A leading fruit grower has been honoured for his years of dedication to the top and soft fruit industries.
Peter Vinson was awarded the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers triennial Ridley Medal for distinguished service to fruit growing, at the company’s banquet at the Plaisterers’ Hall last night.
Presenting the medal, the WCF’s new master, Peter Bartlett, said: “Peter Vinson has been, and still is, a man of great vision and drive.
“In addition to all he has done for the top and soft fruit industries in the UK, he has probably made more significant contributions to the transformation of the strawberry industry as a whole over the last decade than any other individual.
“Furthermore, not content with UK challenges alone, he has been working with NASA to develop strawberries that could grow on Mars.”
Vinson took over Edward Vinson Ltd, a large traditional top and soft fruit business in Kent, from his father in the early 1980s.
Bartlett said under Vinson’s lead, the business became, and remained, dynamic, innovative and pioneering.
Having only recently retired from the company, he has since been devoting his expertise and energies to his strawberry-breeding programme.
As well as all this Vinson has been chairman of the East Kent Packers, worked for the FAST advisory board and played a major role in setting up Berryworld to name a few of his achievements.
Currently, he has been collaborating with NASA to find a strawberry plant astronauts might be able to cultivate on a two-year trip to Mars in 2020. The fruit, dubbed Marsberries, could supplement the fruit and vegetables astronauts takes with them into space and the plants themselves could be grown on the planet.
Previous winners of the Ridley Medal include Alan Todd MBE, in 2002, Peter Wheldon, in 1999 and Dr Jim Quinlan, in 1996.
