Tesco Welcomes Organic Food Back On The Shelves

UNITED KINGDOM - This week UK major retailer Tesco turns enthusiastically back to organics with a new organic brand manager that will review the range, price, quality and communication for organic food in Tesco stores in all UK.
At Organic Trade Board (OTB) meeting on September 22, Go for Growth, Tesco announced that it has employed an organic brand manager as part of the retailer's promise to get organic produce back on the shelves.
Last year actually Tesco reduced the organic line because of the economic recession and the impact it had on customer spending. "Consumers were trying to reduce their monthly outgoings and they did stop buying organic produce", said Andrea Mulqueen, head of Tesco’s organic fresh produce team.
However, Ms. Mulqueen - talking to OTB delegates last week - admitted that "in hindsight Tesco had made mistakes in removing certain organic fruit and vegetables from the shelves", Freshinfo.com reports. "So in October [2008], Tesco introduced a new buying team for fruit, salads and vegetables for organic. We also talked to the supply base and customers. Now we are nearly all the way back to how it was. We need to support the industry."
Today more than a quarter of the Tesco’s fresh produce customers buy organic, which equates to 3.6 million Clubcard holders.
Tesco's plan to relaunch organic foods will consider the range, price, quality of products: “We now have a top-10 list of organic fruit and vegetables that must be available in any one store, like blueberries, leeks and lemons, that are really important to the organic customer”, she added.
Furthermore, the approach will be specific for each particular store’s demographic and area: “It is about the right range in the right store and getting those customers back,” Ms. Mulqueen explained.
Focus will also be on communication and in-store promotional events.
from Green Planet

Growers Reap Fruits Of Labor At Farmers Markets

ATLANTA, GEORGIA — It was the first time husband-and-wife team Andrew and Christina Norman had brought the vegetables grown on their Covington, Ga., farm to the Peachtree Road Farmers Market, and it did not look promising.
On a rainy Saturday, they were the only vendors there without a tent.
Yet that did not stop a steady stream of customers eager to buy their organic beans, heirloom tomatoes and Brussels sprouts from descending on their tables, cash in hand.
"I was in the wine business, which in the course of the last two years has tanked," Andrew Norman says. "The only other skill I have is farming, and we had to do something to pay our mortgage."
The Normans had sold their produce to Atlanta-area restaurants but never directly to the public.
"It was a lot of fun," Norman says, adding he made about $500 on that rain-soaked day.
Although farmers are struggling during the economic downturn, neighborhood markets are booming. Peachtree Road is one of at least three dozen such markets in the Atlanta metropolitan area, according to localharvest.org, a website that tracks farmers markets.
Nationally, farmers markets are soaring, buoyed by a growing interest in local foods and sustainable farming, says University of Wisconsin-Waukesha anthropology professor Kathleen Bubinas, who studies the markets' economic impact.
At the Peachtree Road market, tents snaked around the parking lot in the shadow of high-rise office buildings as vendors offered organic produce, baked goods, fresh lamb and eggs, as well as handmade crafts and jewelry. Farmers chatted with favorite customers, most of whom brought children or dogs, or both.
The parking lot of the Cathedral of St. Philip Episcopal, which hosts the market, was full by 9 a.m. despite the rain. "We come here frequently," said Hank Boughner of Atlanta, who roamed with daughters Isabelle, 8, and Madeline, 5. "It's fun to talk to farmers and talk about their food. The guy over there has jalapeño pesto that's really good."
Market manager Lauren Carey says about 800 shoppers and about 40 vendors come every week. The market is the brainchild of Atlanta restaurateurs Linton and Gina Hopkins, who founded it in 2007 with help from church members eager to offer fresh produce to the community.
Among the customers was Joel Schellhammer, an Atlanta management consultant, who browsed with his wife, Allie, and their 1-year-old daughter, Catherine. Schellhammer says books such as Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma have made people "more interested in knowing where the food that they are putting in their bodies is coming from." Pollan's 2006 best seller tracks food from four meals from their source to the table.
Schellhammer says some market prices are higher than he might pay at a supermarket but paying a little more makes more sense than "flying fruit halfway around the globe."
Alex Szecsey of A&J Farms in Douglasville, Ga., began a garden in 1979, guided by an organic gardening magazine. He began selling his produce from his 1-acre farm at farmers markets a decade ago and has watched demand grow for his baby eggplants and arugula. The farm is successful enough now to be a full-time occupation for him and his son, Jonathan.
Jonathan Szecsey enthusiastically snapped off a leaf of peppery arugula for a customer to try. It's a best seller, he says. "I usually can spot my arugula customers. It's usually a mother about 35-39," he said. "They will come straight for it. They love it."
from USA Today

Sewerage System Like 'Writhing Plate Of Spaghetti'

