This article first appeared in Natural & Organic Business magazine, April/May 2008
Simon Wright
This years Biofach opening ceremony got off to a slow start when Keynote Speaker Gerard Depadieu’s train was delayed. The opening address from IFOAM President Gerald A. Herrmann also struck an odd note. He seemed to be saying “We were right when we [...]
From the category archives:
Organic & Natural Business
The Organic Consultancy
An Interview with Alison Austin, Head of Brand Policy and Sustainability, Sainsburys Supermarkets
Simon Wright, O&F Consulting
What do you do at Sainsburys ?
I head up a small team of experts who develop policy on issues such as animal welfare, farm assurance schemes, animal testing, genetic modification, sustainable product sourcing, ethical trading, Fairtrade, organics, health [...]
The Organic Consultancy
Simon Wright
The Organic Consultancy
Trans – Essential Mediation!
Simon Wright, O&F Consulting
Kentucky Fried Chickens decision in October to stop using trans-fats has once again turned the media spotlight onto this Franken-fat. KFC are following in the footsteps of Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsburys who have all announced plans to curtail the presence of [...]
Feeding London
This article originally appeared in Organic and Natural Business magazine for February/March 2006
The statistics quoted by Londons Mayor Ken Livingstone were impressive: London spends 1.6 billion on food every year, 31,000 people earn a living from working with food and 25% of all HGV miles in London are food-related. But as Ken says London [...]
Organic Pubs
Town Pub, Country Pub
Simon Wright O&F Consulting
Finally in 2005 the ontrade is beginning to take organics seriously even the wine list of my local Wetherspoons pub now offers a couple of organic choices. However some pioneering London pubs are going a lot further, such as The Crown in Hackney, The Duke of Cambridge [...]
The Concerned Users Guide To Palm Oil
Simon Wright
The Organic Consultancy
Twelve years ago I was part of the team at Whole Earth Foods who took the UK food manufacturing industry to task for their over-reliance on hydrogenated fat. By publicising the groundbreaking work done in the USA by Walter Willet I like to think that we [...]
WHOLE FOODS – THREE MONTHS ON
Simon Wright
O&F Consulting
Simon is an organic and Fairtrade consultant to a number of retailers including Planet Organic and Sainsbury’s
The media circus around the Whole Foods Kensington opening party was quite extraordinary – I have never before seen paparazzi attend the opening of a healthfood store. Three months on the dust [...]
The Organic Consultancy
On Being Slightly Pregnant
Simon Wright
The Organic Consultancy
This article originally appeared in the January 2004 edition of Organic Business.
The Marketing Week organic conference had a good theme, strong speakers and thoughtful, lively debates. So where was everybody? Certainly a price ticket of over 700 was off-putting but the insights offered were strong and the [...]
The Organic Consultancy
Fudging The Issue
Simon Wright
The Organic Consultancy
This article originally appeared in the November 2003 edition of Organic Business.
There is currently much interest in bringing together the fairtrade and organic sectors. Key brands such as Clipper, Green & Black’s and Caf Direct already work successfully in both sectors. Consumers don’t understand why sometimes they have [...]
The Organic Consultancy
Clear Blue Water ?
Simon Wright
The Organic Consultancy
This article originally appeared in the September 2003 edition of Organic Business.
I have been watching with both amusement and amazement as Big Food wakes up to the fact that hydrogenated fat is actually the work of the devil and has no place in foods eaten by human [...]