On Thursday 28th November, the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences (SNES) hosted SpudFest. With over 1000 visitors, many have labelled it the “best event of the year.” From mini games to research stalls, the Boiler House was transformed into a potato haven. Read on to learn more about the event, its successes and its partners!
NU Farms
As part of their ground-breaking research, SNES has collaborated with NU Farms to drive innovation in plant and crop science. Every year, University farms – Cockle Park Farm and Nafferton Farm – grow tonnes of potatoes for research. When ready for harvest instead of contributing to food waste, SNES generously share their excess potatoes with the university community at SpudFest every year. This year over two tonnes of potatoes were given away!
Image: SpudFest attendees gather around tables, collecting NU Farm potatoes.
Eat@Newcastle
One of the highlights of the day were the complimentary food samples, courtesy of Eat@Newcastle. The spiced wedges and the creamy potato soup were fan favourites, attracting long lines of students and colleagues. In total, 200kg of NU Farm potatoes were used in the catering!
Verti-Tech Innovation Hub for Vertical Farming
At SpudFest, you may have noticed the vertical potato growing in display cases. These are a contribution of the Verti-Tech Innovation Hub, the newest partnership between Newcastle University and Fyto Engineering. Verti-Tech is a scheme that supports sustainable agricultural research and innovation in the heart of Newcastle. Aimed at both the commercial and academic sector, Verti-Tech facilitates growth trials, nutrient testing, LED lighting research, and more!
Image: The Verti-Tech stand, embellished with glass cases of sprouting potatoes.
Newcastle West End Foodbank
The Newcastle West End Foodbank also participated in the event, successfully raising awareness of their cause:
“Thank you for inviting Newcastle Foodbank along to your event last week. We received a generous number of both financial and physical donations, but it was also a wonderful opportunity to meet people and raise awareness of our work.”
All remaining potatoes from the farms were distributed to families in need with the help of Newcastle Food Bank.
Food Waste Awareness
Lastly, the Sustainability Team and Biffa made an impact at SpudFest, raising awareness on food waste issues. The Sustainability Team was especially proud to unveil new food waste caddies – coming soon to a university accommodation kitchen near you. Annita Clark from Biffa shared shocking food waste stats, including the fact that 4.4 million fresh potatoes are thrown away by UK homes every day!
Other highlights of the event included potato caricatures courtesy of Damon, the potato prints station, the presentation on historic potato cultivation, and the potato costumes worn by the enthusiastic SNES team. SpudFest was even featured in an interview on Spice FM, solidifying its status as the trendiest event of the year! We’re already counting down the days till the next SpudFest – long live the humble potato!
Image: (From left to right) The SpudFest celebrations included historic potato presentations, the potato painting station, and fun potato costumes.
I’d like to give a big thank you to the SNES team for organising such a well-thought out and enjoyable event. I would also like to thank Katy Sawyer, for not only leading the SpudFest plans, but for providing me with the statistics and photos for this post. If you want to find out more about the research SNES do, click here.
Agriculture is a vast and vital industry that provides livelihoods for hundreds of millions and food for billions across our planet. Similar to other sectors, however, agriculture’s expansion and industrialisation have increased its impact on the environment to unsustainable levels (Alam and Rukhsana, 2023), especially regarding greenhouse gas emissions and the biodiversity crisis. As a result, work is now crucially needed to adopt new technologies and alternative practices to ensure that the world’s five billion hectares of farmland can store carbon and provide quality habitats as well as feeding us. To get an idea of the challenges facing sustainable agriculture and how they might be overcome, I’ve spoken to researchers from Newcastle University’s own School of Natural and Environmental Sciences.
Hay bales at Newcastle University’s Cockle Park Farm. Credit: Matt Horne.
Sustainability challenges
Implementing sustainable practices into farming is a complicated and difficult process for a variety of reasons. Postgraduate researcher Sophia Long points to cost, and a lack of resources, technology, education, and training as key concerns that are affecting different farms in different ways and slowing down agriculture’s progress towards sustainable practice. Additionally, she notes that many sustainable innovations, including novel machinery and new chemistry and crop varieties, require an adjustment period to be implemented, further delaying change.
Despite these challenges, however, there is optimism in the sector and Dr David George, a reader in Precision Agronomy here at the University, referred to the recent updates to the Sustainable Farming Incentive as a key element of this positivity. On top of this, the development of carbon and biodiversity markets, inclusion of sustainable best practice as a feature of trade shows and magazines, and recognition of the importance of sustainable management by farmers themselves are all good signs of an improving outlook for sustainable agriculture.
