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Food is always top of my agenda, personally and politically. But both the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have brought the importance of food into particularly sharp focus for us all.

We have been experiencing a more typical British summer than the past three years of scorching sun and high temperatures.

Matthew Donald, 30, from Northallerton in North Yorkshire, runs a farrow to finish pig unit, alongside two broiler breeder farms producing fertile hatching eggs for the broiler industry.

As a farmer moving to a no-till system, John Cherry was frustrated by the lack of supporting information available to him in the UK. Hence, in 2016 Groundswell was born.

Mark Richardson prepares for show returns across UK.

Razan Alsous came to the UK after fleeing the war in Syria in 2012 with her husband and three young children. After recognising the quality of British milk and struggling to find her family’s favourite Halloumi cheese, she began looking into starting her own business.

This week’s Backbone of Britain is a celebration of spring in the countryside. Emily Ashworth catches up with television presenter, Kate Humble about her love of rural life.

Lovers of Dartmoor’s iconic landscape can now ‘taste the view’ by purchasing prime lamb from a selection of Morrisons stores as part of its local campaign, sourcing lambs from the Dartmoor Farmers’ Association.

Specialist potato grower Scutt Farming was selling 100 per cent of its 152-hectare (375-acre) potato crop to fish and chip shops when lockdown began, forcing the East Yorkshire family business to urgently find a new market.

Egg production is a useful diversification for spreading risk, says farmer Charlie Rook, but attracting young workers is a real problem.