As the Guardian reported a few days ago, there seems to be a growing willingness of UK consumers to buy ethically. This is heartening news to us at Quinola, as ethics is part of our DNA and ecology at the heart of our organic only philosophy. In the Nielsen survey a quarter of British shoppers said they would choose a Fairtrade or green product even if it cost them more money. Whenever you a buy a product in a shop, you buy and support all the supply chain that goes into it. Sometimes it’s pretty tough to know exactly what...

Ok, this is not about a farmer. But thought you might be interested in the many uses that cow pats are put to, other than a natural fertilizer. Here you see a  stock of cow pats to use as fuel in the kitchen when cooking. They burn well and it avoids having to buy wood. They are left to dry out in sun before being used as fuel. Handy for baking potatoes in makeshifts ovens by the sides of fields, for a hearty lunch break that avoids heading back home. Potatoes and cheese go down a treat after a long...

GM, or genetically modified crops are known for being herbicide tolerant, meaning they can be sprayed with a weed-killer that kills all other growing plants. This isn’t as efficient as it sounds, as some weeds are getting just as tolerant as the GM crops and developing a resistance to herbicides. Of course, GM organisations are making promises about developing new improved crops, with more nutritional benefits, with better drought tolerance, with a greater yield and so on. But considering the fact that genetic modification was developed in the 1980s and first used in the 1990s, either these companies’ research is...

Thanks to Taipei-based company OPCOM, you can now grow your own vegetables at home and with your smartphone. This innovation is a farm cube that is a fully enclosed ecosystem allowing you to grow 100 to 200 pieces per cycle (around 6 weeks) depending on the vegetable. The process starts with loading the seedlings into the cube. The rest is then completely automated, thanks to a farming software that monitors the growth cycle of the plant, adjusting the environment accordingly with the right amount of light and water. And in case you’re not home and worried about your babies, you...