Riverford’s Guy Singh-Watson has been presented with an Award for Responsible Capitalism at a ceremony attended by Princess Anne.
The founder of the organic veg box company used his acceptance speech for the award, which is given annually by international publishing group First, to call on leaders to change the capitalist system that is “destroying our collective future”.
Addressing an audience at St James’s Palace of 200 foreign ambassadors, multinational businesses and parliamentarians, as well as Princess Anne, Singh-Watson said: “Capitalism has made it acceptable and normal to benefit from destroying our collective future.
“We’re approximately 12 years away from when climate change becomes irreversible. We’ve lost 75 per cent of insect biomass in the last 30 years. Our soils are in crisis, and we’re facing the sixth mass extinction of biodiversity. Society is torn apart by inequality. We urgently need to act.
“This award seeks to promote change from within in small steps. And though I respect its intent, I would argue that we need to accelerate the process.”
Responsible capitalism can only be delivered, he said, when those with money and power find the confidence to measure success not in what they take out, but in what they put in.
Speaking at the ceremony, Princess Anne praised the award winners for leading the way. “On congratulating them as winners, can I thank them for being role models,” she said. “They are worthy recipients and they now join a long and distinguished list of winners of the First Awards for Responsible Capitalism.”
Other winners included the Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, Thabo Makgoba; the chief executive of TBC Bank in Georgia, Vakhtang Butskhrikidze; and Lourdes Maria Mena de Guerra from El Salvador, whose company, Lula Mena, sells handmade Fairtrade craft products made by local artisans.
Singh-Watson, who turned Riverford over to employee ownership in June 2018, added: “We’re so much better than our slavery to conventional capitalism and remote ownership allows us to demonstrate.
“We need both change from within and challenge from without to stand any chance of passing a habitable planet on to our grandchildren. We need approval, encouragement and bravery from our peers; shaming from our children; incentives and leadership from government; and perhaps most of all, we need positive, joyous, well-publicised examples of a plausible alternative future.”
