2013-05-25T14:02:15-04:00 Jude Thorne http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=jude-thorne Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Jude Thorne Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.2686319 2013-02-14T19:00:00-05:00 2013-04-16T05:12:01-04:00

Jude Thorne http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jude-thorne/
Make no mistake, the horsemeat issue was a hot topic. My favourite take on it was one farmer who has sign-written a huge banner in his field promoting his beef burgers "No horsing around!!"

But aside of the banter, there is a serious message.

These farmers have spent their lifetimes providing quality food with full provenance. Some of them produce their own ready meals on the premises, using the same high quality produce that they sell in their shops - proper ready meals, not "Neddy meals" as one of them memorably tweeted last week.

The real underlying issue is that food producers and retailers have completely lost sight of the issue of proper food traceability and ethics. Why are we buying meat products on such a global scale? Why are there so many middle men involved in the supply chain? If producers and retailers aren't even able to make proper claims about the species contained in their products, how can they possibly claim they care about traceability?

This is all being built up as a criminal issue and, of course, there is an element of this, but these criminal gangs have only been able to exploit the situation because of the lack of care in traceability exercised by the people providing our food.

We are also waiting to hear about the potential health issues. I have horses which all have passports, required by law in the UK, which I have signed to attest that the horse will never be killed for meat. This means that my vet can treat them with any drug they may need to keep them healthy, confident that these powerful drugs will never enter the food chain to endanger human health. Do they have the same laws elsewhere in Europe? I don't know the answer to this question.

These farm producers have faced difficult competition from the supermarkets and have been accused of being expensive, not true in my personal experience. But now we know the real price of cheap processed foods!

So where can consumers buy with confidence without needing a DNA testing kit? With the real guardians of food traceability and provenance, local farm retailers and local butchers, of course. It seems that many consumers have worked this out and sales at farm shops and real butchers are rising fast. Long may it continue.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2075325 2012-11-05T06:14:37-05:00 2013-01-05T05:12:01-05:00

Jude Thorne http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jude-thorne/ addditional area of sea ice more than three times the size of the UK has melted.

As always, this gives rise to the debate "is it a manmade problem?"

Some scientists disagree, but does it really matter? Surely no one can disagree that it makes sense to cut down carbon emissions whereever we can and I certainly don't want to look back and think I missed my chance to help to do something about it. I'm not alone - 84% of our customers really want to reduce their carbon footprint too according to research conducted by Ice last year.

But do they know how to go about it and can they afford it?

When money is tight, people struggle to afford altruistic gestures. If reducing their carbon footprint doesn't make financial sense, they are far less likely to do it. Research commissioned by Ice showed that even people who claimed to be concerned about the environment understandably put their families before the planet. They might switch the lights off, but this was because it saved money; they might buy locally produced food, but this was because they thought it was fresher and better for them; they might use public transport, but it's cheaper than taking the car.

So how can we make it easier and cheaper to lead a lower carbon lifestyle?

Firstly, customers need to know what choices to make. Some businesses are doing great things in their sector, whilst others lag way behind and some don't even have a policy. But can a consumer tell the difference? At Ice, we only work with businesses that are doing their best for the environment and we make our choices based on a number of important criteria. These criteria go way beyond a business' approach to running its own operation; we consider how much care a business takes in ensuring best practice in its supply chain. This can include use of water, chemicals, raw materials and energy, as well as the business' approach to waste, recycling and protecting biodiversity. None of these businesses are perfect, but they are taking clear, measurable steps and achieving their targets.

Secondly, we know customers are willing to support these better businesses, but not if it costs them more. In fact, we think it is important that it costs them less. In Ice, customers receive a financial reward for making these better choices and we feel, over time, this will mean that the better companies will profit and the poorer companies will need to raise their game in order to compete. Companies such as John Lewis make a considerable effort to reduce carbon emissions and also design their stores to be as energy efficient as possible. In fact, their commitment to sustainability is continued down the supply chain as they try to showcase products and designers that use sustainable materials whilst continuing to improve the sustainability of their own brand products. John Lewis however, with its promise of being 'never knowingly oversold' is also price competitive. It sets a fantastic example to other large companies as well as consumers.

It's all about helping consumers to use their mass purchase power to build a more sustainable economy. If we get it right, we don't need to feel constrained, our budgets will stretch further and we'll feel good about making a difference. And who knows, maybe we'll leave a better planet for our children]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1777996 2012-08-15T06:05:32-04:00 2012-10-15T05:12:02-04:00

Jude Thorne http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jude-thorne/
This enthusiasm was wonderful to be part of, but the experts now doubt how long this national feeling of British pride will last. Apparently, once the euphoria has worn off, the reality of austerity Britain will hit home and we may feel even worse than before because we are now missing the excitement of the last few weeks.

This seems like a defeatist attitude to me; does it really have to be like this?

The real question, I suppose, in practical terms, is what are we willing to do to make sure we sustain this patriotic feeling and support the long term future of our country? Well, the simple answer to me is that we need to be collectively backing British!

London 2012 was all about inspiring a generation and leaving a sporting legacy for the country.

Lottery funding can, and will create opportunities and it's fantastic to see so many people have been inspired to learn a new sport. But it is still expensive! If your children want to take up a sport, they will need the right kit, possibly club membership and coaching, to say nothing of the cost of transport to get them there and back. So when money is tight, it's difficult to afford to keep going with it.

