This section provides reports and newspaper articles on the food and farming UK marketplace.
Salon International D'Agriculture (SIA)
The Paris food and farming show is the world's largest exhibition of animals and food producers.
The 43rd annual show provided inspiration for anyone with an interest in food and farming. For a review of the show read here.
Supermarket Secrets for Dispatches by Twenty Twenty production.
This two-part series was Channel 4’s highest rating current affairs show of 2005.
Jane Moore investigated whether the food on supermarket shelves was really as good as it looked, whether prices were as good as they seemed and what happened behind the scenes in the production of supermarket food.
The films asked how supermarkets managed to push prices down and profits up. It highlighted how farmers and growers are being pressured to produce food in a manner that is not good for the environment, animal welfare or our health.
Mud Sweat and Tractors:The Story of British Agriculture, a four-part BBC series was first shown in spring on BBC FOUR and repeated over the summer on BBC TWO. The series was met with critical acclaim culminating in a Grierson Award nomination for Best Historical Documentary, one of the most prestigious awards for television documentaries. Thanks to David Parker, Available Light Production and the farmers who starred in the series.
Press reviews:
"This series on the history of modern British agriculture is the surprise of the week - fascinating and wonderful"
Source: The Times, Pick of The Day, Wed 15 April
"Strange but true - in the 1950s, strawberries were virtually the size of apples. It's a fact you can verify for yourself in this excellent social history series"
Source: The Guardian, Pick of The Day, Wed 22 April
"This is a brilliant documentary series: with its use of archive home video it is both a loving and moving memorial to farming days long gone..."
Source: The Times, Last night's TV , Thur 23 April
"Informative and entertaining series such as this make you long for the golden age of television before it was hijacked by celebrities and reality shows"
Source: The Times, Today's TV, Wed 29 April 09
Bread is another major topic being covered. Early in 2010, the story of award-winning baker, Tom Herbert and his quest to create the perfect loaf will be shown on BBC FOUR. The sixty minute documentary, IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT LOAF, follows Tom as he comes up with a new recipe for a loaf to enter into this year's National Organic Food Awards. Produced by Available Light TV.
The story of wheat, resurgence in traditional bread-making craft and the way that flour is produced is gaining the spotlight. With the increase in gluten intolerance, wholesale adoption of factory production using the Chorleywood Bread Process and high energy inputs, modern bread making is being questioned. John Cresswell and a bunch of intelligent farmers, bakers and scientists are getting under the skin of what is wrong with the daily loaf.
Living Earth magazine and Organic Farming magazine for the Soil Association
These excellent membership magazines produced by The Soil Association have been redesigned to make them more engaging to readers. Credit to Editor’s Tim Young and Peter Mundy.
Do not buy:
by John Cresswell, 2 August 2007
Have you noticed the fields of yellow flowers dotted around farms in the spring? The chances are that you have, since nearly 1.5 million acres are grown in the UK every year. This is an area equivalent to 600,000 football pitches.
Each acre produces one to two tonnes of tiny black seeds and in 2006, the UK produced 1.87 million tonnes of seeds. These are harvested in July and August.
Between 1996 and 2006, the oilseed crop area represented between 7% to 12% of total UK crop area (332,000 and 519 000 hectares), peaking in 2005 and slightly declining in 2006.
Contrary to modern belief, the crop is not grown for government subsidy payments. Farmers are neither paid to grow it by the acre, nor are market prices supported by EU intervention buying schemes. The only return that a UK farmer makes from the crop is by selling it in the market place.
To put the crop in a global context, oilseed rape is the source of around 12% of the world’s total production of fats and oils - at just over 15 million tonnes. Soya and palm oil are by the far the most significant products (2). World oilseed production peaked in 1999/2000, and has subsequently fallen back slightly. In 2002/03, the UK produced 4.5% of global rapeseed production (2).
A Global Perspective
World demand for vegetable oils has grown sharply in recent years – by an average of 3.9% for the 10 years to 2003 (3). Extra production to meet this demand has mainly come from increased soya planting in South America - encouraged by the widespread use of genetically modified (GM) varieties - and palm in South East Asia. Palm oil production has increased through the clearance of large areas of land, principally in Malaysia and Indonesia, at the expense of natural forests.
Historically, oilseed rape oil prices were very similar to soya and other types of oil. However, the growing awareness of oilseed as high quality oil, has led to a significant premium for oilseed over the last few years.
www.neoda.org.uk/pages/market_update
Why do farmers grow oilseed rape?
The majority of UK crop growers depend on wheat, barley and oats for their living. These are all part of the Poaceae or grass family, and share many of the same pests and diseases. Growing the same crop (or closely related crops) on the same land year-after-year is known as monoculture, and is generally regarded as bad practice. Therefore, farmers try to introduce plants from a different family at least once into the three-year crop rotation, in order to protect the land from the build-up of pests and diseases. This tends to improve yields and reduces the demand for artificial inputs – particularly pesticides. These crops are known as break crops.
For many years, British farmers depended on crops from the Fabaceae (pulse) family, such as peas and field beans, to provide this role. Unfortunately, the vast growth in the amount of soya bean planting in other parts of the world, and the consequent fall in prices, made pulses less-and-less viable for UK farmers, and they had to look elsewhere for a break crop.
