Tom McVeigh
Born and raised in Suffolk, I am the thirteenth generation farmer in my family. I left the farm seeing very little to improve on or to be excited by. In the past few years it feels like our industry has become latent again and full of new opportunities. I have been most excited by the prospect of farming walnuts and hazelnuts as a diverse crop for farmers with low inputs and high economic yields. I am grateful to my sponsors, The Beckett Family for facilitating my ability to study this fascinating topic.
1. A study of Nut production, propagation, processing and marketing in the UK
The Beckett Award
Study Overview
Farming is changing. First policy, then climate and technology, farmers are struggling to adapt and keep up. My study is the search for a new crop. A crop which yields in both wet and dry climate patterns. One that will deliver a high economic yield with minimal inputs on a perennial basis and one that does good for the environment we live in. I am centering my study on Walnuts and Hazelnuts and hope to discover the viability of producing, processing, marketing and propagating these crops in the UK context. I hope to discover for farmers, another feather in their bow of genuinely viable crops to aid sustainability of our industry further into the 21st century.