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ABOUT FARMAROUND |
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ABOUT ORGANICS |
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ABOUT FARMAROUND |
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When do you deliver? |
| farmaround is a weekly delivery service covering the Greater London area (for deliveries in the North of England please click here). Once you have placed an order we will deliver to you automatically every week. However, you are under no obligation to continue receiving farmaround produce and you can call us at any time to suspend or cancel your order. We deliver to different postcodes on different days of the week. Click here to find out when we deliver to your area and who your driver is. The day's deliveries start at around 9am and can continue until 8.30pm depending on the size of the round and traffic conditions. At present we cannot give you a precise delivery time. But once your driver has allocated your position in his or her round, it will be at a similar time each week. We deliver throughout the year, including all the Bank Holidays except for Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day. | |
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What if I live outside your delivery area? |
| Please use the contact form to give us your details and we will contact you when we move into your area. | |
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Can I change my order whenever I want to? |
| Yes. Farmaround is a flexible service. If you want to increase the size or the frequency of your deliveries, either on a temporary or a regular basis, we'll promptly amend your order. If you want to reduce your order we'll be happy to do that too, as long as it remains above our minimum requirement of £11.50 per delivery. You can use the amend order form or contact us direct. Please give us at least 2 working days' notice. | |
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Can I stop and start the service whenever I want? |
| Yes. If you are away on holiday or business, or simply find that you have enough produce left over from your last delivery, give us a minimum of 2 working days notice and we'll suspend deliveries for any length of time that's convenient for you. You can do this using the suspend order form or contact us direct. (If you do the latter, please remember to state the date that you want your last order to arrive and the date that you want to resume your deliveries.) | |
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What if I want extra amounts of certain fruits or vegetables? |
| We sell some items separately in one kilo bags that you may add onto your order. They are: potatoes, carrots, onions, apples, pears, bananas and oranges. You will find them in the shop. | |
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How do I pay? |
| We request that you pay by credit/debit card for your first order. Thereafter you can continue to pay by this method. We will hold your card details securely and automatically process your payment after each delivery. Alternatively you can pay by Standing Order. To print the Standing Order Form click here, then use your browser's print options to print out the form. The form should be completed by hand and then sent to your bank. If there is another way that you would like to pay then please call our Customer Services Team who will be glad to discuss your preferred option. | |
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Can I visit one of the organic farms that supply farmaround? |
| You are very welcome to visit the farms that supply us. Please call us and we will arrange it with the owners. | |
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ABOUT ORGANICS |
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Is organic food better for me? | ||||||||||||
| Just as the plant cannot derive full nourishment from an ill-nourished
soil, so the ill-nourished plant conveys inadequate nourishment and defective
resistance to disease to the animal that ingests it, and consequently to
the human being that subsists on both. So said Viscount Bledisloe, Parliamentary
Secretary to MAFF in 1940. As yet, there is no conclusive proof that organic
food is better for you. However, common sense tells us that because it is
grown using natural fertilizers like manure and seaweed, rather than with
the many chemicals that conventional farming depends on, it is probably
safer to eat. |
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Are any chemicals used in organic farming? |
| No synthetic chemicals are used in organic agriculture. However certain naturally occurring substances are permitted and sometimes used. Copper and sulphur can be used to treat mildew. Calcium is used to strengthen the skin of apples to make them less fragile during transportation. The vegetable insecticide Rotenone, which is an extract of a South American plant and is biodegradable with no residue, is also employed. Organic farmers do not rely on these substances and seek to avoid them. A skilled grower will select tomatoes that are not over susceptible to do diseases like verticillium which are naturally suited to his or her climate and soil. If a grower has a crop failure due to disease, natural pesticides may be used but only as a last resort and under strict conditions. | |
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How do I know that farmaround produce really is organic? |
| Farmaround only sells and has only ever sold fully certified organic produce. Our farmers work to rigorous specifications set down by UKROFS (United Kingdom Register of Organic Food Standards). Their standards are maintained by monitoring bodies such as the Soil Association and OFGA (the Organic Farmers and Growers Association). We use OFGA, who audit us every year to ensure that all our suppliers' produce is completely organic. To find out more about OFGA, click here. [weblink] Abroad, standards are maintained by bodies such as Agricultore Biologique in France, AIAB in Italy, CRAE in Spain, and SKAL in Holland. Our suppliers began farming organically long before the current surge in demand and at a time when it was barely viable to do so. They therefore have years of experience; and you can be sure they are farming organically for ethical reasons as well as in order to make a living. | |
