UK: Thanet Earth finishing 2012 on a high
accolade of ‘Champion of Sustainable Farm Practice’ at the recent Food & Farming
Industry Awards. These prestigious awards are held each year at the House of Commons, and feature some of the UK’s most forward-thinking and successful farmers and growers among the nominees. For the judges to make this award is a heavyweight endorsement for the Thanet Earth venture. In awarding the title to Thanet Earth, the judges commented that:
‘Thanet Earth have proved conclusively that you can invest heavily in agriculture to produce items on a mass scale whilst also looking out for the environment. In their case sustainability is a vital element which actually adds to the bottom line.
Profits generated are clearly being reinvested on the site and any new technologies to improve efficiency and reduce wastage are being grasped. Thanet Earth are an outstanding example as to what can be achieved and promotes British farming in a very favourable and laudable way.’
The Thanet Earth site is a great example of how the most environmentallysustainable methods of production are also the most economically-beneficial too. This is true across everything from the use of rainwater capture for irrigation to the efficient use of gas to produce electricity and heat for the greenhouses, and to the use of natural pest control measures. A very successful business has been built in line with the company’s vision of growing and packing their crops without leaving a large environmental impact behind them. The company is soon to expand its crop production capacity with the
introduction of a fourth greenhouse, growing speciality tomatoes from 2013.