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Your support makes all the difference.Where can you buy food that tastes good and also gives you peace of mind? Here are some of the organisations, stores and mail-order outlets which concentrate on good quality, humanely reared and organic foods.
Where can you buy food that tastes good and also gives you peace of mind? Here are some of the organisations, stores and mail-order outlets which concentrate on good quality, humanely reared and organic foods.
Farms
Heal Farm
Anne Petch's farm in Devon was one of the first to sell humanely reared meat. As well as pre-packed cuts of organic meat and farm birds, the business now sells cooked foods such as hand-made pies and hams (smoked to their own award-winning 50-year-old recipe), meat and poultry, as well as Christmas hampers. Mail-order tel: 01769 574 341; website: www.healfarm.co.uk
Swaddles Green Farm
Organic food company set up 13 years ago by former science teachers Bill Reynolds and wife Charlotte, who had become concerned about the safety of food for their growing family. All meat from British breeds, with the slow unforced growth that produces the most succulent and tasty meats. Tel: 01460 234 387; website: www.swaddles.co.uk
Kelly's of Essex
Paul Kelly pioneered the most flavoursome of all Christmas birds, bronze turkeys. He provides half a million chicks a year, sells to selected farmers and keeps 30,000 to grow for Christmas. Very humane and no medicaments or growth promoters, dry-plucked and hung for flavour.Tel: 01245 223 581; website: www.kelly-turkeys.com
Goodman's Geese
Judy Goodman's geese are renowned well beyond Worcestershire where she farms them - she's the largest producer of free-range geese in the country. Famous not only for their flavour but for a high meat to bone ratio. Tel: 01299 896 272; website: www.goodmansgeese.co.uk
General organic mail-order
Planet Organic
London's first organic supermarket, started in 1995. Over 9,000 items on the shelves, including meat, fish and veg. Delivery and mail-order service, tel: 020 7221 1345.
Organic Food Company
Offers over 1,500 organic items in its catalogue and promises an organic one-stop shop service. Nationwide delivery, on day of customer's choice, using temperature-controlled packaging. Fresh fruit and veg, meat and fish, dairy and grocery, wines, beers. Tel: 020 7622 5006; website: www.simplyorganic.net
Organic supermarkets
Waitrose introduced organic foods as long ago as 1983 "in response to the catalogue of food scares". Sells 1,000 organic lines in their 135 stores.
Named Organic Supermarket of the Year by Soil Association, Sainsbury's also stocks 1,000 organic lines.
Other supermarkets are hurrying to catch up: Tesco with 745 lines, Safeway, 500, Asda, 400, Somerfield, 350, and M&S, with its lower range of foodstuffs, 150 items.
Further information
The Soil Association
Organic food and animal welfare are the main thrusts of its work. Its accreditation for organic foods is the benchmark most widely accepted. Publishes an invaluable organic directory, an essential guide to anyone wishing to follow an organic lifestyle. Tel: 0117 929 0661; website: www.soilassociation.org
Freedom Food
Freedom Food, backed by the RSPCA, is a farm animal welfare labelling scheme assuring consumers that animals have been bred free from distress or discomfort. Since it was launched in 1994, the scheme has grown to embrace some 20 million animals which benefit from stringent welfare standards. Some 200 different products qualify for the blue logo. Sold in over 6,000 outlets, including most of the multiples. Tel: 01403 223 154
Fairtrade & Fairworld
Oxfam and some other Christian Aid groups are behind Fairworld and Fair Trade schemes designed to give food producers in developing countries a better deal. By concentrating on foods of good quality, they have successfully won wholehearted support from chefs and food writers. Sainsbury's and the Co-op and various other stores stock some products, and 250 of Oxfam's 600 shops have a wide range.
The Vegetarian Society
The oldest vegetarian organisation in the world, dedicated to "building a future that is kinder to animals, your health and environment". Operates a "V" symbol trademark, endorsing approved products. Tel: 0161 925 2000; website: www.vegsoc.org
The Countryside Agency
Pressure group dedicated to conserving the countryside, sponsors of Henrietta Foodlovers' Fairs which promote local suppliers which produce feel-good foodstuffs. Can advise on local Farmers' Markets.
Tel: 01242 533 238; website: www.countryside.gov.uk; For further information on Foodlovers' Fairs contact June Salmon on 0118 971 4162.
Compiled with the help of Friends of the Earth.
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