The Farmers Mart Aug/Sep 2013 - Issue 29 | Page 10

INDUSTRY NEWS

BRITONS WASTE MILLIONS OF TONS OF FOOD EVERY YEAR
While Britain’s farmers are urged to produce more food, many households, supermarkets and restaurants are all wasting hundreds of millions of pounds worth of food every single year, a UKwide waste management company claims. Citing both government figures and its own experience of waste collection, Business perfectly good food to landfill. According to government statistics, half of the 7.2 million tons of food and drink discarded by UK homes is food that could still have been eaten, costing an average household with children up to £700 annually. “Households are just the tip of this massive iceberg,” said BusinessWaste.co.uk ‘s Commercial Director Mark Hall, “supermarkets, businesses and the restaurant industry are just as wasteful, if not more so. “Two-thirds of food waste comes from food producers themselves, supermarkets and the restaurant trade, and most of it goes straight to landfill. It’s a bad habit that we as a nation just can’t sustain.” www.businesswaste.co.uk

Waste says that all sectors of British society are equally guilty of behaviour that literally sends huge quantities of

BUNN FERTILISER APPOINTS NEW SALES MANAGER
Craig Paterson, who started in the fertiliser business at 22, has been appointed Wholesale Sales Manager (East) for Bunn Fertiliser. Based at the company’s Howden facility in East Yorkshire, he will be managing sales throughout Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. From his first employment, Craig, 27, has risen to assistant store manager and then through sales and marketing to farm trader dealing directly with farmers. Welcoming Craig, David Harrod director of Bunn Fertiliser, said: “Craig’s responsibilities will include managing sales through his own group of merchants and agents, selling our range of fertilisers and providing commercial and customer support. “Already he has formidable experience in the fertiliser business, having worked as a farm trader with another company for the past decade. The knowledge of farmers and farming which he brings to the post, and his enthusiasm, will be invaluable.” “I am fortunate that Bunn has so many quality products to promote, in particular

the newly-introduced Koch Advanced Nitrogen® sulphur blends, which are a real winner.” www.bunnfertiliser.com

Sainsbury’s graduate scheme looks to the future
In line with the launch of the Government’s AgricultureTechnologies Strategy, Sainsbury’s has announced two new initiatives to help shape innovation in British farming and engage young people in its future. As the only supermarket to be directly involved in the strategy, Sainsbury’s has launched a first-of-its-kind agricultural graduate scheme along with a commitment to build on funding to encourage Sainsbury’s farmers and Group tasked with shaping this strategy. In September, Sainsbury’s first three agricultural graduate trainees will join the company to begin a two year programme of training, paving the way for an ongoing intake of graduates to join the farming programme each year. Sainsbury’s has also pledged a second round of funding to help farmers and growers take advantage of existing technologies and look to new innovations to help drive efficiency and reduce environmental impact in farming.

Alice Swift and an SDDG dairy farmer.

growers to adopt existing leading edge technologies and mobilise research into innovations in farming. Judith Batchelar, Director of Sainsbury’s Brand, is co-chair of the Leadership

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Aug/Sep 2013 FarmersMart

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