Richard Young was best known for playing a 'pivotal role' in the organic and sustainable farming movement (Sustainable Food Trust)
A farmer who played a ‘pivotal role' in the emergence of the organic and sustainable farm movement has passed away.
Richard Young, policy director for the Sustainable Food Trust, died on Saturday morning (September 16) at his home near Broadway in the Cotswolds.
Born in 1950, Mr Young was also an organic farmer on Kite's Nest Farm, a 390-acre farm, which he operated alongside his sister Rosamund.
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of SFT colleague and friend, Richard Young, who passed away last week. Richard died peacefully at his home, Kite's Nest Farm near Broadway in the Cotswolds, on the morning of Saturday 16th September.
— Sustainable Food Trust (@SusFoodTrust)
Patrick Holden, chief executive of Sustainable Food Trust and friend to Mr Young for more than 40 years, said he was in a state of ‘slight disbelief' to learn of his passing after a telephone conversation with him the day before as he paid tribute to him.
"It would be impossible to overstate the contribution that Richard made, not only to these organisations but to the understanding of the relationship between farming practices, food quality and health, both in terms of the science and the general public," Mr Holden added.
"On a personal note, was one of the kindest and most open human beings one could ever meet.
"Towards the end of his life, he was happy in his skin and always generous and interested in everything that happened to the people he encountered.
"I know I am speaking for probably hundreds of people in stating that I count myself lucky indeed to have known him, to have counted him as a friend and who have had the enormous privilege of working with him as part of the wider organic and sustainable food and agriculture movement of which we were both a part."
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Mr Holden said his friend had even left an ‘enduring influence' on the King, then Prince of Wales, who visited Kite's Nest Farm in 1989 after the conversion of the Highgrove Estate.
Gorsehill Abbey Farm they were ‘deeply saddened' by Mr Young's death who had become a ‘valued friend and customer' and who had left behind a ‘great legacy' within the organic and sustainable farming movement.
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