Oilseed rape has made a very satisfactory break crop. It is one of the few edible oilseeds that can be grown in the cool, temperate climate of northern Europe. Being from the Brassica family, it is very different to the wheat, barley and oats cereal crops and shares few of the same pests and diseases. The plant has a deep tap root, which farmers like, as it can break up compacted soil and leave fields in an improved state. Farmers can use much of the same equipment to grow, harvest and store the crop that they already use for cereals, so they do not need to invest in new machinery. In addition, the yields of Poaceae cereal crops typically increase by 35% following oilseed rape than when they follow one another (4).
Is oilseed rape good or bad for the environment?
Oilseed rape supports a wider variety of invertebrates than comparable cereal crops. These invertebrates attract more insect-eaters and provide a valuable protein source for a wide variety of fledgling wild birds, such as linnets (5), buntings and finches (6). Other bird species feed on the oilseed plant itself (both seed and leaf), such as wood pigeons, meadow pipits, yellowhammers, goldfinches and greenfinches (6, 7). Further species, including the sedge warbler, yellow wagtail, skylark and reed bunting, regularly use oilseed rape crops for nesting (7, 8).
Recent work sponsored by DEFRA in collaboration with the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), suggested that oilseed rape – of all crops commonly grown in the UK – left the most weed seeds on the surface. Not only did oilseed rape leave the highest number of seeds, but the seed types tended to be of the most useful types for feeding wild birds, such as polyganums (9). The same study revealed that oilseed stubble carried the greatest density of birds in the early winter period, no doubt because of the ample feeding opportunities compared to all stubble types.
Although the efficiency of fertiliser use has been improved by plant breeding, oilseed rape poses a higher risk of nitrate leaching due to relatively high levels of residual fertility left behind after harvest. Farmers frequently attempt to overcome this problem by planting a following crop (normally wheat) very soon after the oilseed has been harvested in order to utilise the fertility left behind in the soil.
As farmers aim to minimise costs and prevent damage to their land (i.e. natural environment), they use as few pesticides as they can get away with to protect their crops. As a result, researchers have developed economic spray thresholds for many pests (18) to help UK farmers identify situations in which they could get away without spraying. Ideally, farmers do not want to use any pesticides, but this is not possible if the pests get a hold and destroy the crop. Therefore, long-term surveillance work on the effects of pesticides was commissioned by the Pesticide Safety Directorate (the government agency which exists to ensure the safe use of pesticides both to people and the environment), and these concluded that ‘there were few adverse long-term effects of pesticides on non-target organisms including insects, spiders, earthworms and soil microbes’ (19).
A 2005 Central Science Laboratory study concluded that ‘oilseed rape makes a negligible contribution to UK CO2 emissions’ (8). It went on to state that oilseed, like all healthy and vigorous field crops, can contribute to carbon sequestration. Incorporating all cereal straw in the UK could potentially sequester 0.3 million tonnes of carbon each year.
Therefore, an important point to consider is – given that we want to eat vegetable oil – if we do not use rapeseed, are the alternatives any ‘greener’?
How green are alternatives to oilseed rape oil?
Palm oil is used as an ingredient in one-in-ten supermarket food products from chocolate to bread and crisps. It is an extremely cost-effective raw material for the food processing industry (i.e. cheap food ingredient). Unfortunately, besides having an unhealthy fatty acid profile for the human diet, the massive increase in production has been at the expense of some of the world’s most valuable and sensitive habitats (10).
Some 83% of palm oil production occurs in Indonesia and Malaysia, and has proved devastating for the rain forest, as well as the Asian elephant, Sumatran tiger and orang-utan (1). Burning of the Indonesian rain forest for palm oil releases a staggering 1,400 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, making Indonesia the third largest generator of carbon dioxide globally (1). In addition, the use of palm oil in the UK food manufacturing industry hardly squares with efforts to reduce food miles as the closest significant producer to UK is Nigeria.
Traditional low-input olive oil plantations are relatively benign and have the best effect on the environment in terms of biodiversity and landscape value. However, as the major supermarkets increase their share of the market and demand higher volumes at lower prices, these plantations are becoming increasingly unviable and are giving way to intensive modern plantations.
An EU commission report recently stated that: ‘Inappropriate weed-control and soil-management practices, combined with the inherently high risk of erosion in many olive farming areas, is leading to desertification on a wide-scale in some of the main producing regions, as well as considerable run-off of soils and agro-chemicals into water bodies. The broad picture for the olive sector is of intensified production leading to certain negative effects on the environment’ (14).
Although recently banned, simazine – a chemical associated with ground water residue problems – was being widely used as the herbicide by these plantations. Traditional plantations do not use artificial fertilisers but under intensive olive systems, applications of up to 390 kg per hectare were common. Olive fly is the most prevalent invertebrate pest, and in the past these have been usually dealt with by use of organophosphates such as malathion and dimethoate (14). Intensive productions lead to increased use of these compounds.
