Whole Foods has endured a bruising time on this side of the Atlantic since entering the British market in 2004. Turnover at its UK arm fell seven per cent to £86.4 million in the year to December 2024, while pre-tax losses hit £20 million.
More than 30,000 hectares of land are covered in plastic, a geometric labyrinth five times the size of Manhattan, where 3.5m tons of vegetables are produced every year from tomatoes to cucumbers, peppers to courgettes, aubergines to melons, enough to feed half a billion people and generate a turnover of more than 3bn euros.
Before Brexit, taking a cat, dog or ferret to the EU was relatively simple: the Pet Travel Scheme meant an animal needed a microchip, vaccination against rabies, a pet passport and, for dogs, there were also requirements concerning tapeworm treatment.
Our goal in starting this business was to build a reliable, sustainable company. We wanted to deliver high-quality frozen fruit products while creating long-term value for our partners and community. We are direct producers - from the farm to the table.
Nitrites are generally used as a preservative in bacon and other processed foods, and the U.K.'s Food Standards Agency published a report last fall on the health risks of consuming nitrites. As Dr. James Cooper, the agency's Deputy Director of Food Policy, stated, '[W]hile nitrates and nitrites can form compounds called nitrosamines, many of which are carcinogenic, the link to serious health problems like cancer in humans remains inconclusive.'
Long before they became destination stops, farm shops were practical lifelines in Cornwall; places where farming families sold what they reared, grew or made, and where local communities stocked their pantries. In a county shaped by smallholdings, dairy herds and mixed farms, the connection between land and table has always been close - and still, today, hyper-local food is something Cornwall does exceptionally well.
The Environment Agency (EA) has issued 85 warnings for England, meaning flooding is expected, mainly concentrated in the south-west and Midlands. A further 245 flood alerts are in place, meaning flooding is possible, from North Yorkshire to Cornwall and from the Welsh borders to Norfolk. Natural Resources Wales has another 11 flood alerts in place while Scotland has one flood warning and five flood alerts.
Farm groups, mainly the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA), want Bord Bia chairman Larry Murrin to step down after it emerged that his company, Dawn Farms, has been importing Brazilian beef. The farmers say this creates a conflict of interest for Murrin because Bord Bia's role is to promote Irish food.
Leighton Ashby, 22, and Oakley Hollands, 20, filmed the 30-minute attack on a mobile phone and kept the sheep's ear tag as a token, which was later hidden inside a Monster energy can and discovered inside a communal toilet. The duo, who were enrolled at Plumpton Agricultural College, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal and with Ashby sentenced to two years behind bars and Hollands receiving a 20-month sentence at a youth offender institution.
Outside, it's an overcast and blustery February day in Kent hardly the ideal conditions for growing tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. Yet inside the enormous glasshouses run by grower Thanet Earth, the climate has been optimised to a humid 20C, perfect for the regimented rows of small pepper plants poking out of raised trays. Growing fresh produce indoors in the south of England year-round requires plenty of energy to provide light, warmth and carbon dioxide.
Tompkins, who is the third generation to run his family's 234-hectare (600-acre) farm in the Vale of York, can produce milk for about 40p a litre from his 500-strong herd of black and white Holstein cows. However, he is being paid only 29p a litre by his milk processor, leaving him operating at a loss, despite trying to run his business as efficiently as possible.
When you think of farming, what ingredients do you generally associate with a successful harvest? The basics certainly come to mind: fertile soil, plenty of sunlight and lots of water. But there are other variables that can also mean the difference between a crop of healthy fruits and vegetables and a large heap of organic waste. And it turns out that one of those variables is a very small hawk.
To coincide with this event, the Heinrich Boll Foundation, which has close ties to the Green Party, has published its "Corporate Atlas 2026." The study states: In Germany, more and more small and medium-sized farms are dying out. One reason is that the domestic supply chains for milk, meat and vegetables are dominated by just four large retail chains that dictate prices and squeeze farmers out of business.
