  Ed and I were out our depth here but very interesting!! Tune in f...

Farming ladders and mobile milking parlours? Today’s guest, a day before I was an official Nuffield scholar cemented a mention in my final presentation! Listen to find out why! 😉 Oli Chedgey was brought up on a very small holding! Farming was what he always wanted! Starting with a few sheep having met farmers working as contractor.  Bustling that business up to 600 with someone else running...

Cover crops and guarding the queen? Today I embarrassed myself! Today’s guest is from a farm but after doing a degree in politics, working through the grenadier guards he didn’t originally see himself going back!  With a very business minded brain Toby Simpson came back to the family farm and wanted to implement a regenerative tweak to the farm.  Amongst others Toby saw major merits...

Sheep, Semen and Young Farmers  Today we welcome a friend! Always enjoy having a chat with someone I know and learning more than I already did! Ailish Ross was lucky enough to be graced with my presence in our times at uni!  Coming completely not from farming Ailish has carved a career in the sector very quickly! In 3rd year giving a lambing a go followed by milking pretty quick out...

ONE HUDRED AND EIGHTYYYYY 🎯  Luke Littler really put Darts back on the scene at the turn of the year with his rise to the World Darts Championship Final at 16!  Luke currently sits at 31st in the world and sure to rise (he says with no understanding of darts)  Today I (as Ed got stuck in Orkney) sat down with Rab Smith, ex-WORLD NUMBER 4! We’ve had the privilege of picking the...

Business, drones and…robots?! Today we welcome someone who I wrote about during my masters a fair old bit!  Sam Watson-Jones started the Small Robot Company.  A business aimed at creating a system where per plant farming can treat a field as a million plants instead of a field.  This means less requirements for chemical and fertiliser, just where and when it’s required…thi...

Looking good!! I’d like to think most of the time I have an idea of what I’m talking about with a guest but would be fair to say today that was not the case!  As I mentioned during the chat, as I sat here in a triple Tesco get up interviewing the founder and editor in chief of Femme Magazine, Brontë Clare Mitchell! Creating a quarterly magazine aimed at showcasing rural fashion and lifestyle...

Goats, goats and…goats!  In June you may have seen me walk in to the goat tent with RHS TV loudly exclaiming that this was in fact ‘heaven in a tent’…I stand by it! A top 2 animal up there with cats!  Today we bring on a Nuffield scholar who started as an English teacher and after a chat on a plane with her partner, Fraser decided to buy some goats.  Obviously at this point it...

Marbles? Marbling?  Today we welcome Gwion Parry! Gwion has been successful in a Nuffield application this year with a focus on a grading system for meat that allows the UK to tell the consumer what to expect as opposed to the outdated fat class and EUROP Scale! Gwion ‘studied’ at Aberystwyth university before a brilliant time in New Zealand.  He then headed home to join the home fa...

What’s the difference between, you, me and the next person?  The answer that question could be a few things but class in society isn’t one of them.  Our guest today is an utter saint of this sector…and literally and OBE (as of this week).   Navaratnam Partheeban, or Theeb is a vet…by the way listen to the name change tradition in Theeb’s culture (Tamil), it’s really cool a...

As this podcast started a second series aiming to showcase anyone with one rule, no ties to food or farming I expected roughly where that would go given Ed and I’s interest…sport and travel! Which in fairness it has almost been exclusively! Today we bring on a PROPER thrill seeker, seeking a thrill that not only has the potential to be but proven lethal at times…that goes today is Ricky Forbes, so...

A PhD, farming 200000 hectares and saving lives. Do you ever get the feeling you’re just meant to meet someone?! I got that sort of initial feeling the second I shook today’s guests hand! Today we welcome Keith Dawson onto the podcast! Normally when someone has a PhD that’s a pretty big thing but we barely mention it in today’s episode! Keith was an environmental scientist in agriculture WELL befo...

The first ever for the R2Kast  We’ve had people like Claire Taylor, Alec Pirie and Christine Cuthbertson who have appeared on two episodes (one as an individual and one on the group series) or even Jane Strawhorn who has appeared in an individual episode, group podcast and even and extra for our group who went to Africa!  Today’s guest finds herself as the only one to appear on two episo...

Deer, calves and…flowers?! Today’s guest, Laura Awdry grew up on a deer farm in New Zealand. She then decided to travel to the UK for a couple years before meeting her now husband and they found themselves expecting!  Throwing herself into the deep end at her partner, Sam’s farm she started her calf rearing business with a hundred calves in a rented shed from her father in law which in his wo...

I have filmed…well 170 episodes and to me this is the wildest!  Our guest today is not only an ESPN pundit, he’s not only an ex-NEW England Revolution manager of 10 years in the MLS but he’s also a European cup winner who played for a decade in ‘that’ Liverpool team. Barcelona around 2010, Real Madrid in the late 50s, maybe even AC Milan around 1990 but few top the Liverpool of the late 70s i...

Philosophy, accountancy and soil! Today’s guest has fitted a LOT in!  Coming from a small farm in Yorkshire, Tom Scrope went to uni to study philosophy (I had a wee chat about this with no idea about what was going on) before starting working in accountancy!  At a soil convention Tom came across an academic called Ben and they started a business together, Soil Benchmark! A very interesti...

Queens, DB5’s and Wheat! Our guest today grew up on an arable farm and knew it was always for him but has went around the houses before ending up at home! Jamie stoles studied agriculture because operating as a mediator and consultant between farmers and researchers for the national trust and then the crown estate! After a while doing this he took over the management of the family 1000ha arable un...

Belfast, Cairo and goats in Somerset Todays guest Cormac White stubbornly decided at about 4 being a vet was his career, and it happened. Some fun at uni before travelling with his career followed!  He found himself after graduating heading to New Zealand and Egypt to practise. Seeing some pretty horrendous things that’s he ‘hopes’ he won’t see again! Eye opening experiences with wonderful pe...

That’s just plane crazy! Every year I love a look at the Guinness Book of World Records and have done since I was a kid, whether it was Ashrita Furman with what I remember to be over 600 records himself, Robert Wadlow and Sultan Kösen as the tallest people ever and currently respectively or even the weird and wonderful such as the most watermelons smashed by the head by Roberto Rodriguez! It could...

Supply chains the most important link?  Series 4 begins with a fantastic guest and another of our 2024 Nuffield cohort! Thanks for the support last year and let’s top it again this year!  Today we have Amy Stoner who always wanted to work in food in some capacity starting as a teenager she made an interactive business allowing kids to cater their own parties!  After school it was Fo...

R2Kast Christmas special!  The roles were reversed for this one where Ed interviewed Wallace about everything that’s been going on in the last few months which is a lot! We spoke about the podcast and what else I’ve been to from charity fundraisers to travelling across 3 continents.  We go into a lot of depth about my life changing trip to Africa and my short trip to Ukraine. Not least b...