Guy has been an organic farmer since 1986. He set up the Riverford Organic Box Scheme in 1993 because of frustration with the wastefulness of conventional vegetable selling. Riverford Organic Vegetables have won many awards, as has Guy, who was BBC Radio 4's 'Farmer of the year' (2004) and the Soil Association 'Organic Business Person of the Year' (2003).

• What do you do? How would you describe your business?
  A regionalised, farm-based, box scheme, with 45,000 deliveries a week.

• Where in the UK is your business located?
  Packing and growing from regional farms in Devon, Hampshire, Peterborough and Yorkshire.

• Can you give a short history of how you got to where you are now, including why and when you 'went organic'?
  I'm a tenant farmer's son, and have been an organic farmer for 21 years, since 1986 (a guts, heart and brain decision). I had 10 years of head down and long hours, selling to local shops, then wholesalers and eventually to supermarkets. I was frustrated by the wastefulness of conventional channels, and started the box scheme in 1993. This now accounts for 95% of sales. I started a producers' co-op in '97 with 10 other local farmers to keep up with demand.
  
  I'm committed to connected and local food, and have developed a regional 'model' based on Riverford, which means we can grow and pack boxes on a more local level: this is better for growers, customers and the environment. The first regional farm was River Nene, set up in Peterborough in 2005. River Swale is the second, in 2007, based in Yorkshire. Both are using the lessons and systems we have developed to keep it small and local.

• Can you describe a typical day in your life?
  Mostly office bound over the last couple of years. I try to spend a third of my time doing more real things but usually fail. Quite a bit of time spreading the word. I'm told that my role is now to inspire rather than do, but find I cannot inspire unless I spend at least some time doing.
  I'm particularly good at dealing with sceptics; better at talking with people who disagree with me, and about issues which are far from black and white.

• Who are your customers and where are they?
  95% are box scheme customers. Sadly most of them are like me: middle class, middle-aged, with family and care about food and the world.
  An unimaginative greed is at the heart of most of our problems. People are fundamentally good, given half a chance, but do not have the confidence to stand up to the pressures of consumerism as communicated through our media which assumes we are all morons.

• Organic principles – why do they matter?
  For me they are part of something much wider, and sometimes even get in the way by suggesting that they are the only thing that counts. Humility and a willingness to respect, observe, and learn from nature is at the heart of organic farming.

• What does the Soil Association mean to you?
  Brave and campaigning; gets it right most of the time but a bit in love with headlines.

• What is your greatest achievement?
  Taking it mainstream without losing our way. Not being sidetracked or losing heart from all the sniping along the way. Showing that there is another way; that it is possible to be principled and successful. Taking the long view and sticking to our guns. Not listening to my accountant, lawyer or PR advisor but using what felt right and common sense as my guide.

• How do you plan to progress in the future? What is your vision?
  1. Regional development: keeping it small and local.
  2. Becoming an employee-owned company.
  3. Providing a mainstream alternative route to market for small and medium sized farms: challenging the hegemony of Tesco.

• If you were starting all over again, what would you do differently?
  Not much. The mistakes have all been part of the learning. There have been compromises but on the whole I feel comfortable that they were justified. As a young man I would have liked to have spent more time with my children and been less impatient and obsessively driven, but then I would not have achieved what I have.
  
  I would have liked to have followed the regional model earlier and stopped at 20,000 boxes and 150 staff in Devon (now 37,000 and 300). In reality I could not find the partners who trusted me, so it took time to develop.
  
  Maybe be a little more patient, less belligerent and sway with the wind; to take people with me, rather than showing them the way.

• What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
  We are all different. It took me a long time to realise that everyone is not like me; good job too! You can learn something useful from almost any situation if you are receptive.

• Who or what is your biggest inspiration?
  Nature without a doubt. I make my best decisions on my own - in the fields, orchards or woods. The inter-related, self-perpetuating harmony of nature should show us how to live. Even when it frustrates and beats me there is always something to learn.

• What is the key to your success?
  1. I'm always learning and enjoying that.
  2. A degree of pigheadedness; knowing my weakness in certain areas, and having blinding self-confidence in others.
  3. Somehow knowing which ones are which.

• What do you love most about what you do?
  I'm self-determinate - in control of my day to day activities and destiny. Being in a position to influence the world around me. Proximity to nature. Varied and challenging days. Being able to make a difference.

• What keeps you awake at night?
  Not much: occasionally conflict with family, neighbours or staff. Sometimes a great idea.

• What single thing would most improve your life?
  Needing less sleep. Being able to remember people's names.

• What do you find most frustrating about what you do?
  The restrictions of commerce can be tedious but just have to be dealt with. Fortunately I have a very good team around me to help.

• Any unusual hobbies or past careers?
  Surfing and tight-rope walking. I have a tight-rope in my orchard, and spend a few minutes each day walking up and down. It keeps you centred and is great for the posture.
  
  I progressed from milking cows to being a management consultant in New York in one year. Only in the '80s could this happen - you could do anything with enough self-belief and a snappy suit!

• How important is energy efficiency to you?
  Very - anyone who is not looking at this within their life and business is a fool.

• What's the main benefit of being organic for you?
  Differentiation and the associated premium. Though, left to my own devices, I would have written the organic standards differently, experience has generally shown them to be right. They are shorthand for communicating most of our values.

• What other organic ventures do you admire and why?
  1. Tollhurst Organics – a great and committed grower doing it his own way.
  2. Paul Ward Orchards - totally committed to growing great apples.
  3. Yeo Valley - because they are so good at what they do and have shown that it does not have to be expensive or exclusive.

• Supermarkets – good or bad?
  Really bad apart from maybe Waitrose. Unimaginative, parasitic whores to profit, degrading and corrupting everything they touch.

• What is the biggest threat to what you do?
  Laziness and ignorance; people eating TV dinners in front of cookery programmes; a generation that can't cook.

• What's the best thing about organic farms?
  Humanity in harmony with nature.

• What's the best thing about organic food?
  It can give confidence and inspiration to enjoy the pleasures of preparing and sharing food.

• What is your favourite meal?
  Sunday roast.

• If I was Prime Minister I would...
  Tax what we don't want people to do - so obvious and simple - energy consumption, for example.

• The world would be a better place if...
  We thought more about well-being and less about wealth.

• I'd like to be remembered for...
  Showing that there was another way and that you didn't have to smoke dope to find it!

• When were you happiest?
  Lying in the bottom of my boat on a lovely June day with a fishing line in my hand looking up at the sails and the sky.

• What is your greatest fear?
  That greed will overwhelm wisdom.

• What would be your 'Desert Island' luxury?
  A surf board.

• Is the customer always right?
  No. We live in a very complex world and are faced with so many decisions that we are often too ignorant of particular issues to make the right ones. Having said that the public is getting much smarter about who they can trust and that is what will drive consumer decisions in the future.