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On 12th November some 30 liverymen and guests were treated to a fascinating tour of the Dyson strawberry operation at Carrington, Lincs, organised by PM Philip Wynn. The site was a field in 2020 and was producing strawberries 12 months later, and now produces 1200 tonnes of fruit a year, including 100% of Mark and Spencers’ requirement. The 10 hectare state-of-the-art glasshouse was mightily impressive not just for its scale, but for the level of sophistication of its environmental control systems. The astonishing robotic harvesting units had to be seen to be believed. Each fruit was individually inspected, filmed, picked and filmed again for quality before being allocated to a punnet. The robots from Dogtooth, a Cambridge company, were in their 4th iteration and were nearing the speed required for commercial use. The 3MW anaerobic digester, requiring 140 tonnes of feedstock per day – mainly on maize grown on the farm – provided all of the electrical power and heat for the glasshouse. The three 24 cylinder engines, running on the methane produced by the digester, hummed away impressively as we filed past in awe.  Strawberries as far as the eye could see