OF&G :: The Blog

Another key step on the (long, slow and somewhat tortuous) route to our Certification Manager, Steve, getting his Farmers Weekly tractor jumper has been achieved.

The wool has arrived, courtesy of the lovely Juliet Morris at Ystrad Organics, who is also one of our Twitter friends.

Our resident knitter, Certification Officer Katie Owens, is gearing up to start this crucial piece of work. I believe, though, that a mini version is being completed first for Katie’s God son, which should be complete by next week.

It’s all getting quite exciting. Interestingly, the enquiries about getting copies of the pattern are still flowing in. It makes you wonder whether the FW team should be looking at getting an updated version done. They could probably double sales of the magazine for a week!

Here’s our wool, ready and waiting to be turned into the finest knitted creation OF&G will ever have seen…

Our organic wool from http://www.ystradorganics.co.uk/

We will, of course, keep you updated.

Reports are appearing today of statistics coming out of retail analysts, IGD, which apparently show that a sizeable chunk of shoppers are sticking by organics – credit crunch or not.

Talking Retail rounds up the report here. It shows that 19 per cent (or roughly one in five) consumers are holding firm in their organic purchasing.

There are some other interesting facts and figures, but slightly concerning, though not surprising, is the one that suggests eight per cent of those questioned didn’t know what organic stood for anymore. It’s not surprising because realisation has finally dawned across the sector that we’re not getting clear messages out. Fortunately, there is work in hand to address this, such as the OrganicUK initiative being co-ordinated by Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, which OF&G is backing.

Overall though, mounting evidence, both empirical and anecdotal, points to organics going through a dip, rather than a crash.

We’ve been a bit peeved with The Times newspaper around here lately. It was this particular newspaper that, at Christmas, published a dubious and un-checked story claiming that organic farmers had asked for a “holiday” from the organic standards, or to “bend the rules”.

We shouted loudly at the time that this was not the case and explained the truth of the matter. It’s fair to say the smoke was caused by fire in this case, but the signals were badly distorted.

Now (admittedly a bit belatedly and in a circuitous way via Twitter) we’ve stumbled across this blog post by Rachel Johnson, also in The Times.

Beginning reading it gives you the sense that it’s just going to be another commentator expressing their disappointment, based on not knowing all the facts. However, if you keep reading you realise that Ms Johnson is injecting a dose of the kind of realistic common sense that we sometimes think we must have the monopoly on here at OF&G towers (trust me, we know we don’t have that monopoly, but occasionally it feels like it!).

For instance, she says:

“Look at it this way: a new row over organic certification should actually help suspicious consumers better to understand the difference between those who slave year-round to produce good food without damaging the environment and the wily producers who hijack the word (as they did “green”) to try to sell us some pretty borderline or questionable tat.”

So, yes. Education of consumers. Something we’re always desperate to achieve, because when people really understand what organic means and stands for they will know why they should support it.

Also:

“The current debate is a sign of how well regulated and passionate the sector has become. Of course, everyone understands that in a recession people are going to want cheaper food: that’s why the organic lobby has acknowledged that conventional methods have their place.”

While that’s an excellent point, and we’re thrilled to see the recognition that this is a very well policed system, we’re not convinced that all of the ‘organic lobby’ has acknowledged the place of non-organic farming. We have, and we know others who have. But no, not everyone.

All-in-all a very well-balanced, thoughtful and, above all, realistic piece. Thank you, Ms Johnson.

Top chef and organic supporter, Raymond Blanc, has been speaking about the role food can play in society.

The man behind Le Manoir aux Quat Saisons, in Oxfordshire, and a TV regular, believes families would gain vastly by making the effort to prepare, sit down and eat good food together – instead of microwaving something and plonking themselves down in front of the telly!

It seems to make sense… Monsieur Blanc is also the vice president of Garden Organic (which we used to know as the HDRA).

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 Rayner, 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.

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