OF&G :: The blog

While we attend plenty of shows each year, it’s been some time since OF&G was at Natural and Organic Products Europe. So, with a renewed vigour we addressed that this year and set up a not insubstantial stand along with three of our licensees.

Our visit to this year’s show, at Olympia, London, was a roaring success. It was great to get face-to-face with existing licensees as well as to meet many, many potential new ones. The whole show team, Steven, Ruth, Joanna and (for one day only) Mark, found the whole experience very positive. The same could be said of the licensees who set up their displays with us and managed to give the whole thing the feel of a small OF&G marketplace!

They were: Miller, farmer and bread and cake mix maker, Rebecca Raynor, who heads her successful Glebe Farm brand; Brenda and Lucy Clarke with their team from Trevarno Organic Skin Care who showed of a great range of high quality products; Al Sharif, of Harrisons and Crosfield, purveyors of carefully selected, and beautifully packaged, teas.

Here are some pictures to sum up the show (click on them for bigger versions):

And the really good news? We’ll be back next year!

It’s very heartening to see the Welsh Assembly taking a strong stand on GM as it moves towards adopting a ‘polluter pays’ principle.

At OF&G we’ve been calling for this all along. It makes perfect sense that if you introduce GM to the countryside and end up contaminating crops of your neighbours (or even further afield) you should bear the costs.

For some reason Westminster seems dead against this and determined to make it as easy as possible for GM companies to pollute our countryside.

If an organic farmer gets GM contamination in their fields, their crop can no longer be called organic, meaning the loss of any premium and no return on the extra costs and efforts they have incurred. How can it be right that the person or company causing this should not be held responsible?

If the Welsh Assembly Government puts the onus on the ‘polluter’ it is effectively banning GM from being grown within its borders - that’s a brave and principled move which we support wholeheartedly.

…get your facts straight!

Opponents of organic love to trot out ‘facts’ that attempt to detract from the plain-as-the-nose-on-your-face realities or organic systems.

So when Robert Johnston decided to ‘explode’ the ‘five myths’ about organic food on The First Post website there was something of a stir created.

Fortunately a comprehensive rebuttal has now appeared on that same website courtesy of the Soil Association’s Robin Maynard. We’re posting this here because it’s a neat and fairly painless way to re-cap both sides of the argument ready for the next time you’re challenged in the pub!

Something we don’t get to do as often as we would like is get face-to-face with our licensees, but it’s by far the best way we have of learning about how we’re doing.

So to improve on this we’re trialling a programme of informal local meet-ups when members of our team are on their travels around the country. We’re always on the move, but quite often we’re in and out of an area faster than the proverbial rat up a drainpipe.

But when there’s a bit of breathing space or an overnight stay, we’ll be offering licensees in the area the chance to sit down with us for a drink and a bit of two-way feedback. Whichever member of the team happens to be in your neck of the woods won’t always be our expert in your field, but they will be happy to take your comments and questions back to HQ to be addressed by the right folks.

Kicking us off on this programme, Certification Officer Katie Owens will be in East Lothian on Thursday (Feb 21). We’ve tried to contact as many licensees as we can in the area, but if you haven’t heard from us and would like to meet up with Katie for a drink, chat and to meet some of your fellow licensees, please feel free to drop her line at katie.owens@organicfarmers.org.uk.

Hopefully we’ll see many more of you in this way over the coming months.

OF&G Chief Exec, Richard Jacobs, talked to Radio Four’s Farming Today about the percentages of organic matter in pig and poultry rations plus the impact feed prices are having on producers.

If you’d like to listen you can download today’s programme from this link.

Richard’s piece begins just before the 4 minute mark.

Just on the cusp of the New Year I think there’s still time for some seasonal stories - and fortunately they seem to be good news:

A couple of items in Meat Trades Journal caught the eye. Firstly it seems that while Waitrose sent £10 vouchers to customers likely to be disappointed when the store’s turkey suppliers were hit by AI, 80% of those customers (1,000 people) returned them requesting that they be passed on to the farmers affected. Wow! That’s kind of mind-blowing and suggests that shoppers (at least those of the Waitrose variety) haven’t entirely lost touch with, or sympathy for, the farming community. Fingers crossed the ten grand makes it to Gressingham Foods nice and early in 2008…

Also noteworthy on the turkey theme is the MTJ’s reported fact that Marks & Sparks shifted 40% more organic turkeys this year compared to last. That doesn’t tell us anything about the actual figures (or, actually, even whether M&S offered organic turkeys last year!) but it sounds like the kind of healthy growth we want to see.

So that’s us signing-off for 2007. Happy New Year from all at OF&G.

…our very own CEO, Richard Jacobs.

Check out his profile on the Ethical Heroes blog, where Richard is among some very esteemed company as regards sustainability credentials.

Mainly a post “for the record” this. OF&G is delighted to be one of the newest members of The Composting Association. And just to prove it, here’s a pic of certification officer, Katie Owens, proudly displaying the certificate.

Composting is important to us in a number of ways, and not only because there are plenty of enthusiastic home composters among our ranks (we’ve been avidly discussing aerators today)!

More importantly, OF&G is now one of two organisations offering certification to the nationally recognised composting standards PAS 100 and the Quality Compost Protocol. We do this on behalf of The Composting Association.

You can find out more about the standards at TCA’s website but, in brief, the standards allow compost produced and certified to the guidelines to be classified as a product, rather than a waste. This definition is crucial because it controls how it can then be used and described. Certified compost is a beneficial product, so the creation and application of these standards are good for everyone and we’re delighted to be playing our part.

Even though our pedigree is in organic certification, our operation of composting certification is open to all composters and this is an important branching out of OF&G’s role which fits our environmental credentials nicely.

