Jonathan Lodge from City Farm Systems will present.
After early years in rural Devon where local food meant milk probably travelled further in the cow than the bottle Jonathan pursued a career in design technology. Steadily focussing on resource efficiency and recognising the increasing pressure along fresh produce supply chains the inspiration for setting up City Farm Systems came when stuck behind a supermarket truck within sight of its destination store. Once instore he found the fresh herb and salad shelves were bare – the store was losing sales, the truck simply adding to congestion and pollution while the shelf life of the produce on board was disappearing.
Recent years have seen Jonathan learn a great deal with City Farm Systems winning awards in most years and has just been declared as Corporate Livewire’s Most Innovative Agri-Tech Business – UK. Along the way Jonathan has become a member of the Institute of Directors. Odd though it may sound for an urban farmer Jonathan and CFS have, by growing without soil, learned a great deal about agriculture as a whole – part of why Jonathan was invited to join the advisory council of the Rural Policy Group.
Jonathan was one of 15 representatives to take part in a Newton Fund sponsored trip to Beijing where he was asked to extend his stay and give a keynote presentation at China Agricultural University’s Conference organised by the Dean of Faculty of their College of Information and Electrical Engineering. He titled his talk ‘Using data to unlock the benefits that can only be found by growing to order at point of need’. This topic has been refined over the last couple of years and, despite the need for what City Farm Systems offer has never been greater, too many are resistant to change and remain committed to failing, complex supply chains.
Jonathan’s lunchtime lecture takes the theme of data forward and highlights how history hints at much needed change and simplified transactions.
