Boiled, mashed, baked or fried, potatoes are used in a staggering range of recipes.

The NFU is now using waste potatoes for a slightly different purpose.

From now on, the NFU’s monthly membership magazine, British Farmer & Grower, is to be delivered to members in an environmentally-friendly potato starch polybag instead of a plastic polywrap.

The wrap is produced from potato starch from waste potatoes and has been produced under the OK HOME Compost EN13432 certification approved by the EU.

NFU chief content editor Paul Bradley said: “As the original friends of the earth, farmers play a massive role in enhancing Britain’s natural environment. So it is important to us to constantly look at ways that we can improve our environmental credentials in our membership magazines too.

“What better way of doing this than by using a farming product to create a decomposable magazine packaging wrapper.

“We hope that other magazines will follow suit and start swapping plastic for potatoes.”