OF&G :: The Blog

We have good reason to be fond of Harper Adams University College here at OF&G. It’s down the road from us, we’ve held AGMs there and, most importantly, we’ve got some excellent staff who passed through it’s hallowed halls as students.

Therefore we thought it worth flagging up the campus open day Harper is holding on May 9, because it’s a chance to get a look at how it all works and what facilities are on offer. It has become a more and more impressive place over the years. So for a chance to find out how future farmers are being educated and what the teaching priorities are for modern UK farming, you could do worse than spend an hour to two taking the tour.

Anything that makes the link between farming and its customers has to be good, in our book.

[Update: It has been pointed out that I failed to mention probably the most important link we have with Harper Adams. Namely, that the  Chairman of our Certification Committee, Dr Tony Harris, was a very successful and highly respected Principal of the institution for many years. Apologies Dr Harris!)

We’ve been making lots of noise about the recently launched competition for an art or design student to come up with a new official logo for EU organic produce.

We’ve blogged about it, Tweeted it and even sent a press release to every UK student magazine and radio station we could find.

We’d really love to see a tonne of entries from the UK and it would be brilliant to see one win. The only problem was that, having launched the promotional website, the registration form wasn’t actually live. Doh.

Finally though (about three weeks later), it has been put in place, so anyone who has been beavering away on their designs can now register for the competition.

You’ll find that previously mythical form right here.

Spread the word to any art students you know or, if you are one, get in there and make your country proud!

Posted via email from Organic Farmers & Growers

There’s movement! Plants have actually appeared in the big boxes outside the office – and quite an interesting array of them.

There’s even some kind of wire-frame chicken. Looking forward to seeing that develop…

So the green-fingered brigade here at OF&G are on the march and the toxic-fingered among us are watching with interest to see how they do it.

We’ll keep you posted.

Slightly strange one this. Dairy company Rachel’s Organic has announced it is dropping the ‘organic’ from its labels.

It has been suggested that a reason for doing this might be because some people associate ‘organic’ with ‘expensive’, though Rachel’s have been at pains to say that’s not why it has made the move and we have no cause to dispute that.

If this makes a difference to Rachel’s, then that’s good. But in some ways it seems a negative move to shy away from labeling as organic. It isn’t more expensive, though organic food often costs more. There’s a big difference there, in that organic food represents the real cost of food production, without the costs of cleaning up water courses and depleting natural resources.

Having the word organic on your labels or not doesn’t change your price point. If shoppers are looking for cheaper, they will find it regardless, having turned away from a brand they consider expensive, but without pausing to consider that they are moving away from supporting organic farming (whether their reasons for buying in the first place are selfish or altruistic).

The playing field is always going to shift over time, but right now the organic sector is working to clarify its messages. Having long-standing brands softening those messages won’t help.

Everyone not in organic seems hell-bent on talking it down at the moment (just see the list of related negative articles on the Telegraph page), but really, it’s not that bad. Yes, there are people in certain sectors who are struggling, but the overall picture is positive.

We’ve said that very publicly and we’ll keep saying it, because it’s true.

It seems the agro-chemical companies are bit upset (without trying to sound like it) about the fact that the US first family has opted for an organic garden.

According to this piece on TheHill.com they fear it sends the wrong message to the populace about chemical based farming. I suppose you’d expect as much in nation where lobbyists hold so much sway, but of course President Obama is doing something about that now, too (he’s severely restricted the influence lobbyists can have on the way the massive US economic stimulus package will be spent).

Obviously, from our point of view, the White House veg garden sends all the right messages about sustainability. As long they manage the garden properly it can become a great example to the world that growing food using your head is viable and desirable.

[A nod to http://www.bestgreenblogs.com/ for flagging this up. Twitter: @bestgreenblogs]

We’ve just uploaded some more nice pix of our visit to Natural & Organic Products Europe into our Flickr stream.

Feel free to take a look here.