On 26th July Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Cambridge MP, Daniel Zeichner visited Riseholme Campus to discuss agriculture and agritech, before travelling up to Grimsby to visit the UK’s largest seafood processing cluster.

The visit included a discussion on the potential of agritech with the Barclays Eagle Lab team and National Head of Agriculture for Barclays, Adam White.  Mr Zeichner was shown the work being undertaken by university spinouts, including Fruitcast and Agaricus Robots both of whom are based in the Eagle Lab, as well as underpinning work the Lincoln Institute of AgriFood Technology (LIAT) are doing on robotics.

Travelling north to Grimsby, Mr Zeichner then visited the seafood cluster including Youngs, the UK’s largest seafood business as well as speciality fish smoker, Patrick Salmon of Alfred Enderby’s. The seafood visit was also supported by Professor Val Braybrooks of the University’s National Centre for Food Manufacturing (NCFM) which is now delivering programmes in Grimsby working alongside the Seafood Grimsby and Humber Alliance.

During his visit Mr Zeichner explored the potential to increase UK food production and the role which technology, investment and skills can play in delivering sector growth alongside embracing the need for more sustainable production.