Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones was born in Frankfield, Clarendon, Jamaica, and moved to the UK at the age of four in 1961 as part of the Windrush generation, raised in inner-city Birmingham. Leaving a secondary modern school without formal qualifications, he worked as a chef before pursuing a career in television, becoming a producer/director for the BBC and helping launch the careers of celebrity chefs including Gordon Ramsay and James Martin.
As a child, time spent working on his father's allotment sparked a lifelong dream of one day owning a piece of the British countryside — a dream that felt especially distant given the near-total absence of Black farmers in rural Britain at the time. In 1994, during a recession, he founded a food and drink marketing agency, running successful campaigns for major brands including Cobra Beer.
In 2000, Emmanuel-Jones fulfilled that childhood ambition, buying a small farm on the Devon-Cornwall border. Recognising the stark lack of diversity in British farming, he deliberately launched his food brand under the name ‘The Black Farmer’ in 2005 — a bold statement designed to make race impossible to ignore in an industry where it was almost entirely invisible.
The Black Farmer has since grown into one of Britain's most recognisable independent food brands, selling sausages, burgers, cheese and other products in major supermarkets nationwide. Emmanuel-Jones also established the Black Farmer Scholarship Scheme, bringing inner-city school leavers to his Devon farm to experience rural life and work, a project later documented in the Channel 4 series Young Black Farmers. He was awarded an MBE for services to farming and diversity in 2020.
- Founder of The Black Farmer, one of Britain's most recognisable independent food brands, sold in major supermarkets nationwide
- Widely recognised as Britain's first high-profile Black farmer
- Established the Black Farmer Scholarship Scheme, bringing inner-city young people into rural farming experience
- Subject of the Channel 4 documentary series Young Black Farmers
- Awarded an MBE for services to British farming and diversity in 2020
- Turn a childhood promise into a business plan. His farm purchase in 2000 fulfilled a specific ambition formed decades earlier on his father's allotment as a boy.
- Name the difference rather than hide it. Choosing to call his brand ‘The Black Farmer’ was a deliberate decision to make visibility, not invisibility, his commercial strategy.
- Diversify an industry by opening the door for others. The Black Farmer Scholarship Scheme extends his personal breakthrough into structured opportunities for young people who might not otherwise consider farming.
- A career pivot can take decades to arrive — and still succeed. From chef to BBC producer to marketing agency founder to farmer, Emmanuel-Jones took a winding path before finding his defining venture at 43.