Groove Armada’s Andy Cato brings new life to Clarkson’s Farm

While this meant the yield of each was lower than if he had planted just one crop, Cato says this was compensated for by not having to pay for the 300kg of nitrogen usually needed to add artificially to the field.

Much of Clarkson’s Farm is devoted to showing how upfront costs – such as feed, energy and fertiliser – can make farming a risky and often unprofitable profession. The government estimates, external that these made up nearly 70% of farmers’ expenses in 2023.

The price of feed and fertiliser has also fluctuated dramatically in the past few years due to the war in Ukraine and energy price rises, while unpredictable weather has affected the quality – and therefore the value – of crops.

“To all of the traditional risk that farmers have been shouldering for decades, we’re now adding massive climatic volatility and massive price volatility – and it’s just not a reasonable ask,” Cato says. “We just can’t keep doing this, and farmers won’t keep doing this.”

Using fertilisers and pesticides can also be costly for the environment – as they can kill off native species and leach into waterways.

Cato says that he is currently running a pilot in which water companies pay farmers to adopt regenerative farming techniques, “because it’s a lot cheaper [for them] – keeping the nitrates and the pesticides out of the river than getting them out afterwards”.

But he admits the switch to regenerative farming can be challenging, as while it is “getting biology and nature to do more of the work… you’re replacing a largely prescribed set of fertilization and treatments with observation and reaction”.

Soil is tested regularly and the nutrients added to the field adjusted according to what it is lacking.

Putting this careful balance across in a TV show was “complicated and leads towards insomnia”, he says.

Joe Stanley, a regenerative farmer and member of the National Farmers’ Union environment forum, agrees that these techniques “require more attention to detail [and] probably more time and effort”.

There are other potential trade-offs. While modern agriculture uses machinery to minimise labour costs, he says regenerative farming would likely require a larger workforce – which could raise food prices. But Mr Stanley argues retailers could also absorb this cost.

“That’s one of the big problems of the transition to sustainable farming: how do we pay a fair price to the farmer for food which may be more expensive to produce?”

Mr Stanley says harvesting two different crops from the same field can produce a higher combined yield, but also creates the cost of then sorting those two crops – something Cato’s company covers.

Lizzie Sagoo of agricultural consultancy Adas, who specialises in soil and crops, says that while techniques like cover crops provide a “suite of benefits” including improved yields, this would likely be outweighed by the cost of cultivating a crop farmers cannot harvest – requiring a further financial incentive.

Cato also thinks that, despite the benefits of regenerative farming, the transition should not be put solely on farmers’ shoulders as “they’re absolutely at the financial edge already.”

The UK government currently offers farmers £129 per hectare of cover crops. And in May, Waitrose announced it would be offering financial assistance to farmers to convert, so its fresh produce was regeneratively farmed by 2035.