NEW ZEALAND - Steve Mace is passionate about his work - inspired by the massive environmental contribution worms will make when used in a sewerage system that will serve the two towns of Wyndham and Edendale.
Mr Mace is the managing director of BioFiltro, which is based in Wyndham, and has become somewhat of a pioneer.
His company recently built the first vermiculture sewerage system of its kind in New Zealand.
There are about 75 worldwide.
The system was completed two months ago and all that remains is for the households to be connected.
He joked he would be putting a picnic table and chairs at the site as it would be odour-free and the system would be a wonder to behold.
Mr Mace and former Fonterra Edendale site manager Max Parkin were directors in the company and they also had an investor, he said.
Mr Mace described the system as being "no-frills" with low overheads and no odour.
"We like things clean, to look clean and people won't smell it," Mr Mace said.
The system had been designed to take up to 528,000 litres of sewage a day, he said.
The sewage would be piped into the site and would go through a self-cleaning filter system, which included a standby alternative programmed to kick in if there was a problem, solids would be scraped out and put into a wheelie bin.
The self-cleaning mechanism meant the potential for odour was eliminated, Mr Mace said.
There are two underground tanks each capable of holding 100,000 litres.
This means the system has a 12-hour storage capability.
The wastewater is then sprayed on a packed bed of plastic, screens, sawdust, rocks and bacteria.
Worms within the sawdust bed provide aeration and consume the bacteria to create humus.
One of the features of the system was the standby equipment, which featured at nearly every step of the operation including when the effluent was sprayed on to the bed, he said.
The effluent is sprayed on to the bed for 15 minutes, then there is a 10-minute rest period between bursts.
The system runs 24 hours a day.
The worms are at the top of the food chain - they consume bacteria and create pathways through the sawdust, which provides oxygenation.
The remaining clear liquid was treated by a UV unit before being discharged into the Mataura River, Mr Mace said.
The system is extremely quiet with the noise barely audible.
Stainless-steel piping is used in the new system because it lasts longer.
Because Mr Mace and Mr Parkin are from the dairy industry, which is used to getting projects up and running in a tight timeframe, the project was managed to come in within budget and within the timeframe set out and without varying the original plan.
The whole site was contained in a fraction of the land that would have been needed if a lagoon system had been installed, Mr Mace said.
It had been estimated the total cost of the project would be $1 million less than installing a traditional sewage treatment method.
The plant had its own worm farm and tiger worms were used in the operation, he said.
The worms will become a self-sustaining population.
The worms have been fed milk powder and water, but had cow manure added to their diet recently just to get them used to the change in diet they will encounter when the system is hooked up.
"After a while it [the bed] will be just like a writhing plate of spaghetti," he said.
It took 45 days for a worm to mature and there were 10 to 15 worms in one egg and each worm had a life-span of 12 to 14 months.
There was a potential that each worm could have 300 offspring, he said.
The system is also compatible with other conventional sewerage systems.
It can be set up alongside existing systems to provide efficiencies.
While the humus was rich in nutrients, there were a lot of regulations around the use of such material in New Zealand and as yet it could not be used by consumers, he said.
However, that is not the case in Chile where gardeners could buy humus in 1kg bags.
Mr Mace believed that once the New Zealand Government had established that the product was stable and free of pathogens and viruses, it would be able to be sold commercially.
from The Otago Daily Times

New Varieties For Urban Gardeners

The vegetable garden looks to be "Sweet ’n’ Neat” next year, thanks to some new varieties of tomatoes by that very name.
More urban dwellers are joining the trend of growing their own produce, and tomatoes are the No. 1 choice of those growing edibles.
Gardeners can choose from several new varieties, such as Sweet ’n’ Neat Scarlet, Sweet ’n’ Neat Cherry, Sweet ’n’ Neat Yellow and an impressive Little Sun Yellow. While determinate varieties fit a smaller garden situation, these new patio varieties open the door even wider, enticing everyone to grow some, even if it is in a container.
In addition to these tomatoes, there are also great selections suitable for growing in baskets, such as Tumbling Tom Red and Tumbling Tom Yellow. The Tumbling Junior Yellow will be introduced next year and, although small, you can expect a bounty of delicious tomatoes.
In Mississippi State University trials, Dr. Bill Evans harvested 4.5 pounds of Tumbling Tom Yellow tomatoes in one picking. At this year’s California trials, I counted right at 40 cherry-size tomatoes ready for harvest on a Sweet ’n’ Neat Scarlet in a 6-inch container.
Tomatoes aren’t the only produce going compact. You’ll have your choice of sweet or hot peppers, zucchini squash, acorn squash, eggplant, okra, pumpkins, basil, strawberries and more.
Whether it is the global economy or food safety scares that have fueled this trend, it cannot be argued that there are some great family benefits to these small urban gardens. Children are growing up in a fast-food world where poor nutrition and sparse outdoor time are common. Children involved in growing vegetables may become future gardeners.
The urban vegetable garden certainly doesn’t have the same look of our grandparents’ gardens, especially since urban gardens are smaller. It is the proverbial "piece of cake” to get the soil rich and fertile. The products needed to accomplish this are available at most garden centers by the bag or even by the scoop if you have a pickup.
Urban gardens normally are constructed on raised beds and enclosed or separated from lawn areas with wood or rocks. This will give you the best in drainage and aeration, and will help keep out encroaching grass. Simply use the string trimmer around the edges.
This style of garden is easy to tend from all sides without compacting soil by constantly making trips to hoe or weed. Harvesting is as simple as reaching in and picking your produce.
Fall vegetable gardens are great because the produce ripens at a cool time of the year, delivering the best flavor. If you miss planting for fall, make sure you jump on the bandwagon come spring.
from News OK