Research and innovations
Newcastle University has a variety of innovative facilities focused on agricultural production, teaching, and research and this infrastructure is being used to develop the skills, technologies, and practices needed to support agriculture’s transition towards sustainability. These specialist facilities include Newcastle University Farms (NU Farms), which hold around 800 hectares of land spread over three sites (Nafferton, Ouston, and Cockle Park), and a series of vertical farm units, growth room facilities, and a food and consumer research facility on central campus. Some of the sustainable innovations, highlighted by Sophia and David, that are currently being developed at these sites include:
The development of automated systems and disease sensors in the Vertical Farm units to reduce the need for fertiliser, transport, and water when producing crops whilst improving their quality.
Research on the soil microbiome to improve the sustainability of disease management through the development of novel cultural and chemical control plans.
Trials of different tillage practices at NU Farms, including ploughing, minimum-tillage, and direct-drilling, to gather data on crop performance and carbon release (from the soil) for each of these practices.
Spore sampling technology, which is being explored at NU Farms in conjunction with biopesticides and biostimulants to reduce the use of conventional synthetic chemistry and thereby improve crop health and slow the build-up of pesticide resistance.
Scattering silicate rock dust over crop fields for their ability to enhance carbon and nutrient capture in the soil, both sequestering greenhouse gases and improving crop growth (Skov et al. 2024).
Remote imaging and sensing for pest/disease detection and environmental monitoring to help boost soil, crop, and animal health. This technology could be used in conjunction with the increasingly precise and automated application of crop inputs, which is also being researched at our university.
Methods to engage farmers in overcoming barriers to ‘Regenerative Agriculture‘ in the north of England through machinery solutions.
A tree-lined field with sheep at Newcastle University’s Cockle Park Farm. Credit: Matt Horne.
The future of farming
Sustainability is increasingly becoming the focus of agriculture’s future (Onuabuchi Munonye and Chinelo Eze, 2022) and a range of new technologies are lining up to support this. Across the Agriculture department, NU Farms, and the researchers I spoke to, however, it was stressed that co-benefits must be at the heart of change to ensure that the future of agriculture is truly sustainable. Specifically, change in the agricultural sector must support farmers’ incomes and resilience as well as the natural environment. Here, four key areas are central to a holistically sustainable future for farming:
Technology: Drones and sensors for data, automated and precision machinery, new crop inputs, land use practices, and further technologies are all improving the efficiency and reducing the environmental impacts of crop and livestock rearing for each unique farm.
Biodiversity: Research, education, and stewardship schemes are helping farmers to support and improve the agroecological systems on their land, yielding enhanced natural pest control and soil fertility and combatting pesticide and fertiliser use.
Adaptation: Changes in pest, disease, and extreme/unseasonal weather stresses will force farmers to adapt their crop rotations and water, disease, and pest management practices. Here, plant breeding, education, and community engagement will all be vital tools to pre-emptively future-proof agricultural production against the impacts of climate change.
Income: Many farms here in the UK are under intense financial pressure and even being forced out of business, harming livelihoods, rural culture and knowledge, and impacting the UK’s food security and resilience. Produce prices must reflect the tenuous financial situation for farmers and more transparency from distributors (such as supermarkets) would help consumers to gain a more well-rounded view of the food system they rely upon.
Overall, Dr George summarises the features of a sustainable future for farming as a “good balance of environmental, animal welfare and food production outputs that co-delivers for natural capital gain / net zero and food security, supported by simple yet flexible policy and clear, connected, consolidated and collaborative knowledge sharing”.
A huge thank you to Sophia, David, and everyone else who offered their time and expertise for this piece. If you want to find out more about sustainable agriculture then have a look at the links and references below and you can learn about biodiversity on campus here. Finally, if you’re looking for updates about sustainability at our university, you can sign up to the Sustainability Network.
Alam, A., and Rukhsana (2023) ‘Climate Change Impact, Agriculture, and Society: An Overview’. Alam. A., and Rukhsana (eds) Climate Change, Agriculture and Society: Approaches Toward Sustainability. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-28251-5
Onuabuchi Munonye, J., and Chinelo Eze, G. (2022) ‘The Concept of Sustainable Agriculture’. Filho, W. L., Kovaleva, M., and Popkova, E. (eds) Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-98617-9
Skov, K., Wardman, J., Healey, M., McBride, A., Bierowiec, T., Cooper, J., Edeh, I., George, D., Kelland, M. E., Mann, J., Manning, D., Murphy, M. J., Pape, R., Teh, Y. A., Turner, W., Wade, P., and Liu, X. (2024). Initial agronomic benefits of enhanced weathering using basalt: A study of spring oat in a temperate climate.PLOS ONE, 19 (3). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0295031