An interesting piece in the New York Times on which organic products are the best to choose for their apparent benefits.

In reality the article is there to promote a new book, but what’s more interesting is the looooong debate that goes on at the end of it in the comments section - 320 of them at the time of posting…

UPDATE: And boy does this debate rage. Just checked this again, out of interest, and the posts keep coming. 425 at the time of this update (8 Nov). Organics really does get people stirred up!

Worrying results from a survey carried out by Graig Producers and Caledonian Organics suggest that up to half of their members could be thinking of reducing stock numbers or even pulling out of organic production.

The chief reason for this finding is cited as rising feed costs, something we’ve been raising the flag over for some time now at OF&G. We simply don’t have anywhere near enough organic arable farmers in the UK, despite the fact that there’s a good premium available for their product.

If the results of the Graig Producers survey bears any reality to the picture across the country it could be bad news indeed as demand for organic produce only continues to grow. The two groups have around 500 members (including OF&G licensees), although apparently the findings are extrapolated from just 83 responses - which probably gives a fairly wide margin for error, but is still telling:

Results from the survey of Group members, across Wales, the Borders and South West England, showed that 36% will reduce stock numbers, and a further 9% will leave organic farming, if feed prices remained at 2006 levels or above, and there was no increase in organic lamb and beef prices. In Scotland the figures were slightly lower at 23% saying they would reduce numbers, and 8% preparing to stop farming organically.

This is just one of the signal flares going up at the moment about the organic arable shortage, with a major UK processor about to start making justifiable noise on the topic too (I don’t think they’ve said their piece publicly yet though, so I won’t jump the gun and name them!).

The feeling here is that there’s an inbuilt nervousness about making the switch to organic from a spray-dependent system that many are comfortable with. And with general grain and protein prices high, the incentive to take any risk is hugely diminished. What more can the industry do apart from educate and inform farmers about the rewards of going organic? OF&G is taking more steps to do just that, but ultimately the decision is in the hands of the individual farmers…

Another show, another battle through the quagmire. These pictures (taken by Chief Exec, Richard) illustrate the trials of getting into the ground for the Royal Welsh Show.

After queuing for two-and-a-half hours to get the assistance of one of the two tractors assigned to “drag ‘em in” duty he was finally hauled across the mire to leave his car in the bog and get on with the day’s business.

The good news is that the show itself has been viewed by the OF&G team as the great spectacle they have become used to. Compare this to dire reports from the Royal, at Stoneleigh (for now), and you have to think that there are lessons to be learned from events such as the Royal Welsh!

Richard reports that despite the all pervasive mud the atmosphere was great and the weather made for a “Dunkirk spirit” in the showground.

And there’s praise to be heaped on Organic Centre Wales, and particularly its Carolyn Wacher, for putting on a great organic marquee, of which OF&G was proud to be a part.

Are you taking notes RASE?

It seems too much choice could be bad for us when it comes to the weekly shop.

Apparently those 15 varieties of baked beans can lead to some very negative psychological effects that we could, no doubt do without.

This is according to Professor Barry Schwartz, a psychologist from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania who has penned The Paradox of Choice. He told The Times:

“There is vastly too much choice in the modern world and we are paying an enormous price for it. It makes us feel helpless, mentally paralysed and profoundly dissatisfied.”

If this is true, one would hope that the addition in recent years of a dizzying array of organic lines to this already challenging selection isn’t serving to make the problem worse. Not sure how that would fit into the organic ethos!

Click here for the full story…

Another year and another Royal Show that was noted more for its downsides than any positive promotion of UK agriculture.

It was wellies all round for those who wanted to get about and see a bit of what was on offer - until the plug was finally pulled a day early and everyone sent home.

We hear mumblings today (from those who might otherwise have been at Stoneleigh themselves) that the show still wasn’t what it once was, with big names missing - not to mention the crowds.

Many farming, food and related businesses will no doubt be mulling over whether to invest the time, money and energy in next year’s show, which could lead to a downward spiral which would be sad to see.

All that said, our certification officers were pleased to have the chance to meet with existing and potential licensees who are, all to often, just a voice on the telephone to them normally.

Today’s photo credit goes to Development Officer, Steven Jacobs.

Today’s BBC Breakfast programme and News 24 seem to be dominated (this morning at least) by the debate on organic food and air miles. Not a simple debate by any means, but one with huge complexities and which raises many questions.

Should organic be about carbon footprints? Should it even be about ethical trade? Or should it simply refer to methods that focus on safeguarding and improving animal welfare and the environment?

We know anyone reading this is going to have a view on that, and probably a strong one, but organic systems are coming increasingly under the microscope and it’s a discussion that’s got to be had…

You can see our own Chief Exec, Richard, contributing to the story on the BBC today by clicking here.

There’s been a lot of chatter in recent days about the imminent arrival of revolutionary retailer Whole Foods MarketThis major US brand is to open a three-floor store in London at the beginning of June offering organic and natural foods. It will apparently be the biggest food retailer in town. It’s approach to retailing is said to be somewhat different and the store will be full of seats for shoppers to take the weight off and gaze lovingly at the no-doubt enticing offerings.

OF&G is pleased to see Whole Foods Market turn up on these shores, with its plans for expansion across the country. It’s going to bring great profile to organic produce and the way it is sold. The company talks a good game about its relationship with suppliers too…

This morning our Chief Exec, Richard Jacobs, was interviewed on Radio Four’s Farming Today on the issue (click here to listen again to Wednesday’s programme, although it will only work until next week) and last week we were called by the Independent on Sunday for this piece (although we apparently didn’t make the final cut! Not controversial enough?).

The group owns the Fresh and Wild chain too and it’s progress in the UK is going to be fascinating to watch.