R2Kast - People in Food and Farming/All In

Today I had Carrie on the R2Kast 🎙️ Carrie is a dietitian and nutritionist whose career has spanned research, food businesses, media and consultancy, alongside sitting on the board of Quality Meat Scotland. 🌾

We spoke about growing up in Scotland, initially wanting to become a doctor and finding dietetics almost by accident. That took Carrie through hospital work before realising her real interest was understanding food, nutrition and how what we eat affects our health. 🍎

A big part of the conversation focused on gut health, probiotics and prebiotics, food intolerances and why nutrition research is far more complicated than a headline saying one food is good or bad. We also got into the difference between dietitians and nutritionists and why Carrie believes nutrition should become a protected profession. 🌍

We also spoke about ultra processed foods and why Carrie disagrees with treating them as one blanket category. From fortified cereals and plant milks to affordability, convenience and family life, we discussed why nutrition needs to be practical and why simply making your diet a little better can be far more useful than chasing perfection.

Enjoy! 🙂
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Ahead of the Scottish Smallholding and Countryside Festival on Saturday 17 October, Wallace chats with show secretary Martin Beard, Alice Lennox from the Rare Breeds Survival Trust and Siobhan MacDonald from the Farm Advisory Service.
Martin shares what visitors can expect, from livestock shows and rural skills competitions to local producers, crafts and over 40 talks.
Alice discusses protecting native breeds, while Siobhan highlights practical workshops, advice and learning opportunities for smallholders and crofters.
The conversation celebrates the importance of small farms, rural communities and preserving traditional skills.
Join us at the Royal Highland Centre on Saturday!
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Today we’re back with Field to Front Door 🎙️
David, Martin and Wallace catching up again, with plenty happening around SFI, regenerative farming, biodiversity and David’s ever expanding direct selling business.
A big part of this episode was the latest SFI debacle, with David explaining how he spent hours preparing a £51,000 application only for the funding to run out before he could submit it. We chatted about the uncertainty this creates for farmers, particularly those trying to change their farming systems while keeping their businesses afloat.
We also got into Martin’s recent bird survey, which recorded 514 birds across 45 species, including eight red listed species! That led into a really interesting discussion around biodiversity, soil health, leaving fields green over winter and whether sometimes doing less can actually achieve more.
David’s direct selling venture continues to grow too, with lamb boxes now joining the mix and farmers from further afield getting involved. We spoke about the power of social media, the challenges of scaling a business and why dealing directly with customers can be so much more rewarding than traditional wholesale markets.
Alongside that we chatted about the Farmers Weekly Awards, growing crops with fewer inputs, grain quality, the price of lamb and why farmers need to find ways of keeping more of the value from what they produce.
We’re keeping this going fortnightly, so feel free to send us any ideas or topics you’d like us to get into.
Enjoy! 🙂
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Series three of Tales of a Nuffield Scholar continues 🎙️ This series is looking at some of the biggest challenges, innovations and conversations shaping agriculture today, and this time we’re exploring a sector I know far less about, UK viticulture 🍇
I was joined by Fred Langdale, who has spent around 18 years working at Exton Park Vineyard in Hampshire. Coming from a farming background, Fred developed an interest in viticulture at a young age and went on to work in vineyards across southern England, South Africa and New Zealand before building his career in the growing English wine sector.
We got right into how viticulture actually works, from managing Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier through to canopy management, cover crops, soil health and harvest. Fred explained how the vineyard uses around 60 different plant species within its cover crops and how careful management can improve soil structure, water retention and ultimately the vines themselves 🌱
We also spoke about just how quickly UK viticulture is changing. Fred remembers harvesting around the middle of October when he started, compared with the 8th of September this year. Despite the drought, he described this year’s fruit as some of the best quality he has seen, showing how a changing climate can create both opportunities and completely new challenges for this growing sector.
That leads perfectly into Fred’s Nuffield Scholarship, which focused on frost protection in cool climate viticulture. Earlier bud burst can leave vines increasingly vulnerable to spring frosts, and Fred travelled through New Zealand and Tasmania exploring how vineyards manage that risk before Covid dramatically changed his travel plans. He ultimately brought the research back home, trialling approaches in his own vineyard and finding a fan system that works well across his particular site 🌍
One of the biggest lessons was that there is no magic answer. Frost protection is incredibly site specific and sometimes the best solution starts before a vine ever goes into the ground by understanding where the frost pockets are and choosing the right site in the first place.
We also got into the wine itself, how sparkling wine gets its bubbles, why English sparkling wine can spend years ageing before release and how the industry is beginning to build an identity of its own. It was a proper learning episode for me and a fascinating look at a part of UK food production that looks set to become increasingly important.
Thank you to NFU Mutual for their support of this project.
Enjoy! 🙂
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Today I had George on the R2Kast 🎙️ George works with Regeno, is a farm consultant and is currently carrying out a professional doctorate looking at soil health, grazing and the relationship between soil biology and carbon. 🌾

We spoke about his route into agriculture from outside a farming background, initially studying veterinary medicine before deciding it wasn’t the right path. That decision eventually took him into livestock genetics, cattle IVF, rare breed conservation and farm consultancy before moving into the world of agricultural technology. 🍎

A big part of the conversation focused on Regeno and its FarmWalk app, which is free for farmers to use. It uses AI to bring together the millions of data points generated on farms and actually turn them into something useful. We spoke about everything from rainfall and soil results to environmental schemes, image recognition and using photos to simplify farm records. 🌍

We also got into regenerative agriculture, George’s research comparing rotational grazing and set stocking, native breeds, soil biology and why data could help us better understand what regenerative farming is actually achieving.

Enjoy! 🙂
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