Soil erosion is now a particular problem in some areas of olive production. The EU report stated that ‘aggregate losses of topsoil from olive plantations in Andalucía have been estimated at 80 tonnes per hectare per annum, with even higher rates in certain situations. These estimates indicate a totally unsustainable farming system which is resulting in widespread desertification, as defined by the draft National Action Plan Against Desertification (MMA, 1999). On the basis of these estimates, approximately one million hectares of olive plantations in Andalucía are losing as much as 80 million tonnes of soil per year’ (1).
Therefore, if UK oilseed rape production was replaced by an increase in olive oil production, this would have a very damaging effect on these environments.
A large proportion of the global soya crop is from GM varieties, and the recent increases in production have had enormous environmental costs. Reports from Argentina indicate that soya is grown on over 50% of the cropland in many areas. This monoculture production has led to the development of vigorous weeds and a very high usage of herbicides (25). The clearance of natural vegetation in order to grow the crop is equally concerning. Greenpeace estimated that 2.5million hectares of rainforest were cleared in Brazil in 2005 mainly to grow soya (27). There are also suggestions that soya can have adverse effects on human health – by possibly increasing the risk of some types of cancer and by reducing human fertility by affecting sperm motility (26).
So should we be increasing soya oil production or not?
Is oilseed rape oil healthy?
Over the last few years, the debate around dietary fat has changed from a concern for the quantity consumed to an emphasis on the type of fat. In terms of quality, oilseed rape oil has a considerable amount going for it compared to competitor sources. It has high levels of essential fatty acids such as linoleic acid (omega 6) and alpha linolenic acid (omega 3), expressed in a ratio ideal for human health of one to two parts. Source: British Nutrition Foundation.
In fact, soya bean oil is the only other vegetable oil source to provide significant amounts of both fatty acids (12,17). Oilseed rape oil also contains very low levels of saturated fats compared to other plants sources. http://www.neoda.org.uk/pages/origins.html and BNF(20)
The low levels of saturated fats, high level of oleic acid, relatively high level of alpha linolenic acid and favourable alpha linolenic acid to linoleic acid ratio found in oilseed rape oil are consistent with current dietary recommendations. In addition, the substitution of oilseed rape oil for saturated fats in the diet has been found to have a role in lowering plasma cholesterol. There is some evidence that dietary oilseed rape oil has a positive effect in clot formation, with, in turn, implications for cardiovascular disease. It is thought that oilseed rape oil might have an effect in helping to prevent cardiac arrhythmia – significant because this is a frequent cause of death during myocardial infarction (12).
What about Hayfever?
There is no doubt that a significant percentage of people (up to 40%) suffer unpleasant effects from oilseed rape crops during flowering. These symptoms include eye irritation, runny nose, and coughing. Although no great comfort for the sufferer, the vast majority of sufferers are not affected as a result of an allergy (in fact, under 3%). Such effects are usually caused by a straightforward irritation on the respiratory tract and eye.
There is also no doubt that many other plants produce pollen at the same time as oilseed rape, so it is hard to establish exactly how much of this harm is done by oilseed rape crops and how much by other plants. A large-scale, 11-year analysis of hay fever sufferers in 25 medical practices concluded that peak incidence of hay fever occurred at or after week 25 (i.e. well after the majority of the UK oilseed crop has completed flowering). It also revealed that there was no correlation between hay fever incidence and the location of the medical practices in rural or urban areas – suggesting that oilseed pollen is unlikely to be implicated in the majority of cases (23).
Would people suffer less if no oilseed was grown in the UK? Yes, probably, particularly among those living very close to crops. Would they stop suffering altogether? Very unlikely, unless all other pollen producing plants were removed as well.
The good news is that oilseed pollen is heavier and stickier than many types of pollen (16, 21), and does not travel a great distance - 97% of oilseed rape pollen falls to the ground within 1 metre of the parent plant (22).
Despite this, Borderfields farmers do not grow crops for use in Oleifera adjacent to villages to avoid the unpleasant effect that oilseed rape has on some people.
Are many chemicals used to grow oilseed rape and do they get into the oil?
Oilseed rape, being a vigorous and fleshy plant, attracts multiple pests and diseases (e.g. fungal growth). Careful use of sprays keeps them clean and healthy. On average, in 2001 and 2002, UK farmers used exactly two fungicidal sprays on their crops in order to control the diseases (24). Over the same period, 99% of crops were sprayed with a herbicide to control weeds. The presence of weeds is a serious problem because they reduce crop yields and their seeds can adversely affect the taste and keeping qualities of the oil.
The quality of pesticides and herbicides has been considerably improved by scientists over recent years in terms of their effect on the environment. Dimethoate is an insecticide that used be used on crops, and killed nearly all invertebrates including non-target pests. These broad spectrum insecticides have been replaced by new products, such as thiocloprid, which aim to only kill the intended insect target. The use of organo-chlorine and organo-phosphate insecticides has been phased out by UK farmers, and farmers generally seek to reduce chemical use to a munimum, both out of concern for the environment and in order to keep costs down.
Depsite the fact that oilseed rape is home to many insects and diseases, pesticide use is not heavy compared to other crops. The Central Science Laboratroy concluded in a recent report that 'pesticide use in oilseed rape crops is relatively low compared to that of other crops'(8).
