Offices B140 - B143
New Covent Garden Market
Nine Elms Lane
London
SW8 5PA
Tel : 020 7627 8066
Fax : 020 7627 4698
info@farmaround.co.uk

JANUARY NEWSLETTER 2002

Dear Customer,

I hope you had a good Christmas and New Year. Mine was spent in my brother's new house in 'England's last great wilderness', the North Pennines. It is the highest house in England apparently - and probably the bleakest and most desolate.

My brother has been living and working in London for the last 25 years but he has always yearned to escape back to the North from where we originate. He had gone up there a week earlier to oversee finishing touches to the work he was having done and to prepare for hosting Christmas for the first time. As soon as he got there the blizzards started and within hours he became cut off.

He fell in love with the breathtaking views and bought the house back in July. I wonder whether he, who has always to be in control, realised how his time spent there would be utterly controlled by the elements. His jag became a mere sophisticated snowboard on those layers of snow and ice. It created an absurd picture - him having to hitch a ride with the coalman into Alston to restock his food supplies after 5 days of isolation. He was devastated at forgetting the newspapers on the Coop counter before a four-wheel drive taxi ride home. I think he was relying on those papers to regain a grip on his world.

Hope that we would reach him for Christmas was starting to fade. Then, the next day on Christmas Eve there was a thaw and our passage way magically opened up. Each with our part of the Christmas jigsaw, we managed it across 'the top'. I had the fruit and vegetables of course, and an organic turkey that I had acquired for them. My sister had the baking and my elderly father was bringing the stuffing he had made. My brother even managed a trip into Darlington to buy his presents that day. It seemed like a miracle.

Once there, it froze again immediately. The passage way out disappeared and we became sealed into the house for the next ten days. When opening the door each morning you never knew onto what landscape you would look or indeed what would enter the house. Occasionally mere clouds but usually horizontal, howling ice and snow winds. I managed short walks with Daisy, my golden retriever. She loved it as I walked as fast as she could run, across the moors by the frozen waterfalls with buzzards hovering overhead and hares bounding for their lives. It was as staggeringly beautiful as it was cold.

My first priority of the New Year was to visit the farmers who have offered to take part in the great heritage seed experiment. I set off again this time to the Welsh borders, in the freezing fog. I say 'experiment', because as these seeds are not being grown commercially, there is little information about them. We do not know what type of soil and conditions they are suited to, what and when they will yield or what pests and diseases may afflict them.

Graham and Denise Price are tenants of Herefordshire County Council. Here in Westbrook, Haye-On-Wye they are farming 56 acres. Their recent farming history is typical of what is happening on small farms throughout the country. Graham has farmed all his life as have his family back through the generations. His main activity is dairy and he has a quota of 30 milking cows producing 200 litres per day in the winter and up to 350 litres in the summer. Several years ago, struggling to survive on the ever decreasing milk price, he started to notice organic stands at his local agricultural shows, encouraging farmers to convert.

Enticed by the 29p per litre that the Organic Milk Cooperative said they would receive if he converted, he decided to embark on the three year conversion. The reality, now fully organic, is quite different. The cooperative only pays the full organic price for 46% of his milk. The rest they buy as conventional for which he receives 17p. Averaging 23p per litre he is losing money. This is whilst 35% of the organic milk and dairy products in this country are imported. Conventional cattle cake costs £130 per ton and the organic equivalent with which he has to feed to all his cattle ( not just 46% of them ) costs £350 per ton.

They have been through hell. In 1999, not having all the necessary traceability paperwork required in relation to BSE they had to slaughter their herd. They bought and raised new calves to replace them. Then in late 2001, these now healthy adults carrying calves of their own had to be slaughtered because they did not have the money to feed them. This was due to the foot and mouth restrictions on the movement of animals. They had no farm income for 8 months. They called the Rural Stress Helpline who gave them a few handouts from the Addington Fund, but Denise was and still is doing cleaning jobs from 6am each morning, seven days a week. They have had no help whatsoever from the government.

It was after this in December of last year, that Denise contacted me. Having gone through the pains of organic conversion to become fully organic in March 2001 they could not find anyone to buy their first organic crop, fifteen tons of Nicola potatoes. We simply had to help and, along with the Desire potatoes from Edwards in Lincolnshire, these are the ones going in the bags at the moment.

Like most small farmers in this country, the Prices do not know which way to turn.

I am sure that you are all too aware of what is happening in farming today and that their story is no surprise. But at least this time you know that you are directly helping them. Farmaround is paying them a good price for their potatoes and I am currently establishing a growing programme with them to supply farmaround for this year. They are to grow one each of the varieties of broad bean, runner bean and french bean from our heritage seed collection along with some of the tomatoes. And then some leeks, cauliflowers, spring greens, purple sprouting broccoli and different varieties of potatoes.

Several weeks ago I spoke to a farmer with several hundred acres in Lancashire. A supermarket packer had agreed a crop programme with him that used virtually all of his land. Just prior to harvest he made contact with the packhouse. They denied knowledge of any agreement and would only take his leeks for which they would pay £1 per kilo. He sent articulated lorry loads to them. Notoriously slow payers, after his persistence, they eventually sent a cheque. They paid him at 20p per kilo, barely even covering the transportation. It is two years ago and they have paid him £3000 of the £30000 that they owe him. He was nearly ruined by it. He will see no more money from them and noone is prepared to take up his case. I am constantly hearing hideous stories of this kind.

I next intended to visit a farm in Pembrokeshire, but driving in the persistent fog was becoming unbearable so I turned around and headed for Landford in the New Forest to see Mike and Judy Smales. They farm 250 acres and have dairy cows. They too were having problems with the unviable milk prices and cautiously decided to diversify and convert 50 acres to grow organic vegetables. Along with our lovely heritage beans they will be growing rhubarb, runner beans, spring onions and sweetcorn for us this year.

Our £1000 donation to Compassion in World Farming in lieu of Christmas cards was much appreciated as always. Just before Christmas they had wonderful news that the European parliament had voted for a ban on live animal journeys of over 8 hours or 500 km. CIWF is urging that the European Commission and the EU Agriculture Council follow the Parliament's wishes. This will mean an end to those tortuous 24 hour journeys to places like Southern Italy and Northern Africa during which many animals are either crushed to death or die from dehydration and acute stress and exhaustion.

We were disappointed not to have launched the organic groceries before Christmas. We were being a little overambitious. There has been a tremendous amount of work involved in putting together the selection for the catalogue as well as having to have new software written for our computers and a more sophisticated website developed. We hope, however, that by the beginning of February all will be ready.

Thank you very much for being back to start the New Year with us. We at farmaround hope it is a good year for you and look forward to providing you with the best service and the best organic produce that we can from small organic farmers who, now more than ever, need our support.

Kindest Regards


Isobel Davies