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What quality of produce can I expect from farmaround? |
| We endeavour to give you the very best quality that we possibly can throughout
the year. But please remember that because organic fruit and vegetables
are not treated with potentially dangerous chemicals, they may not always
look as perfect as intensively farmed produce and they have a shorter shelf
life. Also, because organic food is harvested in tune with nature's seasons,
it is not always possible to obtain certain varieties all year round. We ask you to understand that in nature all that glistens is not necessarily gold. A miserable looking runt of a vegetable may have integrity and taste far superior to a 'perfect looking' cousin. Because our fruit and vegetables ripen naturally, we have a very short time to get them to you in their peak condition. Farmaround prefers to occasionally fail than to give you fruit picked too early that will never ripen. In addition, some of our smaller farmers can not afford the refrigeration facilities that larger farms have. As a result, delicate produce like spinach won't be chilled until it gets to us. In order to fulfil our policy of supporting small growers who are committed to the environment, we may sometimes take chances, knowing that their produce is fine if used quickly. There are also times of the year when it is difficult to obtain some types of produce in their prime. For example, English potatoes, carrots and onions are harvested in the autumn and then stored through the winter. It is the natural tendency for such crops to start sprouting in the spring. In conventional agriculture they are sprayed with chemicals like Tecnazene which is a sprout inhibitor. Because these chemicals are not used on organic vegetables we occasionally have difficulties in March while we wait for the new season Spanish, Italian or Sicilian varieties to become available. Finally, fruit and vegetables do occasionally deteriorate during packing at the farmaround depot or in transit to your door. Our packers and drivers are conscientious people who are extremely careful with the delicate produce they handle. But they are only human and every now and again they may unintentionally let bruised or damaged items slip through. We may not become aware of a problem until customers bring it to our attention, so please do not hesitate to tell us and we will do our utmost to rectify it. |
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Why doesn't organic produce last as long as conventional? |
| Organic food deteriorates more quickly than conventional food because that is what nature intended. Conventional produce is routinely treated with chemical preservatives after harvest to stop spoilage and prolong its shelf life. These chemicals are different to those used in production. The most common one that blights British fruit is Thiabendazole, which has been banned in the USA because of concern about its safety. Others such as Diphenyl Orthophenylphenol are suspected human carcinogens and mutagens. The price consumers pay to artificially prolong the shelf life of their fruit and vegetables may, therefore, be a high one. | |
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Why do you have to import some of your produce? |
| We are committed to supporting British organic farmers as much as we possibly can. However, availability is limited; so in order to give farmaround customers the variety they expect, it is necessary to import some produce. By April 2000 there were over 400,000 hectares of land under organic management in the UK, a quarter of this area being fully organic and the rest in conversion. Thus less than 0.6% of total agricultural land area being fully organic with 1.7% in conversion. Furthermore, with the exception of apples and pears, most British fruit has an extremely short season; and, of course, citrus fruit and items like grapes must come from the Continent because they are rarely grown successfully in the UK. We find that most of our customers support our policy. They like the fact that, while they primarily support British growers, buying from farmaround means that they are also supporting the world wide development of organic agriculture. | |
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Why is organic food more expensive? |
| Organic food production is more labour intensive and it is produced on a smaller scale. Weeding is done by hand rather than by spraying herbicides. Organic fields are usually smaller than conventional ones because farmers need to plant hedgerows and borders in their fields to encourage natural predators. Also, because organic crops are more vulnerable to natural disease, yields tend to be smaller. An organic chicken flock is typically between 100 - 500 compared to between 3000 and 15000 in a conventional free range system; non free range are larger still. Although we pay more over the counter for organic food, a recent French study showed that if the environmental cost of intensive farming is accounted for, then organic actually costs 5% less. In the UK, Professor Jules Petty has put the damage done at £2.3 billion, a total of £208 per hectare. This includes: £120 million to take pesticides down to the level required under the EU drinking water directive; £60 million a year for removing nitrate and phosphate pollution; £23 million a year for combating cryptospiridium; £124 million a year for replacing lost biodiversity, hedgerows and stone walls. It is also worth noting that the BSE crisis cost the UK taxpayer £4 billion, while food poisoning costs us £1 billion every year. | |
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