Wool on the Shank & Soil Under the Hoof

Patrick Holden is at it again — delivering another landmark Sustainable Food Trust report that cuts through the noise with rare clarity. Whenever I hear honest sense about food, farming or climate in the media, it’s almost always Patrick. He’s one of the few voices consistently championing the values many of us actually farm by.

As an organic, Pasture for Life farmer, I take real comfort in knowing the Sustainable Food Trust exists. They speak for a food system built on care, connection and place — the same principles that underpin life here at Essebeare Farm.

One of the SFT’s central messages is that livestock, when managed well, can play a vital role in restoring climate stability and biodiversity. Another is pushing back against the anonymous,top-down commodity markets that strip food of its story, its people, and the craft that once held everything together.

I was reminded of this recently by a horror story: French customs turning back three lorry loads of UK lamb — £750,000worth — because there were traces of wool left on the shanks. It makes you wonder: were workers in those large UK abattoirs pushed so hard they simply couldn’t do the job properly?

It’s the kind of thing that would never happen in our butchery. We take the time, care and pride to prepare our own slow-grown, grass-fed lamb. Our meat is traceable, respectful, and never rushed— because it comes from animals we raised ourselves on land we know intimately.

Stories like that rejected lamb highlight exactly what the SFT is fighting for: a food system built on transparency and integrity rather than volume and speed. When meat becomes just another commodity, corners get cut. Animals become numbers. Workers burn out. And the connection between land, farmer and eater dissolves.

Here on the farm, we do things differently. Our animals rotationally graze slowly through a landscape they help shape —building soil, feeding birds, weaving themselves into the life of the hedgerows. When the time comes, they travel to a small, family-run abattoir. We know the people who work there, all three generations; they know our stock; and every step feels personal.

This isn’t a supply chain. It’s a handful of people, a few fields, and a community that values knowing where its food comes from.

Essebeare Farm is oriented toward local markets, mixed grazing, and a degree of self-reliance that feels increasingly important. The SFT argues that this kind of diverse, rooted, regionally supported agriculture is exactly what the UK needs more of — a model of resilience rather than export-driven intensity.

At the end of a long day, when the cattle settle into the rhythm of grazing and the light softens over the valley, it’s clear why the Sustainable Food Trust champions farms like ours. Not because we’re perfect or high-tech, but because we’re rooted: in soil, in community, in a way of farming that still believes food should have a face, a place, and a story you can follow from pasture to plate.

Essebeare Farm is just one corner of Devon — but if enough small farms hold their corner, quietly and steadily, the future the SFT imagines becomes entirely within reach. Thank you to Patrick and his clever team and lets hope the UK government starts building a bright future for agriculture in this country.

Plenty of lamb and beef in the online shop – Happy Advent folks.

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