The Guardian today carries a very interesting take on the sale of Cadbury to American firm, Kraft, by Green & Black’s president and founder, Craig Sams.
Having been sold to Cadbury, Green & Black’s is now, of course, going to be part of the Kraft porfolio and that raises questions about what it will do with the organic and ethical brand.
Our now almost legendary jumper was spawned from a pattern found in a drawer at the Farmers Weekly offices. They were probably all the rage about 20 years ago.
The pattern ended up with us because our Certification Manager tells awful jokes and Community Editor at FW, Isabel Davies, took pity on him, told him he was ‘funny’ and sent him a ‘prize’.
Now, we’re all very fond of the jumper. It’s been something of a talking point, even outside the OF&G offices. Steve, as far as we can tell, appreciates the craftsmanship, but probably wouldn’t choose to sport a tractor-themed sweater on a daily basis. So on the strength of that we thought it could be put to better use.
We’re going to give everyone the chance to get their hands on our jumper and make a bit of money for a deserving charity in the process.
A page now exists here on JustGiving.com for you to make a donation to the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution. Anyone who makes a donation of one pound upwards will earn themselves an entry into a draw we’ll do at the end of February.
As a bonus though, you’ll get an extra ticket for every £5 barrier you break in pledges. So, give a fiver and we’ll enter you twice. Make it a tenner and we’ll give you three chances, and so on.
[If you donate, please, please, please note the instructions on the page about leaving an email address and unticking the Gift Aid box!]
The jumper is made from sumptuous organically certified wool, with its pedigree in the hills of Wales. Find out more at Ystrad Traditional Organics. It really is very nice stuff.
Bearing in mind that OF&G bought the wool and Katie has given her own time in knitting the jumper, we thought it would not be unreasonable to set a fundraising target of £50. But we’re pretty sure with everyone’s support we can better than.
Remember, you can’t find these things in the shops and apparently tractor patterns are like gold dust these days (just ask all the people who keep emailing us requesting copies!). And in a minute I’ll tell the boss that we’re throwing in an OF&G mug and pen to go with it. Surely that seals the deal?
Size-wise, the jumper comes in just shy of a 44″ chest (or a snug 44″, depending on how you like to wear your jumpers!).
And with that, it’s over to you. It’s easy to pledge and the RABI will benefit from every pound. Please spread the word too. The more entries we get, the better.
This is the prize. Just look at that marvelous detailing!
One more time – here’s the link to make your donation.
And here’s Steve modeling for us:
The Farmers Weekly tractor knitting pattern jumper, as modeled by Steve.
To say there have been ‘reservations’ regarding the EU competition to design a new Europe-wide, compulsory organic logo might be an understatement.
We’ve expressed our own disappointment with the candidates we’re being asked to vote on*, but now there’s even some criticism from one of the judges who were asked to pick the final contenders; none other than the widely respected Craig Sams, founder of Green & Black’s (among many other successful organic brands), in fact.
Natural Products magazine reports on a letter Mr Sams has written to a German magazine outlining his concerns over the process, which he describes as “aspirational in the extreme” for its approach of only opening the competition to design students.
Craig Sams know a thing or three about branding and spoke on the subject at our Selling Organics: What’s the Story? conference in London, in October. It really is a shame that this process has to be mired in controversy when the sector has enough challenges to face without yet more bureaucratic mishandling to contend with.
And on the subject of voting for a logo, we have some other misgivings about how it’s being done. But more on that soon…
* Reference to our ‘disappointment’ is made with due respect to the so far anonymous designers whose entries made it to the shortlist of three. They’ve done very well to make it this far and have demonstrated great creativity, but it’s not their fault that what was really needed was a researched, tested and professional identifier that has to sit alongside some very expensive and carefully considered branding.
Grave news emerges from OMSCo (via the Daily Telegraph) that the co-operative might have to dump up to 100,000 litres of organic milk because of the weather.
According to the Telegraph piece problems with collection, storage and delivery have combined to create the kind of perfect storm (my term, not theirs) that is a nightmare in the SLDP category.
The paper goes on to muse that such a move could lead to a shortage of organic milk and dairy products on store shelves in the short term. Whatever, it would be a very nasty blow to OMSCo. Fingers crossed they can get things moving – and soon…
It’s really good to hear that Waitrose has put its weight behind the OrganicUK campaign to fund a three-year promotional bid for organics with EU matched funding.
We’ve been behind the initiative from day one, as have many of the country’s leading organic brands, not to mention an array of farmers and smaller processors.
Having bust through its £250,000 pledge target (in fact exceeding it by about £17k as of now) the organisers at Sustain are now pressing on to try and reach £300,000. Every penny will count because it can be matched with the EU money that’s available if the bid succeeds.
Many other EU member states have taken advantage of the cash over the last few years, some multiple times, but we’ve never got our act together in the UK – until now.
The bid would see a campaign highlighting the key benefits of organic food and farming across different media and utilising PR and social networks.
Well done to Waitrose for giving its backing to the sector in such a tangible way and there’s still time for others to get on board as well. It’s for everyone’s benefit.
It’s official – the OF&G/Farmers Weekly jumper is underway! I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
Our handicrafts expert, Certification Officer Katie Owens, is beavering away with the knitting needles and is already a good couple of inches up from the bottom (probably called lower hem, or something, for those in the know).
She’s using only the finest materials, with the organic wool provided by Juliet at Ystrad Organics.
There’s a certain degree of excitement surrounding this event, mainly because we’re all very keen to see Certification Manager, Steve Clarkson, modelling it for the world. He’ll probably be blinded for a week by all the camera flashes when this major event occurs, but it’s all in the line of duty… Kind of.
Some industry news we’ve received that’s worth sharing:
Community Foods appoints new MD and Commercial Director
Community Foods Ltd, experts in sourcing dried fruit, nuts and seeds as well as leading organic specialist has appointed Martin Rome as Managing Director from 1st January 2010 to succeed Bill Henry who remains on the board.
Martin joined Community Foods from Whitworths in April. Martin brings over 20 years experience
in dried fruit, nuts and seeds having started his career with S&W Berisford before moving to Voicevale and latterly Whitworths for 8 years where he held the position of Purchasing Director.Martin’s external interests include his position as chairman of FRUCOM (a European federation, representing a wide range of food products) and board member of CENTA (Combined Edible Nuts Trade Association). Martin has previously also chaired the NDFTA (British Dried Fruit Trades Association).
David Lewis is promoted to Commercial Director overseeing all of Community’s retail activities. David has been with Community for 9 years and has been responsible for establishing Community’s leading Organic Brand, Crazy Jack Organic in the home bake sector.
Next year sees new regulation from the EU on managing salmonella in turkey flocks. Any producers potentially affected by this can read more in this very well explained piece from the Welsh Poultry Centre.
As the piece points out, salmonella is not actually *that* great of an issue in the UK, but it can be elsewhere in Europe and, as we’re all Europeans now, we’re all caught in this net. There are exclusions from the new testing regime, so if you’ve got turkeys, it’s well worth a read.
Organic Farmers & Growers is a leading UK organic control body i.e. we inspect and license organic food and farming - and were the first independent body in the UK approved by Government to do this!
Our blog is where we share interesting info and muse about the world. For a more formal view of OF&G, visit our website here.
