FRUIT AND NUT TREES & OLIVES, ESSEX: Pete was raised in a family which for generations grew vegetables using intensive methods near Harwich in Essex. But more recently, he has taken the farm in a more ‘restorative’ direction, and instead of growing field-scale vegetables he is now devoting his energies into restoring poor land and at the same time producing food, including olives and fruits, in a nature-friendly way.

The fruits that Pete grows, along with business partner Will Sibley, include olive, citrus, figs and heritage fruits and nuts. Trees are sold via his website.

Pete owns two olive groves, in partnership with Mediterranean foods experts Belazu, which exploit the warm, sunny, maritime climate of coastal Essex. He produces preserved olives for the table and soon hopes to produce a small amount of oil, which he believes will be a UK first.

Pete’s fruit and olive trees are grown extensively (rather than intensively) and without chemicals with a view to boosting the farm’s biodiversity, storing carbon in the soil, and preserving water. Areas of woodland are being created, and existing woodlands preserved too. Pete provides consultancy on this method of nature-compatible farming to other farmers across the UK.

“We need to produce food and also restore biodiversity, store carbon and clean up our rivers,” says Pete. “Too often this is posed as a binary question. But we believe we can do all of these, by farming smarter and blending ancient wisdom with science and tech.”

Pete is creating a ‘habitat bank’ on his farm, where he creates ‘natural capital credits’ which are sold on the financial markets. Natural capital credits are credits gained from increasing biodiversity or storing carbon, and are bought by companies wishing to offset their environmental footprint. Pete has recently acquired a second site in Suffolk’s Stour valley, which will also become the business’s third habitat bank created for the biodiversity market.