Love Jeremy Clarkson or hate him, there are few members of the Irish farming community who missed the last season of Clarkson’s Farm on Prime Video. From farm manager Kaleb Cooper’s frequent temper tantrums to trying to figure out what in God’s name farmhand Gerald is trying to say in his thick West Country accent, we nosily followed along the trials and tribulations of Diddly Squat Farm.
The most interesting element of last season was Clarkson’s collaboration with Wildfarmed – an agri-food business formed by Groove Armada’s Andy Cato, television presenter George Lamb and finance expert Edd Lees. Wildfarmed works with farmers in the United Kingdom and France to grow regenerative crops, which are then milled into Wildfarmed branded flour and baked into their line of ‘Life-Changing’ bread.
Wildfarmed currently works with over 150 farmers in the UK and France and have partnered with numerous bakeries, restaurants and retailers (like Waitrose) to make their product line as accessible as possible.
George will be visiting east Cork this weekend to speak at the annual Ballymaloe Festival of Food (16-18 May). He caught up with Irish Country Living to discuss his, Andy and Edd’s passion for bringing positive change to the food system and farming landscape.
“We have to find the sweet spot [in agriculture],” he says. “Farmers are being beaten down by price. Consumers aren’t willing to pay more for quality food and we aren’t looking after the environment in the process – it’s a lose, lose, lose situation.”
Mental wellbeing
Problems aside, though, he is energised by what he sees as an increasing awareness and appetite to support farmers and their efforts to farm with nature.
“We try to get people to recognise that the whole point of great food is great farming, but it’s a nuanced conversation,” he explains. “There are sections of society that are really struggling [financially], but there’s also a bracket of society making conscious decisions on how they spend their money – whether that’s on a holiday or a new Playstation. How do we try to encourage them to spend a bit more on the food they’re putting into their bodies? How can we get them to associate the environmental crisis we’re in with their spending power?
“We’re trying to make really good quality food available on the high street and that’s a juggling act,” he adds. “It’s not price prohibitive, but we do right by farmers and nature and provide a business model where everybody can win.”
Diddly Squat Farm Shop was opened in 2020 by Jeremy Clarkson. \Charlotte Martin
In addition to his work with Wildfarmed, George founded the educational programme GROW in 2018. GROW works in schools and communities to promote mental wellbeing and healthy living through a hands-on relationship with nature. He says that learning about the food system was life-changing for him and feels, for positive change to take place, education needs to be at the fore.
“When I first met Andy, he had sold his music rights to purchase his farm [in France] and was really struggling. We met in Ibiza, where he was DJing, and I could immediately sense he was in the middle of some kind of existential crisis. He started explaining regenerative agriculture to me, in the middle of this nightclub, and I thought, ‘This guy is either a genius, or he’s completely mad.’”
Having become disenchanted with his work in the entertainment industry, George had been doing some soul searching of his own. After time spent travelling, he came to Ibiza for one last hurrah before returning to the UK. When he met Andy, he realised that this – not his work in television – was where he was meant to be.
“I realised I had been searching, and what I was looking for was this guy and this thing,” he recalls. “I drove back to the UK through Spain and France, visited Andy’s farm and met his family. I said to him, ‘I don’t know anything about farming, but I can tell a story and bring energy to things, and I want to help you.’”
After his initial struggle, Andy found regenerative success through the introduction of cattle to his farm, who, through grazing, restored equilibrium and enhanced his soil health. In 2020, he was awarded the Laureate Nationale for innovation in agroecology and the Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole for his work in France.
“We knew we needed to be able to do this at scale,” George says. “The National Trust gave Andy a residency on land two hours west of London and we brought Wildfarmed to the UK.
“Andy got into the world’s smallest red Suzuki and drove all over the country, talking to farmers – some were already doing amazing things in this space, and others had aspirations. We started rallying and this community of growers started to develop. It’s a really beautiful thing.”
At Ballymaloe, you’ll find George participating in events on Saturday and Sunday, including a panel discussion on school food initiatives and a workshop on using day-old bread with chef Conor Spacey and Irish Country Living contributor Caroline Hennessy.
“I said this the last time I was over, but I feel like regenerative agriculture could take off much more quickly in Ireland than in the UK,” he says. “The Irish are connected to nature through this rich culture of mysticism and storytelling – we have largely lost that connection.”
See wildfarmed.com; and
ballymaloegrainstore.com/ballymaloe-festival-of-food
Read more
‘Community and family supported me on Inis Mór’
We need to buy Irish now more than ever
Love Jeremy Clarkson or hate him, there are few members of the Irish farming community who missed the last season of Clarkson’s Farm on Prime Video. From farm manager Kaleb Cooper’s frequent temper tantrums to trying to figure out what in God’s name farmhand Gerald is trying to say in his thick West Country accent, we nosily followed along the trials and tribulations of Diddly Squat Farm.
