Dominie Fearn is the founder of the Wild Hare Group, a British sustainable food provider, with a 20-year career in sustainability.

Commenting on the trade deal agreed between the UK and Australia, Dominie told Farmer: “We have grave concerns about the implications of the Australian trade deal on UK food standards.

"At Wild Hare we work closely with British farmers to champion an ethical, transparent food chain that minimises environmental impact. The thousands of additional food miles aside, there are existing farming practices in Australia that ride roughshod over the many great strides British farming has made in recent years in producing high quality, ethically sourced foodstuffs.

"But whilst we have concerns that the market will be flooded with cheap, commoditised produce that runs the risk of putting UK farmers out of business, ultimately it will be down to consumer choice.

"Now, more than ever, we need to advocate sustainable, upstanding, and principled farming practices to elevate British produce. Key to this is education and encouraging consumer choices that take into account standards rather than simply looking at the price tag.

"We can only hope this doesn’t undermine the efforts undertaken so far in improving practices, but rather, it will encourage people to examine the source of their foodstuffs more closely, ultimately guiding them to more informed choices.”

"The Wild Hare Group is stocked by the likes of Whole Foods, Selfridges London, Tebay Services, Burford Garden Centre and more, with online ordering also available via Weezy throughout London, Brighton and Bristol, as well as having a new direct to consumer partnership with Root to Market in Edinburgh. It’s distributed by Cress Co.

For more information, please visit: https://www.thewildharegroup.co.uk/

Their Story

Dominie is a keen cook, who loves teaching her young children to cook too, but sometimes life’s just too hectic to make family meals from scratch each night. Looking for a healthy alternative but failing to find fresh and convenient ‘ready meals,’ she decided to produce some herself.She studied the environment at University writing her dissertation on the environmental impacts of plastics, she’s always been a foodie with an interest in sustainability. Initially she pursued her passion for cooking by working in hospitality, including serving at garden parties at Buckingham palace and working in kitchens across London.

Latterly and for many years, she worked with construction businesses, managing sustainable supply chains. It was time for change, she wanted to play a positive part in reducing climate change.

She believed that if everyone tasked themselves with one key aim, and became more responsible with the use of plastics and burning of fossil fuels, then we, together, could preserve our natural world.

Inspired by a local farmer friend who specialises in grass-fed meat and determined to find a way to produce fresh convenience foods using nutritious, natural and fully-traceable ingredients, she set on her way to producing Fresh, Nutritious, Sustainable ready meals.