We’ve been advised by SAC (Scottish Agricultural College) that it’s recruiting now for the September intake of students on its Organic Farming PgDip/MSc course.
This is a distance learning course, using online materials, so it could really suit someone who wants to expand their qualifications without giving up a year and returning to student life.
You can get more details here, or contact the tutors directly Christine Watson, Norman Stephen or David Younie.
We’re very pleased to have been able to announce today that BBC Countryfile presenter and high-profile farmer, Adam Henson, will be attending our National Organic Cereals 2010 event.
To be held on July 8, in Andover, Hampshire, this year’s National Organic Cereals will be building on an excellent 2009 event and has the backing of key people in the organic arable, seed, feed and milling sectors.
Adam Henson will be chairing an afternoon Q&A panel for us. Adam is not an organic farmer, which suits us perfectly because with National Organic Cereals we don’t want to talk only to the existing organic community. Anyone who is inquisitive about organics and open-minded enough to find out more is someone we would love to see at the event. It’s all about highlighting the opportunities in organic cereals while also examining the challenges and realities.
You can read more about the event in our news release here and book your place here if you’d like to attend. It should be a great day and places tend to fill up fast, so please do book early.
The Soil Association conference gets underway today in Birmingham (and yes, they have already been publicly ribbed about the industrial location, at The Custard Factory).
We have folk there, as do most organic organisations and companies. It’s generally a setting in which the more philosophical issues are dealt with and the temperature taken of the sector at this point in time – a kind of state of the nation event for organics.
Interestingly, this year it seems to have kicked off with the SA charity’s director, Patrick Holden, espousing better co-operation and less divide between organic and non-organic farmers. This is pleasing, because it’s what OF&G has been saying since it became the UK’s first government approved organic certifier in the early 90s.
Of course deeply held perceptions and prejudices do not disappear overnight, or merely on Mr Holden’s say-so. There has to be trust and understanding between organic and non-organic supporters and farmers, but hopefully this signals that more of those involved in organics are willing to be inclusive, rather than critical.
If you’re not at the conference, the best way to follow it is using Twitter. There are various people providing updates from the scene, including our own Development Officer, Steven Jacobs, and Deputy News Editor of Farmers Weekly, Caroline Stocks.
Fear not though, if you’re not a ‘Tweeter’ yet you don’t have to delve into this new world too deeply. Just follow one of these links to see a timeline of what people are saying about the event in your web browser.
Using the Twitter website: http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23SAConf
Or using the Twitterfall service: http://twitterfall.com/?trend=saconf!%231F3547
Interestingly, following on from the last post, a new Defra-backed report has emerged which suggests that shoppers have a perception of organic food and farming that is beyond the practical requirements of the regulations.
The study, carried out by the University of Exeter, reports an ‘expectations gap’ between the reality of production and processing and the knowledge and understanding of shoppers. Read the Farmers Guardian report here.
This is not entirely surprising and is the kind of communication failure that we all hope will be addressed by the OrganicUK initiative (see previous post).
Unfortunately, whenever we read something like this you can bet it will be spun quickly into a story about organics misleading consumers. Again, that’s probably our own fault as an industry for letting ourselves get into that position. Now is the time to take serious steps to address the problem. It’s a bit of a shame, though, that Defra will fund this kind of research, but doesn’t seem willing to find money for the OrganicUK bid to the EU to help us move on from the problem.
A few articles have popped up in recent days that caught our attention here and are, for varying reasons, worthy of a look, so we thought we’d share them with you. You never know, it might even become a semi-regular thing – this is a blog after all!
Seen something you think we should read? Add them to the comments for all to see.
A fascinating day was had by all at our Selling Organics: What’s the Story? conference, held at London’s South Bank University, on Thursday.
Pretty well all of the top names in UK organics were there to hear from industry leaders, marketing experts and academics with real insight on how the organic sector can look to take itself forward.
The main point was to address the failings we’ve all come to recognise in how organics tells its story to a wider audience and a lot of views and experience were shared in a packed schedule. There was also plenty of chance for networking and it was a really good day for meeting new people and catching up with familiar faces.
You can read our full report in the news section of our website and below is the Flickr set from the day. Please forgive the quality of the photography – I am not a professional snapper 
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.
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