4th July
We all know that feeling when the weather ruins our plans – we feel annoyed if it pours with rain for an outdoor event or we need to be somewhere, and snow or strong winds cancel trains. But for farmers, unexpected weather can cause financial devastation on an annual basis.
Farmers are a core partner for the food redistribution sector. This is because of the vast amount of food waste that happens on farms. This waste is often linked to the weather and how it has impacted the growth of a crop.
Let’s use carrots as an example. If extreme weather has meant the carrots are either ‘too big’ or ‘too small’, these perfectly edible specimens are deemed ‘out of specification and cannot be sold. The farmer will have a few options: leave them and plough them back into the soil, harvest them and sell them for animal feed, or harvest and send to anaerobic digestion. They could, of course, donate them to food redistribution charities like us, but that might see them out of pocket as currently there is no financial incentive for them to do that – though they all want the carrot to end up on the nation’s plates. That is why The Felix Project has been exploring another option.
We would like to see a new Sustainable Farming Incentive or SFI, which would compensate farmers’ for giving edible surplus to the redistribution sector. The idea would not only help farmers follow the Defra’s Food Waste Hierarchy, which prioritises redistributing food to people – it would also meet two of Steve Reed’s major priorities for Defra, moving Britain to a zero-waste economy and boosting food security.
SFI was a scheme that paid farmers to manage their land in a way that protected the environment. The scheme was unexpectedly closed in March 2025 and is currently under review. The Felix Project would love to see this idea put forward for inclusion in whatever is redesigned or offered as an alternative. We think ensuring food not fit for supermarket shelves, yet still edible, should be used for public good, especially when food bank usage is at an all-time high and I am sure most farmers want to see the food they have worked so hard to produce, being eaten.
One example is an organic farmer called Peter Hall from Kent. In 2023, after finding out his crop was no longer going to make a profit he donated his entire orchard of organic apples, pears and plums to Felix. Every year over a thousand volunteers go out and to pick the fruit, which is then sent to our network of around 1,200 community organisations, helping families and individuals access healthy and organic produce.
Peter told me when he was selling the crop commercially, only around 40% of it met the (largely cosmetic) standards to be considered saleable. Now, almost all of it is going to people, with the final 10% (which wasn’t good enough to be eaten as fruit), becoming Felix apple juice, which is then sent to schools across London. In terms of his own motivation, wellbeing and mental health, this solution has been amazing for him and his family. Imagine what could be done if our SFI idea became reality!
One of the things that was important was to find out how much produce could be available. There are very few statistics around farm waste and redistribution. WRAP estimate only 4% of redistributed food comes from farms: approximately 8,000 tonnes. We also know that just 0.8% of all surplus food (including household food waste, which we cannot rescue), is redistributed to people. The Felix Project worked with Argon & Co, a consultancy that specialises in supply chain strategy, to find out the size of the prize. Our new research estimated between 120,000 and 180,000 tonnes of harvested farm produce could be feasible for redistribution. This does not include unharvested food - everything that farmers leave in the ground - because they know it will not meet specifications. This is a vast number: even the lower estimate would be the equivalent of over 285 million meals.
The Felix Project believes introducing an SFI that would pay farmers for their surplus food would be game changing, not only in how much food would be rescued and the positive impact that would have on the environment, but also the social good it would do – not to mention the health benefits that would come from delivering thousands of tonnes of farm-fresh produce. It would be transformational for the charities we support – who want to get fresh food to people in need.