The Pesticides Residue Committee is the body tasked with routine surveillance and evaluation of pesticide residues in food for sale in the UK. Cooking oils are currently looked at as part of their rolling program, and were last subject to a report in 2005. Out of 72 samples of oil tested for 59 types of pesticide, residues at any level were only found in eight oil samples. None of these involved oilseed rape. Six of the eight samples with pesticide residue were from olive oil and two from grape seed oil. All were below the Maximum Residue Limits and the committee concluded that 'none of the residues were of concern to human health' (13). While farmers are not scientists, and no experts in these matters, they do keep a close eye on the scientific reports because they, and their families, are most likely to suffer any side effects from the spraying of pesticides.
What about fertilisers?
Oilseed rape is quite a hungry crop. It has a fairly high demand for nutrients, particularly nitrates, as well as phosphate and potassium. A typical UK crop will be given around 200 kg per hectare of nitrogen in the spring, according to the British Survey of Fertisliser Practise (24). Artifical nitrogen is expensive to produce in terms of energy input, but it has a dramatic effect on the vigour of the crop, and hence its ability to sequester greenhouse gasses. So while the production of fertiliser damages the environment, the growing of crops can balance out the equation again. Having said this, the UK use of artifical nitrogen fertilisers has fallen by around 22% since 1983, and phosphate and potassium applications are at their lowest since records began (24). In recent years, the use of sulphur fertilisers has increased because where British crops used to receive their sulphur via industrial pollution, emission controls have dramatically reduced this source.
This article was written in reponse to a long article in the Guardian by Joanne Blythman and John Vidal. Joanne Blythman and John Vidal are superb journalists. They have done much to inform the consumer about the way our food is produced and encourage better environmental practises. However, there were a number of points in their article, that possibly not having spoken to farmers directly, were not quite aware of. Hopefully, this piece sheds new light on some of these areas.
References.
Britain – the dirty man of Europe
Feb 2006 (July update)
“Why isn’t Food from Britain here?” I asked the presenter from the French TV company.
“Because you have terrible food. Have you ever wondered why the French never want to go on holiday to Britain?” he replied in his charming accent.
Walking away I thought, no, we don’t have terrible food, we have fantastic food. Scottish shortbread, whisky, salmon and oatcakes. English stilton, cheddar cheese, strawberries and lamb. Cornish clotted cream, scones and pasties. Real ales, ciders, Eccles cakes, Bakewell tart, Melton Mowbray pork pies… the list goes on. But having spent three days walking around the amazing displays of regional French produce at the Salon International D’Agriculture, it was quite clear that something was going badly wrong. Post-BSE and FMD, the French still thought we had terrible food. The British quangos were failing to do their job.
The Salon International D’Agriculture
The Salon International D’Agriculture (SIA) is the world’s largest food and farming show. Held at the seven gigantic exhibition halls of Porte De Versailles in Paris, it puts France at the centre of the food map. This year was the 43rd annual event.
More than 700,000 visitors attended the vast showground, with adults paying €12 and children under six admitted free. And they came in their droves. As we left the Paris Metro, the whole train emptied onto the platform and proceeded along the route towards the showground. Not missing a trick, the French had lined the route with posters informing us about the importance of origine.
The SIA is a political statement, too. Among the visitors this year was the French President, Jacques Chirac, who stood comfortably with one hand on a cow while chatting to a farmer on television and, on another day, his arch-rival, the urbane Minister of the Interior Nicholas Sarkozy.
The French clearly love their food. But more importantly, they also know how it is produced and where it has come from. After visiting the SIA, it was easy to see why this is the case.
We went into the main hall, where 600 cows and bulls, 650 ewes and 60 pigs were on display. Huge beasts to cute little piglets. Despite the numerous signs telling people not to touch the animals, everyone was stroking or patting them. After nine days, the farmer with me said the animals didn’t look at all bothered by this.
If the Salon International D'Agriculture demonstrated one thing, it is that France's love of great food begins with the love of the animals and the farmers who produce it. As I was sitting in the stands of the main ring to watch the best-of-breed, the compere’s voice boomed out, “Who is from Normandie?" Everyone from Normandie cheered. “Here is your cow.” Everyone from Normande cheered again. “And who is from Alsace?” Another cheer as the prized cows entered the ring to the rousing beat of the latest chart-buster.
Then there were the food halls. It took two days to go around just four of them. Amazing displays of cured meats, cheeses, olive oil, chocolate, bread and wines. Water and marine stands promoted oysters, fish and seaweed, and there was another great hall for vegetables and fruit, not to forget the goats, rabbits and donkeys in another area. Italy crowned its large food area with a huge stand dedicated to the king of Italian cheeses, Parmesan, while Switzerland boasted about its chocolate and cheese in an area next to this. India, Thailand and even Cote D’ Ivoire turned up, but we couldn’t find anyone from Britain. Where was Food from Britain? Back home, the farming industry was in the process of cancelling the Smithfield Show at Earls Court.
The contrast in marketing approaches between France and Britain explains a great deal as to why the French have such a strong and vibrant food culture, while Britain is struggling with issues such as obesity and diabetes.
So, what was the difference between France and Britain?
What did the Salon International D’Agriculture have to teach us?
