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2022 Sustainable Food and Farming Awards
The 2022 Sustainable Food and Farming Awards were judged by a panel chaired by Compassion’s CEO, Philip Lymbery, and included Graham Harvey, agricultural journalist and previous story editor of the long running BBC radio drama The Archers.
There are two categories for this award – the small producer or farmer, and the corporate/large food business award.
Small Producer Award 2022
The winner of the small Producer category in 2022 was Hilltribe Organics (HTO) – a high impact social enterprise formed to sustain rural farming villages in Thailand through organic and regenerative agriculture.
HTO’s successful business model, which addresses more than two thirds of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, involves every aspect of the value chain. It not only helps farmers – many of them women - get into production by supplying the hens and feed, but also helps market the organic eggs to consumers and retailers. This provides a regular income and financial stability for the hill tribe people.
By driving the organic egg market, HTO has helped to significantly reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides (down by 70% and 80% respectively) leading to cleaner soil, water, and air.
In addition, HTO promotes reforestation and rewilding, utilising local agro-ecological conditions to the full. The hens are raised in the hills with plenty of access to trees and shelter; there is no use of antibiotics and they grow turmeric to improve hens’ immune systems.
This social enterprise is truly inspirational and provides a successful business model which could be scaled up and adopted in other parts of the world.
Co-Founder and CEO of HTO, Richard Blossom said: “We have always believed in the highest animal welfare and the most sustainable and organic farming practices and that they can benefit both the environment and the hill tribe people while supporting a successful business model. We are gratified to see the HTO model is even starting to attract farmer family children back to the hills.
Our farms require relatively little land compared to other agricultural uses and helps protect wildlife habitats in the areas around our farms. This award will help us continue to improve the lives of hill tribe people, to increase the market for organics (further reducing the use of chemical fertilisers/pesticides) and to strengthen the model to the point where we can expand to new markets.”
Corporate Award 2022
The Corporate category of the Sustainable Food & Farming Award celebrates companies that can make positive change on a large scale, both to the animals in their supply and to the wider environment.
French dairy company Laiteries H.Triballat-Rians picked up this year’s corporate Sustainable Food and Farming Award for their ‘Sustainable livestock farming’ project.
They have encouraged the development of pasture access for 100% of their farms (they work with 450 producers) and have worked towards increasing the longevity of the cows and goats in their supply.
They are also phasing out deforesting soy in feed and are planting up to 40km of new hedges. This work was judged as a good example of how a dairy group can help its farmers adopt better animal welfare, environmental protection and sustainable farming measures.
Henri Triballat, Director of Milk Production at Laiteries H. Triballat Rians said: “In order to promote sustainable practices from the field to the plate, we have co-constructed our commitments for sustainable and responsible farming with the 9 producer organisations representing the 450 affiliated milk producers, as well as with NGOs, notably Compassion in World Farming.
This "Sustainable Food & Farming Award” is proof of our collective actions and commitments to animal welfare and a more sustainable model. It also encourages us to continue our efforts!
It is together, through regular exchanges with milk producers, working groups with experts and monitoring the progress made, that these commitments to sustainable livestock farming will succeed.”
Special Recognition Award 2021
In 2021, Compassion also presented a Special Recognition Award in this category to Hollis Mead Organic Dairy - an organic farm specialising in high quality organic milk and food sold directly to the public ‘while enhancing the environment for wildlife’.
Based in Dorset, Hollis Mead’s organic herd of British Friesian crosses are grass fed on organic pastures and only milked once a day with their milk sold via 14 vending machines across Dorset, Devon and Somerset.
Having planted over 15 miles of hedges over the years, wildlife is flourishing, and soil health has also improved dramatically on the farm.
Hollis Mead encourages the public to visit the farm to help close the information gap between what we eat and where it comes from.
