M&S plans to have lower carbon parsnips available in select stores this November, the first of the major retailers to both farm and sell a reduced-carbon vegetable.
The retailer recently concluded successful autonomous field trials in Yorkshire in partnership with supplier Huntapac, hoping to both reduce farm emissions and create more highly skilled jobs.
The trial was the first M&S Food project to be funded by its accelerator fund to find innovative processes that help it get to net zero more quickly.
“Innovation is at the heart of M&S Food, and our Plan A Accelerator Fund offers us the opportunity to tap into the entrepreneurial spirit of our suppliers,” Andrew Clappen, Technical Director at M&S Food, said. “Projects like this help us move towards being a Net Zero business across all our operations and entire supply chain by 2040, whilst focussing on the quality of produce that M&S is famous for.
“Agriculture is one of our biggest contributors to emissions, so it’s important that we find new lower impact farming methods. This project has helped deliver more parsnips at M&S quality, a carbon reduction and brings together new technologies which if adopted more widely would create more highly skilled jobs and attract new talent into the sector.”
M&S officials say the technology includes two robots for bed forming, planting and weeding, two different types of drone to monitor and maintain crop health, and the latest scientific testing on soil health and carbon impact. The team has adopted a minimum till approach to help keep carbon locked into the soil, a green fertiliser and the new tech, which uses significantly less diesel than a traditional tractor to reduce carbon emissions.
Initial data shows 46% carbon reduction compared to standard methods.
“Not only are we seeing a reduction of the carbon impact but more parsnips at higher quality, due to us being able to plant the seeds despite bad weather earlier this year,” Stephen Shields, Technical & Sustainability Director at Huntapac, said. “This would have a fantastic impact on our business at scale and we’re aiming to deliver multiple fields farmed this way for next season.”
