We have an impact on wildlife and the environment every breakfast, lunch and dinner as we tuck into the next meal. We can ask ourselves: Where does food come from and is that producer doing all they can for wildlife? We are thinking about this as we do our annual audit for the Linking Environment and Farming LEAF marque. This gives us a rigorous assessment of all the conservation activities we are doing and ensuring we have very high environmental management standards in place. It also helps us through being able to be part of the Jordan’s Farm Partnership, where we get an additional payment for each ton of oats sold, that we can then put back into conservation activities. This requires us to put at least 10% of the farm into wildlife friendly measures with a particular focus on summer flower meadows for bees and crops to provide winter seed supplies for birds.
This is a great way for consumers to know that as they tuck into their breakfast, they are also funding conservation. We hope that it will go beyond the breakfast cereal and that we can have conservation focused bread in our lunch sandwiches and conservation focused beef for dinner.