Janet Bellamy of National Centre for Food Manufacturing in Holbeach speaks about green manufacturing

Green manufacturing and how military technology is helping with potato growing were outlined during a special event.

Janet Bellamy, Associate Professor of Digitalisation and Emerging Technology at The National Centre for Food Manufacturing in Holbeach, was among the speakers at an event to promote the potential of the UK Food Valley.

The UK Food Valley is a collection of food and farming business clusters, centres of excellence and specialised facilities which collectively accelerate growth and sustainability to help businesses in the sector grow.

Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership, Lincolnshire County Council and Team Lincolnshire put one brunch for 70 people at the Lincolnshire Show.

Ms Bellamy helped to present Project Butterfly, which sees aerospace and automotive companies link up with other manufacturers to exchange technologies and intelligent data tools towards energy reduction. She presented along with Dr Anne Richmond from Moy Park and Aaron Gilbraith from GKN Aerospace

This is a Moy Park scheme which has received funding from the UK Research and Innovation’s Sustainable Smart Factory competition for reduced carbon emissions in manufacturing.

Ms Bellamy said: “These events are vital for us as we can meet businesses face to face and they have the opportunity to talk to us and raise any questions. Relationships are key to collaboration and for collaboration you just need to have that first introduction.

“It was great to see so many businesses showcased and to understand what others are doing and the challenges that they’re facing.”

A key aim of the event was to facilitate connections for future collaboration across the industry to help solve common challenges the sector faces including sustainability, innovation and technology.

Dr Ben Murphy from B-Hive Innovations spoke about how military underground sensing is being used to detect potato yield.

Richard Meredith from Dyson Farming looked at innovative farming for the future. The farming side of the business works closely with the Dyson engineers to use new technology and ingenuity to produce responsibly at scale. Their anaerobic digesters use crops grown on the farm to generate enough energy to power the equivalent of 10,000 homes.

It was introduced by Ruth Carver, Chief Executive of the Greater Lincolnshire LEP. Other speakers included and Neal Juster from the University of Lincoln and the Greater Lincolnshire LEP.