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YouTube meets social entrepreneurship: using videos to encourage sustainable eating
YouTube meets social entrepreneurship: using videos to encourage sustainable eating
Written by
UnLtd employee
UnLtd position
YouTube meets social entrepreneurship: using videos to encourage sustainable eating
Written by
UnLtd employee
UnLtd position
YouTuber Huw Richards is on a mission. The green-fingered social entrepreneur is determined to get us all eating fresh, sustainable food.
'The current agricultural system is one of the most fossil fuel intensive industries in the world,' he explains, 'And as the UK we're really dependent on other food markets. For example, we've seen the recent effects in the news where the cold weather in Southern Europe and how it's affecting prices.'
Huw wants to help create a world where people eat locally and sustainably. 'Seasonal food is best for your diet. I want to help make communities more resilient, creating food security so we're not dependent on external places to provide our food.'
He's set up his social venture, Huw's Nursery, to achieve this. He wants to help communities build a network of food, achieve through a mix of home-growing, and buying from local dairies and farmers.
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When he was 12 years old, Huw created a YouTube channel about his passion for gardening.
'A friend was making gaming videos - filming on a phone with one hand and playing with the other,' he says, 'I thought that's so cool, I knew a lot about gardening from my parents so I thought I'll start a gardening channel.'
Over the last six years since it was created, the channel has since grown massively. Focused on teaching people how to grow their own food, Huw's videos have been viewed more than eight million times.
Creating the channel has started Huw on a journey. He recently received an UnLtd Award to turn his channel into a social venture, and become a champion of local food.
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First though, he's got to get through his A Levels.
'I've got my A Levels coming up at the moment, so I can't put a lot of time into it,' explains Huw, 'Having an UnLtd Award gives me a great platform when I finish them. I've been able to invest in better equipment for creating and editing the videos.
The Award goes beyond just helping him to create new videos. It gives him to space and support to expand his work. 'What I'm trying to do is inspire people, especially the younger generation. If we can get their mindset focused on being sustainable and looking after your environment, then I think that can have a big effect in the long term.'
He's juggling a range of projects, with the aim of getting more people eating homegrown and local. He's working with his college, convincing them to grow their own food; he's involved in a project to teach children in Wales about growing food, especially heritage varieties; and he's got plans to shoot short films with growers across the UK, building up a library of information on sustainable food projects.
His next exciting opportunity is an appearance on the hit ITV programme Coast and Country (broadcast 17th February, on ITV Wales), he'll be giving seasonal gardening advice.
'it's quite huge being able to do this. I hope that I can do more work on TV, to have more of an influence - so that I can help create the big changes I want.'
Huw is also working on developing his income streams, with help from UnLtd. He currently makes most of his income from ‘those annoying adverts’ on YouTube, and these will continue to be a core part of his income. He’s also looking at ways to create premium content for those who want to pay. He plans to create a video series taking people through the basics of growing their own food, affordably. ‘I think is you want to be a sustainable business you need to have a range of revenue streams,’ he says, ‘If one fails you don't have one to fall back on and your business fails. i'm looking at things like sponsorship, raising money through media appearances, a mix of things.’
Huw’s videos are having impact, helping convince people to take up the challenge of growing their own food. Seeing the impact has been one of the best parts of running the venture for Huw. He frequently gets sent pictures of people's gardens, with thankyous for inspiring people to grow them. ‘A teacher recently got in contact,’ says Huw, ‘He said he finds my YouTube videos so inspirational he shows them to his students, which I think is quite cool. He’s teaching them to grow their own food, using my videos.’ Huw’s next challenge is replicating the impact of the videos with his other projects. ‘I really want to play an active role in localising our food and making our food systems really sustainable,’ he explains. https://youtu.be/pk0vhqSarYU
For the benefit of any wannabe gardeners reading, we asked Huw to give some of his tips so that people can start growing their own food. Here’s what he said: ‘I would say start small. It’s easy to get ahead of yourself, spend lots of money building 12 raised beds and be overwhelmed. Start with one raised bed. You won’t have invested a lot of money, and you can get out into the garden and experiment. If you enjoy it then next season you can expand on it. Also, no vegetable gardener will have everything go right during a season. Expect failures and mistakes, and be ready to learn from them. In the long term, if you follow the right rules, you’ll be saving yourself and your family money.’ As for his favourite things to grow; ‘I love growing beans, peas, rainbow chard. Potatoes are great fun. I just love growing my own food.’