Reconnection in spades
Firstly, there was the sheer scale and sense of purpose of the SIA. Everything was aimed at the consumer, to ensure that food and farming were intrinsically linked. The butchers' display was next to the cattle stalls in the main hall. The piglets were next to the three-dimensional exhibit of a pig farm alongside the game to identify where your cuts of pork come from. Further down the hall, French children were being taught how to cook from scratch by enthusiastic chefs. And there was a buzz of excitement as everyone learnt something new.
The monotonous trade association business-to-business stands were barely visible, relegated to a small area of the show. And the two food multinationals looked embarrassed by their presence. Food was being taught from farming up, and not by the food multinationals, supermarkets or Government down. Everything was the other way round.
The show's masters talked in layman's terms about the quality of the animals and the quality of the food. There was no mention of CAP reform, breeding programmes, farming issues or the old boy club. As ‘international visitors’, we were even invited to take part in a TV show. This was an event to be proud of. And the photographic exhibition of spectacular animals with their farmer owners summed this up.
The regional difference
In the regional food halls, we were bombarded by producer stands of huge variety and character. Flags were flying around the Basque region, the men wore their distinctive black berets and the produce was piled higher than anyone else's. These guys were keen to sell. They engaged in banter, insisted on us trying every single type and variety of saucisson, and remembered us when we tried to slip past their stand a second time, as if we were old friends.
Each French region was supported by its own tourist organisation. “Come on holiday to our region to see why our farming and food is so good," the stands beckoned. There was no getting away from the fact that farming, food and the countryside were intrinsically linked. And it really worked. You could almost smell the mountain air in the mountain cheeses, while the lavender from Provence and its purple fields made you feel wonderfully relaxed. How dull our plastic-wrapped, own-label supermarket shelves feel by comparison. Is this why the French still buy fresh produce from their local butcher, boulangerie and greengrocer? Is this also why the French supermarkets provide detailed information on the region and country of origin on their produce?
Taste the farming 'origine’
At lunch time, the crowds of visitors melted into the restaurants on the edges of the food halls. There were no fast-food outlets in sight. People sat down and enjoyed the produce from each region. At the restaurant from Limousin, we ate the freshest salad, delicious beef and tried an unusual apple aperitif. Place mats were illustrated with maps of the region and speciality produce, so that we knew for certain what we were eating and where it had come from. Earlier in the week, the Limousin restaurant owner had appeared on the live TV show and, clearly pleased with the publicity he had received, was handing out the write-up from the regional daily newspaper for stallholders to see. EU funding was flowing as well as the wine. Leaflets and newspapers all bore the EU flag, a sure sign that it was funded by EU marketing grants. PGI- and PDO-status regional protection schemes were proudly displayed by their owners alongside detailed explanations of how the farmers had managed to achieve such high accolades.
There were many lessons to be learnt:
1. Nature defines the region
On the whole, the French regions were visually distinctive and based on regional differences in geography, climate and farming conditions – in other words – they were developed from the countryside and farming up and not from Government-imposed definitions down. For example, Pays de la Loire is well known for its wine-producing area, as well as for the River Loire. Other instantly recognisable regions were Alsace, Midi-Pyrenees, Haute-Normandie and Basse-Normandie.
By contrast in Britain, the Government has created nine Regional Food Groups that report into the daddy quango, Food from Britain. These Regional Food Groups have been given meaningless names, such as North West Fine Foods or Tastes of the West. At the administrative level this is fine, but when these are imposed on marketing activity they aren’t as effective. They fail to leverage the distinctive climates and geography of the land. For example, people never talk about going on holiday to the North West of England. Instead they tell their friends that they are visiting places such as the Lake District, the Pennines, the Yorkshire Dales, Northumberland, Dartmoor, Exmoor, Devon, Cornwall, Norfolk, Suffolk or even the Somerset Levels. These conjure up much stronger visual images and local identities. The Government-invented regions, such as South West England, fail to make the connection in the consumer's mind with the countryside they are visiting and the food they eat. Despite this, the tourism posters for Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Gloucester and Dorset run up and down the M4 on Lloyd Maunder lorries encouraging people to visit the South West. If I were a farmer or food producer, I would want to use the most evocative place names for an area to market to the consumer, in the same way that the French do. I would leverage my farm landscape, climate and wildlife to sell my produce. As city dwellers sit in their concrete offices dreaming of escaping to the countryside, food and farming should be at the forefront of their minds.
Government-led marketing activity is a turn-off at the best of times, so it might be worth taking a leaf out of the French book on this. Farmers should leverage the distinctive qualities of their own land and climate to define their produce in the same way that our whisky brands do. Why does this meat taste distinctive? What are the special qualities of these apples?
2. Farmers are responsible for food marketing
French farmers know how to market to consumers. As a result, the French are proud of their food culture and their farmers. There was one clear reason for this: farmers were getting on and doing the job themselves. They had set up hundreds of farmer-owned marketing co-ops and plugged these into the EU funding schemes. For example, the olive oil producers had several bodies marketing the different producers, as did the wine producers. There wasn’t a quango in sight. Even more surprising was that there weren’t any supermarkets there either. Perhaps this was the main reason for the success of their marketing activity: no own-label to contend with.
