Planning is under way for the annual producer conference run by the Organic Research Centre – Elm Farm.
It’s one of the main get-togethers of the year for organic producers, so it’s worth adding the date to your diary early and getting your application form in if you’re intending to be there.
Just spotted this piece from Farmers Guardian flagging up a new round of funding from the Welsh Assembly Government for organic conversion.
That’s good to see, though there are a couple of caveats:
There is a small application window – 15 September to the end of the month
The available funding is limited to £700,000
That said, we’re pleased to see that arable conversion will be at the top of the priority list. More homegrown organic cereals are badly needed, hence our focus on an annual organic arable event.
Much more detail is available in the very comprehensive FG piece…
Okay, at three per cent land area it’s not huge growth. But the latest figures from the statisticians at Defra show stability and small progress in organics, rather than stagnation or decline.
As with all statistics, there is more of a story behind many of these figures. The report does explain that some changes in recording have affected the total hectares, for instance.
The figure for pigs may be a bit of a surprise. It’s not entirely clear what’s behind that (your suggestions welcome in the comments) but the poultry figure is possibly surprising only in that it’s not a larger drop.
All-in-all, these stats are reassuring. They reflect a state of the industry as we, here at OF&G, recognise it. The figures in the report run to the end of 2008 and, the way things are currently with the economy, there could be fluctuations to those figures already in the first half of 2009. That said, our own experience to this point in the year tallies loosely with the picture the statistics are painting for last year.
The report contains plenty of breakdowns by product, land area, region, etc. which make for interesting reading.
If you’re planning to take a look at the stats yourself, fear not – it’s a ten-page summary that won’t send you wonky-eyed trying to follow it!
Well, National Organic Cereals 2009 is done and dusted – and it was a stonker!
I know that sounds like blowing our own trumpet, but it wasn’t the success it turned out to be purely because of the organisation. It was down to the fact that pretty much everyone who mattered was represented: farmers, millers, consultants, traders, professional and support organisations, you name it.
The official head count (as in, those ticked-off on the delegate and exhibitor registration sheet) amounted to 189. There were a few more people on top of that who showed up as well.
The speakers were very well received and the information imparted was right on-topic, making the day the practical, warts-and-all look at organic arable we intended it to be. The wide array of exhibitors added to the overall usefulness of the event and the caterers laid-on a superb lunch of organic beef, followed by afternoon tea and cake. The weather even played its part by staying dry until the tail end of the packing up!
We were delighted that our headline sponsor, Triodos Bank, was able to announce its ground-breaking initiative to provide a £5 million fund dedicated to supporting converts to organic arable farming at market-beating interest rates.
There was a buzz around John and Alice Pawsey’s farm, at Shimpling, Suffolk, throughout the day and we must pass on our thanks to them once again for being the perfect hosts.
John’s farm walks to view the specially planted trial plots were a highlight of the day which seemingly no-one wanted to miss.
Tonnes of credit has to go to OF&Gs’ development officer, Steven Jacobs, who was the driving force behind the whole thing and the man with the frazzled, “I’m only standing upright now because my backbone doesn’t have a hinge” look on his face at the end of the day. Nice job, Steven.
You can take a look at our collection of photos from the event on our Flickr set, here (or click on any of the photos above).
A lot of new acquaintances were made and some old ones renewed and, perhaps the most important result of the day, we spoke to non-organic farmers who came to learn and are now seriously considering delving into organics.
It’s that time of year again. Tomorrow is our second annual arable event, National Organic Cereals 2009.
Last year's arable event, in Shrewsbury
Last year was a runaway success and I can exclusively report that this year is…… heading the same way! As well as an array of very knowledgeable and topical speakers we’re looking forward to an important announcement from one of our sponsors. So watch this space.
You never know when you go for it again whether you’ll get the same result, but we are once again oversubscribed and looking forward to a very useful and informative day. The weather report doesn’t look too bad either!
Of course things always move on and this year we’re aiming to keep up a stream of snippets from the day using good old Twitter (follow @ofgorganic) to post updates, comments and even pictures – mobile signals permitting. If you’re into Twitter you’ll probably know what I mean when I say that we’ll try and tag our tweets with #noc09. For everyone else, that means you can search on that term in Twitter and should find all the tweets that contain it, thereby giving you a dedicated stream of updates.
Even if the mobile coverage lets us down, we’ll have plenty of info to follow-up for those who weren’t there, with pictures, video and a round-up of the day as soon as we can get it all online.
If you’re coming along, we look forward to seeing you there.
It’s not the first time we’ve heard it said, but it’s good to get a reminder every now and again that choosing to farm organically can actually make sense for the bank balance as well as all the other benefits.
This piece from Business in Dorset about OF&G licensees, Jimi Collis, and his mother, Sarah Worrall, reinforces the point, particularly as Mr Collis used to work in business banking, specialising in farming. He must know what he’s talking about!
This piece from dairyreporter.com is worthy of recording as a more detailed look at what OMSCo is doing for the Dairy Farmers of Britain organic suppliers, how the co-operative sees the market and what its priorities are.
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.
Event: Selling Organic – What’s the Story?
This one-day conference, backed by OF&G, featured the heavyweights of the organic world and focused on how organics needs to move forward with its own promotion. If you weren't there, you missed out! Click here for a report on the day and what the speakers had to say.
and small progress in organics, rather than stagnation or decline.
