A win for farming...

Just five years ago you could have been mistaken that this was the end of traditional farming as we knew it.

Fuelled by media hype and the (literally!) billions of dollars of funding, plant based meat and dairy brands were going to end traditional agriculture.

But it never happened.

The wind has come out the sails. Share prices in market leading brands like Beyond Meat and Oatly have tumbled. And just this week we saw yet more evidence of the issues faced by plant based alternatives.

It was announced that Meatless Farms, based in Leeds, are on the brink of collapse after failing to secure additional funding.

Now, I hate to see any business go under and full credit to entrepreneurial team at Meatless for giving this a go. But I can't help but see this as a win for British farming and agriculture worldwide.

It's easy enough to point the finger at the cost of living crisis and conclude that the demise in plat-based alternatives is a result of squeezed consumer spending. But I think the issues go much deeper.

Many of these brands were/are a one-trick pony using carbon emissions to convince us to buy their products.

They can’t compete - and fail to mention - soil health, biodiversity, water cycles, carbon cycling etc. that animals contribute to the environment.

Diana Rodgers sums this up perfectly during her presentation at Groundswell last year. Full video below:

There were well-founded jitters around the industry when plant based alternatives came on to the market and we knew as an industry we were going to have to up our game.

A whilst the direct threat of plant-based alternatives is subsiding, consumers are still demanding more from us as an industry. Environmental and sustainable goals are ours for the taking. And it's great to see the dairy and beef sectors particularly, tackling these head on.

As an industry, we should see this as a win but with a cautionary tail to not take our eye off the ball.

Onwards and upwards for British farming!

Until next week.....