Elliot holding a toad at The Plot, is one of the 2025 Farm Starters
Introducing Elliot, one of the 2025 cohort of FarmStarters at the Plot. Elliot tells us about his motivation to join the scheme and make a difference.
Hi I’m Elliot. My route into organic farming is via gardening, allotments and the EcoHub at Lancaster University. I have developed an interest in wanting to improve health – my own, my family’s and that of the wider society. This led me to reflect on the old saying “You are what you eat” and to become increasingly frustrated by the lacklustre range of foods produced by industrial agriculture.
My goal is to be able to produce a wider variety of crops than is available in the supermarkets, that I feel will have a greater density of nutrients in them. They will be pesticide and herbicide free, and grown for resiliency and value. Being organic just seems like the natural and right thing to do.
I realised that to do this with any success I would require training and mentoring. This project connects like minded people with a desire to build a local food network and encourages them to work together collaboratively, all whilst learning the necessary skills of a commercial grower.
Just being on this course for a couple of months has given me much food for thought, for which I’m very grateful. Growing a crop is one thing, having a market to sell it into another. The key is connecting the farmer with the consumer as closely as possible, both psychologically and physically.
I have asked myself “Just how inexpensively could a crop be grown?” in terms of land, inputs and labour. And could you compete in the marketplace? This has led me to think about a modular, scalable growing system, utilising an App to connect and manage micro growers throughout the district. I’m busy experimenting in my own back garden!