3. Quangos are useless
In a prime spot of the main hall there was a large empty space. EBLEX (goodness knows what EBLEX means to a French consumer) was sitting right in the middle of this space. Scotland (QMS) and Wales (HCC) had failed to turn up. So, on the eve of the 10-year ban on British beef exports being lifted, they couldn’t be bothered to turn up to our nearest and most important market.
The Meat and Livestock Commission (MLC) wouldn’t even allow the union jack to be used on the stand. And in the absence of the HCC and QMS, EBLEX was unforgiveably the last quango in Paris.
The French man from the MLC was charming and helpful. He explained how he had originally worked at the British embassy in Paris and had experienced the response to BSE when the French had burned the British flag outside the embassy 10 years ago. He had persuaded the MLC to fund a stand at the Salon International D’Agriculture to help rebuild Anglo-French relationships. The space had cost around £10,000 to rent for the nine days and provided him with an office for the duration of the show. During this time, he had had 80 meetings with key players at a very important time for British beef. With 700,000 voters attending the show and live TV cameras, the Salon attracts all the key ministers and food players. It seemed like a small amount of money to spend for a presence at such an important European event. So, why didn’t Scotland or Wales turn up? Why were there no marketing materials aimed at the French consumer to promote British beef? Why was the EXBLEX stand only populated with farmers exporting breeding sheep to French farmers? And why weren’t the farmers who sell direct to the public day-in, day-out at farmers’ markets invited to fill the gap? Why was the only poster for British meat about an export breeding programme saying: "Reproduction, Embryos and Semen" at a show for families and children? God only knows.
At least the sheep on the stand were an improvement on last year. In 2005, it seems that EBLEX had provided literature on the status of scrapie in the British flock and the French reaction had been "Oh no, not another disease on its way over to us from Britain!"
So what could we be doing?
1. Farmers hop on a train, boat or plane and visit the show for themselves. Entry is free for international visitors (one of the advantages of EU funding) and the hundreds of food stands provide plenty to eat and drink (cured meats, wine, sausages and cheeses). The show provides the best market research opportunity for any farmer wanting to develop new products, brands or marketing activity. It is also an eye-opener of what can be done, with a little bit of imagination, to reconnect to the consumer.
2. Farmers take control of their own marketing activity, as the quangos and trade associations are clearly not interested in doing this job.
Farmers should develop their own consumer focused marketing activity (see What we do Marketing Help & Advice section of this website). They should develop their own brands and then market these to the consumer.
Smithfield could easily be resurrected from a failed trade show in central London to the best consumer-driven food and farming event in the world. The finances would need to be based on public entrance fees and producer food stands. But if the French can do it, why can’t we?
Alternatively, the Royal Show at Stoneleigh could become the leading event for promoting our great food and farming nation. Compared to SIA, it could be vastly improved. In 2006, there was only one regional food tent at the Royal Show alongside the food hall. In stark contrast, the Royal Cornwall Show had three local food tents in 2006, packed with producers all from the Cornish region. If Cornwall, one of the most deprived regions, can do it, why can't the Royal Show manage to attract as many local food producers nationally? Currently, school parties and families with children wander around aimlessly. Many fail to make it to the livestock areas and several school parties spent more time in the international tents (e.g. Nigeria) in 2006 than in our own food and farming areas. The FACE tent was next to the international food area and about 100 times smaller than the educational areas at SIA.
i) Schools education resources and family activity packs
Schools education materials should be developed for school parties visiting the showground. These would provide teachers' notes, curriculum-compatible information, activity sheets, maps and freebies (e.g. stickers). They would be produced in conjunction with the Livestock Stewards to ensure that parties of children gained the maximum benefit from the trip without disrupting the showgrounds main purpose (i.e. judging). But they would ensure that children visited the cattle, pigs and sheep livestock areas to learn about how their food is produced and where it has come from. The packs could be sponsored by farmer-owned brands (e.g. Dairy Farmers of Great Britain milk) and given out to children as they enter the showground. Packs would be aimed at specific age groups (e.g. five- to seven-year-olds and eight to 10).
ii) Professional comperes
The French comperes are highly professional and skilled. They draw in huge audiences to the livestock judging events, and position farming-centre stage. The British showground presenters are poor by comparison. They mumble, fail to attract audiences to the livestock-judging areas and might as well be reading out the cricket scores. They need to become much more engaging, communciate interesting facts and information about the animals to non-farming as well as farming audiences to prevent agriculture from becoming sidelined by horse shows and craft stalls. The Royal Show should also be employing professional commentators such as Sue Barker. The fact that the Royal Show fails to make it onto national TV each year, while SIA has nine days, 24 hour national TV coverage says it all.
iii) Regional food tents
The Royal Show should become the national event for regional food and farming.
Cornwall and Lincolnshire have successfully shown the way forward. These counties have delivered their own distinctive regional food tents at the Royal Show, linking tourism, food producers and farming to their region. Devon, Somerset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Dorset, Hereford etc. could all follow suit utilising the same council funding streams. This would make the Royal Show the largest food and farming event in the country. It would support local food producers and help reconnect consumers with how their food is produced and where it has come from.
