News / Better Food
‘When we’ve got no connection to the soil, it will be the saddest day for humanity’
Phil Haughton, the founder of Bristol-based organic retailer Better Food received an MBE for services to sustainable food initiatives and the community in the recent New Year’s Honours list.
Haughton sits down in his shop and cafe on Gloucester Road to talk to Bristol24/7 about his journey in organic farming and the wider challenges faced by the sector.
Speaking about the MBE, he says: “I’ve known about it for two months, but there was an embargo on it. I was excited then, but when it was actually announced and when all the responses came in, it was absolutely delightful. I mean from all quarters, whether it’s other people in the industry or people in my village or people at work and customers, it’s just been lovely.”
Haughton’s journey in organic farming started while he was in still his teens. He credits his parents for instilling the love and respect for soil, food and the environment. He went on to talk of a particular gift he received from his mother when his was 14 – a subscription to the Soil Association.
Haughton opened the first shop of Better Food at St Werburgh’s in 2002
“My mum is 96 and she’s written many books. I suppose she started from a religious perspective lecturing and writing books around this but she quickly became very keen on food and farming,” says Haughton.
“She gave me a subscription to the Soil Association when I was 14 which is a funny present for a teenager but something clicked in and I got into it. I’m from a very large family. We are family of ten and we ate together. We had a big vegetable garden I used to help my mum in. She used to make literally three loaves of bread everyday to feed the family.”
He also spoke of his father who he said did “more than cooking”.
“My dad was not only a great cook but also was very good at entertaining people. He was very hospitable and so hospitality, I think, is at the heart of what we are about as a company. I definitely got that from my dad,” says the founder of Better Food.
“Organic farming is about fairness,” said Haughton
Haughton started his working life in 1974, farming organically in a community in Scotland before moving to Bristol in 1981. He started working at St Werburgh’s City Farm. For several years, he worked with children and adults, teaching them about food and farming.
After leaving the city farm he ventured on his first business venture, The Real Food Store, in 1985 just few yards up from his current shop on Gloucester Road. The one stop shop was a revelation to many as there wasn’t anything similar at the time.
“It was the first of its kind,” says Haughton.
The Real Food Store was closed down due to family commitments as his wife was in full time teaching and he was looking after their son. After two years, the blueprint for Better Food was laid down at St Werburgh’s in 1992 when he launched an organic delivery box scheme, Phil’s Better Food Campaign.
Every Better Food store comes with cafe serving organically produced food and drink
Riding the success of organic delivery business, Haughton opened the first Better Food shop in St Werburgh’s in 2002. Since then it has expanded to four stores in Bristol – Whiteladies Road (2010), Whapping Wharf (2016) and, finally, Gloucester Road in 2021.
He reiterated that organic farming is not a “fad” but an effective means of combating climate crisis with demonstrable results.
“As well as organic farming we’ve now got regenerative farming, which is trying to improve soils and improve carbon in the soil,” said Haughton.
“Not many people know this but the quickest and easiest and cheapest way for the whole world to get back to 1.5°C is by sequestering carbon into the soil. We can do this very easily if we start looking after the soil around the whole world.”
He singled out the forces that rally round to thwart this progress, saying: “The pressure against doing that is coming from the chemical companies and the market forces that are pushing prices down all the time which makes it more difficult for the farmers to find a space to focus on the soil rather than just the output.”
Despite the benefits of organic farming to consumers, farmers and the planet, organic farming has come under some heavy criticism from its former advocates such as George Monbiot and Julian Baggini who claim that it is “all muck and no magic”.
On this criticism, Haughton said: “What I feel is most important is that we learn to be more human. I think with the forces of our world it’s very easy for us to get less generous and less compassionate. I know that’s a complicated argument, but I know from the bottom of my heart having lived around organic farms and worked with a lot of organic farmers, and non-organic farmers as well, how important organic farming is for our world. Not only that but for our health and wellbeing and for animals’ health and wellbeing.
“I think the day when we start getting most of our food from factories where we’ve got no relationship to soil, it would be the saddest day for humanity ever.”
The Better Food store on Gloucester Road was opened in 2021
He also addressed the criticism that organic food is the reserve of a certain social strata but not the ‘ordinary working people’.
“I would refute it to a degree,” said Haughton.
“Our mothership store in St Werburgh’s has a huge diversity of people and I know that they are below the average earnings. Of course you have to have some money in your pocket to be able to afford premium foods. The first thing to say is that organic food is about finding the fair price. There are no externalities. With chemical conventional growing foods, there are a lot of extra costs to do with climate, cleaning up of our water and biodiversity. All of these things are being having to be paid for and cleaned up afterwards.”
Due to his commitment to organic agriculture, Haughton has won several accolades, which include a Natural and Organic Products Europe Award.
For the growing aspect of the business, he co-founded The Community Farm with Luke Hassel in Chew Magna. Today, the farm is a community-owned, not-for-profit open organic farm in its own right. With its own delivery-box scheme, it has been providing fresh produce to all parts of the region.
Each of Better Food stores has a café or deli, where people can pick up hot drinks and soups, freshly baked cakes and pastries, and salads, juices and smoothies. On top of fresh fruit and vegetable they stock some organic, local and ethical brands.
Asked about his next project, Haughton said: “I’m hoping that by the end of 2024, definite plans to open new more stores because the world needs more places like this.”
He added: “We will start expanding beyond Bristol.”
All photos: Milan Perera
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