The most interesting element of last season was Clarkson’s collaboration with Wildfarmed – an agri-food business formed by Groove Armada’s Andy Cato, television presenter George Lamb and finance expert Edd Lees. Wildfarmed works with farmers in the United Kingdom and France to grow regenerative crops, which are then milled into Wildfarmed branded flour and baked into their line of ‘Life-Changing’ bread.
Wildfarmed currently works with over 150 farmers in the UK and France and have partnered with numerous bakeries, restaurants and retailers (like Waitrose) to make their product line as accessible as possible.
George will be visiting east Cork this weekend to speak at the annual Ballymaloe Festival of Food (16-18 May). He caught up with Irish Country Living to discuss his, Andy and Edd’s passion for bringing positive change to the food system and farming landscape.
“We have to find the sweet spot [in agriculture],” he says. “Farmers are being beaten down by price. Consumers aren’t willing to pay more for quality food and we aren’t looking after the environment in the process – it’s a lose, lose, lose situation.”
Mental wellbeing
Problems aside, though, he is energised by what he sees as an increasing awareness and appetite to support farmers and their efforts to farm with nature.
“We try to get people to recognise that the whole point of great food is great farming, but it’s a nuanced conversation,” he explains. “There are sections of society that are really struggling [financially], but there’s also a bracket of society making conscious decisions on how they spend their money – whether that’s on a holiday or a new Playstation. How do we try to encourage them to spend a bit more on the food they’re putting into their bodies? How can we get them to associate the environmental crisis we’re in with their spending power?
“We’re trying to make really good quality food available on the high street and that’s a juggling act,” he adds. “It’s not price prohibitive, but we do right by farmers and nature and provide a business model where everybody can win.”
Diddly Squat Farm Shop was opened in 2020 by Jeremy Clarkson. \Charlotte Martin
In addition to his work with Wildfarmed, George founded the educational programme GROW in 2018. GROW works in schools and communities to promote mental wellbeing and healthy living through a hands-on relationship with nature. He says that learning about the food system was life-changing for him and feels, for positive change to take place, education needs to be at the fore.
“When I first met Andy, he had sold his music rights to purchase his farm [in France] and was really struggling. We met in Ibiza, where he was DJing, and I could immediately sense he was in the middle of some kind of existential crisis. He started explaining regenerative agriculture to me, in the middle of this nightclub, and I thought, ‘This guy is either a genius, or he’s completely mad.’”
Having become disenchanted with his work in the entertainment industry, George had been doing some soul searching of his own. After time spent travelling, he came to Ibiza for one last hurrah before returning to the UK. When he met Andy, he realised that this – not his work in television – was where he was meant to be.
“I realised I had been searching, and what I was looking for was this guy and this thing,” he recalls. “I drove back to the UK through Spain and France, visited Andy’s farm and met his family. I said to him, ‘I don’t know anything about farming, but I can tell a story and bring energy to things, and I want to help you.’”
After his initial struggle, Andy found regenerative success through the introduction of cattle to his farm, who, through grazing, restored equilibrium and enhanced his soil health. In 2020, he was awarded the Laureate Nationale for innovation in agroecology and the Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole for his work in France.
“We knew we needed to be able to do this at scale,” George says. “The National Trust gave Andy a residency on land two hours west of London and we brought Wildfarmed to the UK.
“Andy got into the world’s smallest red Suzuki and drove all over the country, talking to farmers – some were already doing amazing things in this space, and others had aspirations. We started rallying and this community of growers started to develop. It’s a really beautiful thing.”
At Ballymaloe, you’ll find George participating in events on Saturday and Sunday, including a panel discussion on school food initiatives and a workshop on using day-old bread with chef Conor Spacey and Irish Country Living contributor Caroline Hennessy.
“I said this the last time I was over, but I feel like regenerative agriculture could take off much more quickly in Ireland than in the UK,” he says. “The Irish are connected to nature through this rich culture of mysticism and storytelling – we have largely lost that connection.”
See wildfarmed.com; and
ballymaloegrainstore.com/ballymaloe-festival-of-food
Read more
‘Community and family supported me on Inis Mór’
We need to buy Irish now more than ever
![George Lamb: ‘we have to find the sweet spot [in agriculture]’](https://d3mdtxxgfz6upn.cloudfront.net/WEBFILES/000/867/584/2372033-867584.jpg "George Lamb: ‘we have to find the sweet spot [in agriculture]’")
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