Farmers should also take over running the food court area at the Royal Show. Haymarket failed miserably at running this in 2006. The Royal Show could be the largest farmers' market in the country as opposed to one or two under-utilised food stalls. Following SIA's lead, high-quality dining areas could also be set up by region. These would be run by leading chefs (e.g. Rick Stein's restuarant from Cornwall), to promote farming, rather than being highjacked by the supermarkets for their own purposes.
3. Salon Del Gusto, the Italian artisan food event, is being held in Turin 26th - 30th October
Perhaps some of the 761 levy-body employees could get their act together to help British farmer groups and food producers to attend the show? If DEFRA, Food from Britain, Visit Britain, Visit England, Visit Scotland, Visit Wales, the Regional Food Groups or the Regional Development Agencies can’t get their act together to promote Britain at such a great event, perhaps our taxpayers' money would be better spent on something else entirely.
Notes:
Salon International D’Agriculture
754,119 people visited SIA in 2005.
There were 1,079 exhibitors from 30 countries in an area of 147,00sq m.
The French regions were:
Alsace
Aquitaine
Auvergne
Basse-Normandie
Bourgogne
Bretagne
Centre
Champagne-Ardenne
Corse
Franche-Comte
Haute-Normandie
Ile-de-France
Languedoc-Rousillon
Limousin
Lorraine
Midi-Pyrennes
Nord-Pas-de Calais
Picardie
Poitou-Charentes
Provence-Alps-Cote d’Azur
Rhones-Alpes
Food from Britain is the Government funded export agency responsible for:
- Promoting British food and drink overseas (i.e. exports)
- Promoting regional food and drink within the UK
FFB received £6.4 million in Government grants in 2003/04.
The exhibitions and events listings on its website failed to mention Salon International D’Agriculture(www.foodfrombritain.co.uk/exhibitions)
Food from Britain has an international network of offices in Australia, Belgium, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden, and 65 consultants.
According to the website:
“Food from Britain is passionately committed to helping British food and drink companies. Our worldwide team has unrivalled market insight and trade relationships to develop and grow your business. With a full range of capabilities, FFB is the market development consultancy for British food and drink producers.”
3. The levy bodies
The levy bodies are funded by £54 million of farmers’ money.
The levy bodies are:
British Potato Council (BPC)
Horticultural Development Council (HDC)
Home Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA)
Milk Development Council (MDC)
Meat and Livestock Commission (MLC)
English Beef and Lamb Executive (EBLEX)
Hybu Cig Cymru – meat promotion in Wales (HCC)
Quality Meat Scotland (QMS)
They were named as some of the most useless quangos in The Essential Guide to British Quangos in 2005 by Dan Lewis.
A recent review by Government-appointed the independent Reviewer, Rosemary Radcliffe, gave the levy bodies a clean bill of health and failed to make their funding accountable to farmers through a voluntary contribution of funds.
QMS has set up a quality assurance scheme for Scottish beef that has achieved PGI status. This can benefit from EU funding.
Farmer-owned brands differ from assurance schemes in that they are owned by the farmer or a farmer co-op. Farmers then control the marketing for that brand and the people employed to conduct the marketing of the product. The levy bodies are controlled by Government.
Levy body employees and funding levels 2004/05
BPC 54 £5,873,000
HDC 60 £4,673,000
HGCA 61 £9,756,000
MDC 44 £7,278,000
MLC 554* £26,333,000
Total levy £53,913,000
* Average of EBLEX, BPEX, HCC and QMS. The MLC distributes its levy revenues among the EBLEX, HCC and QMS bodies.
EBLEX £11,305,000
HCC £7,563,000
QMS £3,998,000
Source: Farmers Weekly/final report on the Agricultural and Horticultural Levy Bodies.
4. Assurance schemes
The NFU set up the Red Tractor assurance scheme. This is owned by the NFU, but marketed and run by a separate body called Assured Food Standards.
The Red Tractor has benefited from Government grants, but is again not owned by farmers.
The Soil Association owns the leading organic scheme. Organic schemes can apply for EU funding.
5. EU marketing budgets
The EU provides marketing budgets to promote regional food and drink, organic produce and PGI- PDO-status foods to consumers. These foods can all be promoted under State Aid rules at events such as the SIA.
Britain has failed to use this funding stream to educate the consumer about how their food is produced or where it has come from (i.e. origine).
DEFRA has failed to encourage or support the development of marketing activity that utilises this EU funding stream to help farmers protect our food heritage.
Other EU countries apply for marketing grants.
The country allocation of 19 million Euros budget for milk, vegetables and wine promotion is detailed below.
Country Allocation in Euros (%) Share
France 11,677,308 (61.0)
Italy 3,995,433 (20.9)
The Netherlands 1,688,750 (8.9)
Spain 1,092,838 (5.7)
Belgium 207,805 (1.1)
Ireland 199,500 (1.1)
Germany 130,000 (0.7)
UK 79,735 (0.4)
Denmark 40,370 (0.2)
Total 19,111,739 (100)
Source: Farm Business (26/06/03)
Approved EU quality-assurance schemes and Protected Geographical Indication (PGIs) or Protected Designations of Origin (PDO) foods can be promoted under State Aid rules.
