Ladies and Gentlemen, I could not be more surprised and delighted to be receiving this award. It means a great deal to me and I am enormously grateful to Fortnum and Mason, and to Patrick Holden, who really should be getting the award I think. He is a pioneer far more successful than I am. I am also grateful to him for letting me hear parts of my obituary in advance of my demise!
Of course, one of the great pleasures on these occasions is to be able to look back and remind everyone that it wasn’t always like this. It is more than thirty years since I first suggested that organic farming should be taken seriously and, at the same time, rather cautiously managed to convert forty acres of the Duchy Home Farm at Highgrove – followed shortly after with the rest of the farm. It would be an understatement to say that not everyone was entirely comfortable with the decisions I had taken! I shall never forget the vehemence of the reaction - much of it coming from the sort of people who regard agriculture as an industrial process, with ‘efficient production’ as the sole yardstick of success.
There was further outrage when I launched the first Duchy Originals product – a rather splendid oat biscuit which still sells well today. This earned me an outraged tabloid headline claiming that I was "A Shop-Soiled Royal!" Well I’m very pleased to say that sales of Duchy Originals at Waitrose have now exceeded £1 billion and, so far, raised over £27 million for my Charitable Foundation which, amongst other things, funds research into greater sustainability through the Duchy Originals Future Farming programme.
As it turns out, despite all the arguments about the facts, the complications over the rules for subsidies, the endless battles to avoid a ban on things like cheese made from raw milk, and the very real difficulties of farming without artificial fertilisers and pesticides, organic food is a remarkable success story.
It is hard to believe, for instance, that when I started my organic enterprise at Highgrove, back in 1984, there were fewer than 300 organic farms in the UK and the retail value of organic products was estimated at around £1 million. Last year’s numbers from the Soil Association show more than 6,000 organic farmers and processors and retail sales of £2.33 billion.
As far as I am concerned, producing food sustainably should include an important cultural dimension, representing the priceless social and environmental capital that is crucial to our sense of identity and to our relationship to place – as well as to long term food security. This is why I have minded so much about the survival of rare breeds of animals and seed varieties that our ancestors developed over many centuries, but which, 20 to 30 years ago, were in severe danger of being lost forever as a result of the persistent obsession with monocultural, industrialized agriculture.
However, I am told there are now more than 30,000 herds and flocks of native breeds in the UK, contributing over £700 million to local economies. The Rare Breeds Survival Trust, of which I am Patron for over 30 years, has done much to safeguard this part of our natural heritage and Garden Organic, of which I am also Patron, has been equally successful in preserving traditional seed varieties, which were in danger.
I think today’s awards show just how much of a revival is taking place in really delicious, locally produced food. As Patron of the Specialist Cheesemakers’ Association, I am full of admiration for the efforts of people like Charles Martell, in Gloucestershire, who makes a remarkable cheese called “Stinking Bishop” which he delivers by horse and cart, or Carwyn Adams in Wales who makes a wonderful one called “Caws Cenarth”. Over the years, I have done my best to promote this country’s many distinct and wonderful food products – not just through Duchy Originals, but also with initiatives such as the Mutton Renaissance Campaign, which helps to highlight the very special qualities of a sadly forgotten and neglected home-grown product.
There are, of course, a great many people who have helped to pioneer what we might call “real food” and who have also given me help and inspiration over many years. I cannot possibly name them all, but Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver have both made an immense and crucial contribution - as have those pioneers of organic farming such as Helen Browning, Patrick Holden, Lawrence Woodward, the late Peter Melchett and the Young family from Kites Nest Farm. Internationally, I and many others have been inspired by Dr. Hardy Vogtmann and Dr. Carlo Petrini who founded the wonderfully-named Slow Food movement in Italy. We should all be indebted to them for their efforts on behalf of good food from good farming.
Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you again for this much-appreciated award. Above all, it will continue to inspire me to hope that we can see a future for this country in concentrating on developing a reputation for the most environmentally-friendly food production system in the world, with products that tell a really good story, emphasize the importance of native breeds, support family farms and put soil health and fertility at the centre of the entire process. We can but hope...!
Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you again for this much-appreciated award. Above all, it will continue to inspire me to hope that we can see a future for this country in concentrating on developing a reputation for the most environmentally-friendly food production system in the world, with products that tell a really good story, emphasize the importance of native breeds, support family farms and put soil health and fertility at the centre of the entire process. We can but hope...!
