Triple impact: the company tackling sustainable food production, community mental health support and education
Most people tend to be winding down their work commitments when they reach their seventies, but not Hugh Fullerton-Smith. Hugh set up community interest company Gro for Good in 2020, in response to what he sees as humanity’s biggest challenges in the decades to come: access to high quality, locally grown food and declining mental health.
Gro for Good promotes community-run aquaponic food production, with circular economy principles, zero food miles and zero waste at its heart. Aquaponics combines elements of aquaculture (fish farming) with hydroponics (horticulture without soil) in a highly efficient system that produces fish, herbs, vegetables and salads sustainably, with minimal inputs.
Hugh had the idea for Gro for Good at the back of his mind for several years, having seen the opportunity for such an organisation during his career working with indigenous communities and on large-scale land management projects. When Alladale Wilderness Reserve asked him to project manage a new aquaponic garden on their behalf in 2019, Hugh finally got the chance to turn his vision into reality. At Alladale, Hugh put in place a fully-fledged, recirculating aquaculture system that is now producing nutritious fish and high-quality vegetables on a weekly basis.
Seeing a working example spurred him on to set up Gro for Good, and the unexpected downtime caused by COVID-19 gave him the headspace he needed to get it off the ground - as well as confirming his fears around food security and global supply chains. As Hugh says, “Opportunities come out of these things. I would never have done this if it hadn’t been for the pandemic.”
“I have long been troubled by the decline of the nutritional content and security of our food chain”, he continues. “Trying to get fresh food that hasn’t travelled thousands of miles is a real challenge: most products we get our hands on have been subjected to many different processes, like fungicides and pesticides. On top of this, from 1950 to today, 40% of the nutritional value of vegetables, salad crops and fruits has been lost, in large part due to increasingly poor soil quality.”
