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Peter Green

Peter Green

After studying Physics at university, then working as a Chartered Accountant in London, I returned to Cornwall in 2011 to run the family farm, where my wife and I now live with our young twins. Besides diversifications including commercial property and renewables, I run a herd of Stabiliser suckler cattle and advise various farming businesses as well as presenting the “Farming Focus” podcast.

As a business owner, I really value the role that small and medium-sized UK farms play in preserving food systems and security, rural cohesion and biodiversity and as a consultant, I see the challenges but also the energy, ingenuity and potential that characterises UK Agriculture.

Through hosting a podcast, I've seen the importance of empowering the farming community by connecting it with ideas and actions that foster proactivity, improve profitability and increase business resilience. I am passionate about helping our industry to thrive in this and other ways and through my studies I aim to develop my own skillset to support many farm businesses. I am extremely grateful to the Food Chain Scholarship whose sponsorship is making this a possibility.

The challenge of getting value from our farming story

Study Overview

Up to 60,000 of the UK’s 215,000 farms are at risk of closure by 2030, with a disproportionate amount of these being small and medium-sized farms.

I believe that many of these type of farm businesses want to survive and to do so must become more resilient through improved profitability and sustainability.

In order to find ways of doing this I will start by investigating three key questions:

1.            Which routes to market are extracting best value for small farms?

2.            How are farmers and consumers interacting and what value does this add?

3.            What can farmers do to engage with consumers about the story of their produce (working alone or with others) to improve their profitability?

In so doing, I hope to identify ways for farm businesses to listen to their stakeholders, engage with their markets and ultimately to improve their financial, environmental and social performance.