NHI Welcomes Food & Drink Expert to Lead Initiatives Aimed at Supporting Local farmers
North Highland Initiative (NHI) is pleased to announce the appointment of Lucy Husband, an experienced food and drink industry professional, who will lead new initiatives aimed at further supporting farmers in the North Highlands while ensuring environmental sustainability.
NHI is dedicated to supporting and funding community resilience, food and farming, education, conservation, and tourism to help sustain the environment and people in the North Highlands of Scotland. As part of this, NHI brings together farmers, processors and retailers to sell a range of local beef and lamb via nationwide retailers.
In her new role, Lucy will work closely with farmers across the region to ensure that they continue to be properly recognised and recompensed for the high quality of their produce and farming practices. Alongside, she will work closely with partners such as NatureScot, RSPB Scotland, The Flow Country Partnership, NFUS, QMS, HIE, the Soil Association Scotland and the Royal Countryside Foundation.
Lucy’s appointment will allow NHI to act on the recommendations from recent research conducted by Professor Jude Capper. This research recommended a number of initiatives, including a range of activities to support increased productivity and profitability, projects that support sustainable farming practices, land management, animal husbandry, emission reduction and carbon sequestration, biodiversity enhancement, and data collection and measurement.
With this work, Lucy will collaborate and progress partnership strategies with the organisations operating in the North Highland region as NHI seeks to develop stronger relationships with nationwide retailers that in turn, support the resilience of the farming community in the area.
Lucy joins the NHI team with over 37 years of experience in the food and drink industry. As a Director at Scotland Food & Drink, she developed markets and strategies for Scottish food and drink, leading initiatives that supported growth for over 800 Scottish producers. Lucy co-chaired Scotland’s Food Tourism Board and was a member of the Scottish Government’s Farming and Food Production Future Policy Group.
Lucy brings extensive meat industry experience as she was Commercial Director for AK Stoddart, a leading Scotch Beef business for 18 years and previously worked in the pig industry; in both roles, working with farmers and their supply chains on a daily basis. Lucy has significant experience in commercial strategy, business and supply chain development and relationship management of multiple Retailers and has partnered with global meat processors on a variety of initiatives in the past. Supporting the work for NHI Lucy will be partnering with two of Europe’s leading food businesses, ABP and Dunbia, both of whom are dedicated to investing in a sustainable farming future.
Lucy said,
“I look forward to working with NHI to develop our strategy that allows us to support farms in the North Highlands. Together we can implement transformational supply chain projects, bringing farmer and customers together to understand and work collaboratively towards common goals of sustainability in premium quality and increased profitable returns for farmers and retailers alike.”
Genevieve Duhigg, Chair of NHI, added:
“Farming remains a fundamental pillar of life in the North Highlands. NHI has worked with farmers and farming communities since it was set up in 2005 and this remains core to our work and plans for the future. This appointment is a demonstration of NHI’s ambition to strengthen our relationships with local beef and lamb farmers. We want to continue to ensure that these farmers are recognised and rewarded for their outstanding farming practices and that the benefits from this feeds into local communities across the region. We already know that we produce some of the best produce in the Highlands and with Lucy’s experience in bringing together stakeholders from across the supply chain, I’m confident we’ll be able to support our community in new ways.”
Visit our Food and Farming section to learn more about how NHI supports the North Highland farming community.