France and Italy have registered 135 products to protect their food heritage. France and Italy recognise the value of speciality products such as Champagne and Parma ham. In 2003, the UK had only registered 35 PDOs and PGIs, well behind even Portugal (85) and Greece (83).
When a group of producers of traditional Melton Mowbray pork pies applied for PGI status, they were challenged by the Government adviser Lord Haskins, owner of Northern Foods, a supplier of supermarket own-label products.
Number of products registered by member states:
Member State PDOs/PDIs TSGs* Total
Italy 134 1 135
France 135 - 135
Portugal 85 - 85
Greece 83 - 83
Spain 75 3 78
Germany 67 - 67
UK 35 1 35
Austria 13 - 13
Belgium 4 5 9
The Netherlands 6 - 6
Luxembourg 4 - 4
Sweden 2 2 4
Finland 2 2 4
Ireland 3 - 3
Denmark 3 - 3
Source: DEFRA 2004
*TSG - Traditional Speciality Guaranteed
1. No processed food
2. Cook from scratch
Yes, that's right. No ready-made meals, fast food or fizzy drinks.
Only fresh fruit and vegetables, eggs, meat, fish, herbs, spices, cereals, beans, pulses, rice, milk and honey.
With no scientific research and no investment backing, we have developed this amazing new diet. And what's more incredible, it works.
All over the world, people who follow our special diet are not overweight. Its mind-blowingly simple.
We just can't understand why the politicians didn't discover it first.
Perhaps the supermarkets and fast food outlets make more money from processed food and ready-made meals.
Farming Industry Marketing Strategy
British Agriculture Marketing was commissioned to conduct a comprehensive review of the UK food and farming industry in order to make recommendations on how farmers could reconnect with consumers. Published in Jan 2005, the review was commissioned by leading farming trade associations; the Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) and National Beef Association (NBA).
This report highlighted the key issues blocking the industry such as supermarket dominance. Two years on, the report still provides practical ways for farmers to overcome the barriers.
The Real Choice
How local foods can survive the supermarket onslaught. Caroline Cranbrook's CPRE report on the importance of local food webs for employment, tourism and the community.
click here and search for The Real Choice report
Big Food
Written by leading investigative journalist Andy Rowell, this report looks at what happened to the Curry Commission's main vision of reconnection.
Clone Town Britain
New Economics Foundation (NEF) report on the loss of a vibrant, diverse, food-retail landscape to chain-store clones. click here
This section provides links to newspaper articles we find useful as background reading on the 'real' food and farming marketplace (i.e. not the spin). We have tried to categorise them to some extent.
There are lots of articles in the national press that we would like to post up on this site but do not have permission to use. So, if there seems to be a bias to our newspaper sources, it is only for this reason.
The price of cheap beef: disease, deforestation, slavery and murder
read here
Food watchdog criticised for failures on illegal meat
read here
Smugglers undercut fight against bird flu: illegal imports of poultry products risk shipping virus to European ports
read here
Food waste is buried treasure charity tells firms
read here
Picky stores force farmers to dump veg
read here
Food giants to boycott illegal Amazon soya
read here
In EU, front lines in food war
read here
They bleat about the free market, then hold out their begging bowls
read here
Multi-nationals, not farmers, reap biggest rewards in Britain's share of CAP payouts
read here
'Shocking' farms raise pigs for UK
read here
The price of cheap beef: disease, deforestation, salvery and murder
read here
Food watchdog criticised for failures on illegal meat
read here
Smugglers undercut fight against bird flu: illegal imports of poultry products risk shipping virus to European ports
read here
Government kills food ads as 'too British'
read here
The Yorkshire moors is the place to learn about our new foreign secretary
read here
The town that said no to Tesco
read here
'Shocking' farms raise pigs for UK
read here
'Bullyboy tactics' as pie war errupts
read here
Legal victory for pie makers in battle to join Europe's elite
read here
Food giants to boycott illegal Amazon soya
read here
Should we worry about soya in our food?
read here
Supermarket price war threatens farmers
read here
The only game in town...
read here
...Farmers feel left out of feast
read here
Picky stores force farmers to dump veg
read here
Tesco stocks up on inside knowledge of shoppers' lives
read here
Bad news from Tesco
read here
Wal-Mart fights on Eastern front
read here
Financial Times article by John Plender, Martin Simons and Henry Tricks 17/12/05 detailed how Tesco and Wal-Mart's growth had been fuelled by extracting billions of pounds of credit from its suppliers - an unsustainable economic situation.
Boots to put GPs in the high street
read here
English Bread & Yeast Cookery
Elizabeth David
Bread Matters
Andrew Whitley
The Chorleywood Bread Process
Stanley Cauvin and Linda Young
Shopped - The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets
Joanne Blythman
Not on the Label
Felicity Lawrence
Don’t Worry It's Safe to Eat
Andy Rowell
The Year of the Pyres
Judith Cook
Death of British Agriculture
Richard North
Toxic Sludge is Good for You - Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry
John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton
Tales of the Old Country Farmers
Tom Quinn
A Shepherd's Watch
David Kennard
For all farming books and postal orders contact Landsmans Bookshop Ltd 01885 483 420