The Ice business was founded on the principle of making it cheaper for people to back sustainable British business. Most of our current local partners are farm food retailers, but we would love to let people spend their points on local sports activities to help keep the Olympic flame alive. And that's not all, there are lots of other local businesses and projects that we don't yet know and would love to hear about.

So I ask you this: which British businesses are you proud to back and where would you like to see support to help sustain an economy we can all be proud of?]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1558885 2012-06-08T19:00:00-04:00 2012-08-08T05:12:10-04:00

Jude Thorne http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jude-thorne/
I only have to do this for a few weeks a year and, with the team I have at the farm, I only have to do the minimum. But they do this work day in, day out, growing food to sell in their farm shops and I can tell you it's a tough way to earn a living.

The Jubilee celebrations last weekend really got me feeling patriotic and, despite the weather, it was lovely to see so many people out enjoying delicious food grown across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, it felt like a real celebration of all the good things the United Kingdom has to offer and I'm sure it was a real boost for our local food heroes.

And I think they really deserve our support. We have many award-winning farm shops in the Ice programme and I admire them as business people. These are real entrepreneurs and I'd love to see them on The Apprentice, bringing a good old dose of country common sense to proceedings. They know what it's like to be at the sharp end of business, many of them have taken huge risks, putting their homes and farms on the line to invest in their farm shops. And they had to learn how to be successful from scratch. These guys are not just farmers - they have had to learn how to be retailers, selling their own produce, as well as sourcing and stocking produce from other well-loved local suppliers. And on top of it all they have had to learn how to grow and thrive against tough competition from the supermarkets.

So you'd think they would guard the secrets of their success, but not a bit of it. They are amazingly generous with help and advice for new farm shop owners, believing that if their colleagues are successful it will make them all stronger as a whole. At the Farm & More conference earlier this year, an annual gathering, I was astounded at just how much learning farm shop owners were willing to share with each other. To me, this shows that they are serious about working together to build a strong independent food sector that will be here for the long term.

So what's in it for us when we shop locally?

1. The food is excellent quality and good value. The best farm shops are beautifully laid out and full of quality, fresh produce and tempting goodies to treat yourself and your family. When you compare the prices for local produce, they are often cheaper than the supermarkets.

2. You get to see where your quality fresh produce was grown, where else can you see your fruit and vegetables growing in the field or pat the cow that gave you your ice cream?

3. It's a fun day out. Many farm shops have expanded their businesses to enhance the shopping experience: some have excellent cafes selling home produced food; others have well stocked garden centres; Pick Your Own is always popular in the summer, with kids always eating more than they pick and many farms are branching out into even more experiences for the children, with maize mazes and other fun events.

4. You get the satisfaction of paying your money directly to the hard working people who produced your food.

So there really is no excuse not to get out there and celebrate our local food heroes!]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1448240 2012-04-24T07:11:56-04:00 2012-06-24T05:12:01-04:00

Jude Thorne http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jude-thorne/
We recently conducted an experiment to test the findings of our research, which highlighted that a lot of people are too cynical to accept offers and freebies, even when the offer is handed to them on a plate. We placed an approachable young lady in busy bus stations wearing a sandwich board saying "Ask me to pay your bus fare and I will". We wanted to see whether commuters would take her up on the offer, but only about six people in each bus station did so, even when they could see that other passengers had received a free bus ticket with no catches.

When the results of this experiment and our research were published, it really seemed to strike a chord with Huffington Post readers. Some of you thought we were stupid (which we took on the chin!), but no one actually believed that we would give something away without there being some sort of catch involved. To quote one comment, "If a total stranger offered me something for gratis and said "no strings attached", I'm afraid I wouldn't believe."

OK, so the sandwich boards in bus queues experiment was a bit of fun, but there was a serious message behind it. As the founder of a loyalty programme and having worked in this industry for several years, I have been amazed at the number of people who don't claim back points that they are entitled to, thereby missing out on deals and discounts.

It's easy to see where this scepticism has come from, in this age where we are constantly bombarded online, by post and over the phone, with supposedly great offers and deals. But is it right to be cynical about all offers of goodwill or do you risk missing out on real value? Given that there are billions of loyalty points that go unused every year and many more genuinely good offers not taken up, it's clear that opportunities are being missed. You can make these offers work for you, but you have to play the game to make sure you get the best value. So, my tips for the cynical shopper:

1. Don't let your points expire. A lot of loyalty points have an expiry date, so you need to use them or lose them. Some supermarket vouchers have an expiry date on the back and many of us save them for a rainy day only to find that the date has passed when we get them out to use them.



2. Watch out for joining fees or annual fees. These can mean that you aren't any better off from using the programme. For example, a number of cashback schemes will take for themselves the first sum of cashback you earn each year, so you need to wary of this practice. It might be fine if you think you will spend a lot through the scheme to recover this fee, but if you are not sure, it's probably best to shop elsewhere.



3. Beware of product mark-ups on redemption. Some programmes will quote a cash value discount when you spend your points against tickets or products online or over the phone, which can seem appealing at first glance. But it is worth shopping around to make sure that the loyalty programme is not marking up the cost of the product you are buying in order to cover the cost of redeeming your points. They are not compelled to be price competitive and it is common to see the entire cost of your points invalidated because you could have bought the product or ticket more cheaply by going direct.



4. Don't pay unnecessary fees or charges. Sometimes you will be required to pay high booking or admin fees for the privilege of using your points to pay in full or part cash. If booking online, check the terms and conditions, if booking over the telephone, ask the agent to declare any additional fees associated with using your points to pay.

If you follow these basic rules you should be able to get the best value from these programmes and make being cynical work for you.]]>