Farmer Guy Singh-Watson will be visiting Calstock Arts on Thursday, March 20.

British Farming is on its knees, climate change, labour shortages and the uncertain government support are three of the numerous factors not helping. But the main issue is that farmers cannot survive the prices, trading terms and insecurity imposed on them by the big six supermarkets.

Many farmers have already called it a day and many are in crisis. 61 per cent of farmers fear they will go bust in the next 18 months.

Guy will be explaining the issues and his campaign to try to improve the lot of the farmer. Guy is an inspirational, passionate, opinionated and admired figure in the world of organic farming, who still spends more time in the fields than in the boardroom.

Twice awarded BBC Radio 4 Farmer of the Year, Guy is passionate about sharing with others the organic farming and business knowledge he has accumulated over the last three decades. His video rants have provided a powerful platform to do this, with a video on pesticides going viral on Facebook to reach 5.6 million views and 91,000 shares.

Guy has always seen profit as a means not an end. Rejecting numerous investor approaches, Guy always vowed not to allow Riverford to become an enterprise driven purely by the bottom line, or controlled by outside investors.

He stuck to his word, and in 2018, sold 74 per cent of Riverford to its employees at about a quarter of the market value. In May 2023, he sold his remaining shares, making Riverford 100 per cent employee owned.

Guy continues to play a very active role in the next phase of Riverford’s journey. He wants to prove that business can be a force for good, and is confident that staff ownership will protect and develop Riverford’s model of sustainable food production and lock in place the values on which the business was founded.

All fees for the event will go to the charity Ripple Effect. To book tickets, visit: calstockarts.org/event/thursday-20-march-guy-singh-watson/