Riverford Farm Kitchen

I took a look at reference 1 earlier in the day and a reference to Riverford Organic Farmers caught my eye, Riverford being people whom we came across in Devon a few years ago and have been noticed here from time to time since, for example at reference 2.

I thought it might be interesting to try and trace the image above.

I started with OS. The Riverford I know is located just below Wash, in the middle of the snap above, with their large shed visible below and a little to the right (aka east). My first mistake was to focus on the reservoir visible below and a little to the left.

Next up, satellite view in gmaps. But I failed to reconcile the left hand reservoir to the first image to my satisfaction. So I turned to GI images and his AI assistant (GI), logged in.

The opening shots.

GI has the idea that there are two Riverford facilities, the one I am looking at east of Buckfastleigh, and another one north of Buckfastleigh. The FT snap comes from this last. He also mentions a drone.

I have another go. I think now that GI is a bit flaky on left/right and east/west.

Looking again at the map, I decide that I have been looking at the wrong reservoir, one with water in it on gmaps Satellite View.

And another go. I think now we have got things straight.

The drone was roughly where the orange spot is in the snap above, with the camera looking roughly northwest, that is to say to the left and up a bit.

So in the FT image, the cuddly old farm buildings are in the background with Dartmoor beyond that. The industrial vegetable operation just visible far left and the electricity sub-station with all its pylons and so forth completely absent. A nice view of the Devon countryside, untouched by the conveniences of civilisation as we know it. For one of which, see reference 4.

Once again, we do seem to have got there. But GI has led me down a slightly rocky path, with the odd bump along the way. Most important, he still seems to be flaky on directions.

Which is slightly worrying, given the push for driverless taxis in London. But perhaps they pay for a better class of access. See, for example, reference 5. A push which might be seen as a wheeze to divert money which might otherwise be going to decent taxi drivers in London, into the pockets of the big tech companies of California. What the economists might call competition.

PS: I also notice from reference 1 that there is more than one view about how much water can or should be pumped out of our aquifers. From where I associate to reading somewhere - perhaps in a detective novel - about how much lawyers dislike having to have dealing with expert witnesses. They might be experts, but all too often you can find an X to disagree with Y and where does that leave you? Or it might be that X might be good on the stand and wrong, while Y might be bad on the stand but right.

For a US take on extraction, see reference 3.

References

Reference 1: Water companies feel squeeze of abstraction limits as drought deepens: Industry group calls for government targets to be relaxed during heatwaves - Gill Plimmer, Financial Times - 2026.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/10/dining-out-west-part-one.html.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/10/critical-national-infrastructure.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/02/driving-without-drivers.html.

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