Amy Leech: Years before horsemeat made a joke of our food system, I made a resolution to eat less but better quality meat - making it affordable to buy food I can trust. But despite the string of supermarkets that I’ll pedal past, I’ll be hard pushed to find organic meat on the shelves. If I can’t choose it, I can’t buy it.
20 March 2013 |
7 Comments | Recommended by 2
Charles Redfern: An old acquaintance of mine, Jean Verdier, is president of Synabio (the Organic Trade Board equivalent in France). He recently sent me a link to an interview he gave on French TV.
20 November 2012 |
4 Comments | Recommended by 0
Amy Leech: The contents of my wardrobe don’t change much - you’re more likely to find Narnia in there than this season’s print or cut of jeans. When I do go clothes shopping, the way the fabric has been produced doesn’t influence whether I’ll take it home or not. But having spent the last few months digging deeper into the impacts of cotton production, I have learnt that my attitude to clothes and how they are produced is in need of makeover.
04 October 2012 |
4 Comments | Recommended by 2
Amy Leech: The first law of thermodynamics, and probably the only one I can ever remember, says that energy cannot be created or destroyed - it may be transformed or moved – but it definitely does not appear from thin air. Plants use a lot of energy. Every day they busy themselves converting all sorts of energy, gases and matter into the elements and nutrients they need to grow. The energy they have converted is then passed on to us via these nutrients – they make up the food we eat.
26 April 2012 |
11 Comments | Recommended by 6
Charles Redfern: Supermarket organic sales are down again. Sales of supermarket own-label organic are down by 9.5% and organic brands sold in supermarkets are down by 2.9%. The shelf space for organic products has been reduced and so have the number of organic products on offer.
03 April 2012 |
1 Comments | Recommended by 2
Jack Forster: For the last 8 or 10 years we haven’t lambed or calved at all because the butchery takes up so much time. We used to lamb about 300 sheep and calve about 70 cows, but with the decrease in stock prices and the time involved it made sense to just buy in stock to fatten. The tides have changed though, and with the prices of stock thriving at the moment, and also because I am back at home to provide an extra pair of hands, we have decided to tentatively get back into breeding!
17 March 2012 |
5 Comments | Recommended by 3
Charles Redfern: Last week, the Guardian published two articles on olive oil fraud. While both reported on some breathtaking scams, one showed readers how to tell the real thing, and, neither mentioned the virtues of organic certification for protecting the consumer. Firstly organic olives are grown without chemical fertilisers or pesticides. Then, when it comes to processing, organic olive oil (like all organic oils) is not allowed to be chemically treated, heat-treated, refined or had any solvents added. This is to ensure the product is as near to its natural state as possible, to conserve as many nutrients as possible. According to organic principles, quality, taste and nutritional benefits are safeguarded - right from the start.
12 January 2012 |
5 Comments | Recommended by 2
Helen Browning: It has been a busy few weeks. Organic September is proving a great success with activities taking place all over the country, and lots of promotional activities among our licensees. And today I’m very excited to announce the publication of the first iteration of our refreshed strategy: ‘The road to 2020': Towards healthy, humane and sustainable food, farming and land use’
27 September 2011 |
35 Comments | Recommended by 5
Jack Forster: In June we managed to get all of our silage and haylage in (over 800 bales) without getting a single trailer stuck! We get Wades, a contractor from Eccleston to do all of our mowing and baling as we wouldn’t have time ourselves, but we always cart them in. Regardless of how nice the weather is and how dry the fields are, you always manage to find that bit of land that is still holding onto the last bit of water, or get caught out by a freak torrential down pour on your last load!
18 August 2011 |
5 Comments | Recommended by 9
James Kightley: I wrote this on the 14th of August, but didn't quite get round to putting it up here and now, coming to write my blog again, found it and thought it was worth posting, so here it is, more soon, including how cold it hasn't got, and some big news.
14 August 2011 |
0 Comments | Recommended by 0
James Kightley: Second instalment of 'down on the farm' you again find me sitting in my caravan wondering how best to condense the last month or so of activities and life in deepest Somerset in to a succinct blog.
21 June 2011 |
2 Comments | Recommended by 7
Jack Forster: Hi everyone, thanks for taking the time to read my blog. I thought I would use this first entry to introduce myself, and give a bit of background to the farm, and our journey to becoming organic. I hope to use my blogs to give you an insight into what goes on at our family farm and a few updates on the rugby too!
18 February 2011 |
3 Comments | Recommended by 6
Caroline Corsie: It was great to hear Helen draw attention to this in her opening remarks. Simple 3rd Law of Thermodynamics in that energy can only pass from hot to cold! There’s something about promoting the organic message to conventional farmers. Perhaps to do this the Soil Association could hypothesise how the likes of Nocton might sit in as part of a range of farming systems (e.g. might it free up land for wildlife, rebuilding soil health).
09 February 2011 |
2 Comments | Recommended by 6