Cornwall Climate catch ups: Lisa Guy

This week we had the pleasure of catching up with organic beef farmer, Lisa Guy, the presenter of Food for Thought.

What was it like to present your Climate Story?

Working with Claire and Bryony with Food for Thought was such fun. It was refreshing to discuss the complex challenges in food and farming and see these played out in the documentary in a way that enabled people to question and discuss rather than close down. I also found it supportive – being part of Claire’s vision that cares deeply about the future and is brave enough to portray the multitude grey areas where there is no right answer.

How has your story moved on since then?

We now have an on-farm cold room and butchery! This means we can dry-age the beef and do all the butchering on site, which gives us greater ability to use most of the carcass and be more engaged in the dynamic process of rearing cattle in this landscape and feeding people. I’ve also started to work for Pasture for Life, helping create a network of farmers in Cornwall to share ideas, learning,  and experiences in regenerative farming with the focus on pasture-based systems and low inputs. This is really exciting, there isn’t a great number of opportunities for farmers to leave their farms and this initiative is all about sharing and looking at each-others systems– what’s working well, tips and science-based evidence to encourage regenerative practices.

Have you faced any climate related challenges? 

The climate is less predictable and we realise more and more how important it is to develop resilience in the landscape to enable it to cope better with extreme weather conditions and a blurring of seasons. Creating greater complexity is a big focus for us to encourage biodiversity and resources in this landscape – ultimately this will enable us to sustain ourselves more locally.

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Do you have any thoughts about wider issues and ELMs?

Everything is in suspense at the moment with regards to funding and the establishment of the Environmental Land Management scheme. Where these schemes have started to be available, I have seen a shift in farming. I really hope it continues without being cut back or watered down as I believe it is an effective way to encourage and support farmers to move away from more intensive and damaging systems. We have to phase out industrial production in all food sectors, not just meat, and facilitate low input, mixed, resilient and biodiverse farming to produce for local and home markets wherever possible and trading when not.

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You can stay up to date with Lisa and the progress at Higher Keigwin Organic Farm here.

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