It's tough going for organics, says co-op

A Dales co-op has admitted what big names in organics have been denying – times have been hard.

Growing With Grace, an equal pay, minimum-wage "social enterprise", run on Quaker principles, at Clapham, near Settle, has halved its payroll over the past two years and is looking for investors to keep it going.

One of its founders, Neil Marshall, said this week: "The big damage came with the phrase Credit Crunch. From that time, we lost customers for our veg box rounds, leaving us with the same mileage to cover for fewer customers.

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"We sell potatoes at 58p a kilo and I don't think any supermarket competes with that, but I suppose people were looking to shed commitments."

The Food Standards Agency dealt another big blow a year ago, with a report which said there was no nutritional advantage in organic crops.

The findings were hotly disputed, but widely reported. And there is no doubt they triggered a move back to mainstream produce, according to Mr Marshall.

He said: "As far as most organic buyers are concerned, the point is to be sure their food is free of chemicals. Nutritional value is secondary. But the FSA report had an impact on the whole organic business."

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He and his wife, Debby, and a friend, Nigel Lockett, started Growing With Grace 10 years ago, in two and a half acres of redundant glasshouses, rented from a local landowner.

Although their "company rulebook" is a Quaker publication, Good Business Ethics At Work, the business is independent of their church and faith is not a condition of employment. With the help of some grants from sources like Yorkshire Forward and the Dales Millennium Trust, it grew to include 18 participants – including part-timers – growing and delivering vegetables, running courses in basket-making and making compost from council gardening waste and biodiesel from recycled cooking oils. Now there are only seven.

Two weeks ago, they held a meeting attended by sympathisers from the neighbouring communities of Bentham and Settle and agreed to explore new possibilities. One would be to offer shares in their produce, in a scheme qualifying for the description Community Supported Agriculture. This could open the way to new strands of public funding. Meanwhile, it would mean people could either buy a share of the harvest – as a Leeds syndicate does with pigs from a local farm – or earn it through labour.

The second possibility is to form an Industrial & Provident Society – a business structure in which local people could invest, in the hope of profits in the long run.

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The Bentham-Clapham-Settle partners are considering ways in which they could expand. They have been contacted by sympathisers from as far away as Lancaster and are open to suggestions and support from anywhere. Also they are still selling organic veg – through direct delivery, a site shop and a market stall in Settle on Tuesdays.

See www.growingwithgrace.co.uk, call 015242 51723 or email info@ growingwithgrace.co.uk/

CW 23/10/10

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