Riverford unveils ‘Farmers Against Farmwashing’ campaign

Organic vegetable supplier Riverford has launched a bold new campaign against so-called “farmwashing” – the process whereby supermarkets develop fake farm brands and make excessive use of the Union Flag to attract consumers.

The firm has issued an open letter to the chief executives of the “Big Six” retailers, with more than 100 signatures, calling for an end to such deceptive food marketing.

Alongside this, a series of four short documentaries on farmwashing will be released on Thursday (26 September) on the campaign website stopfarmwashing.co.uk.

See also: British farming ‘on its knees’ – Riverford founder

The three-minute episodes will feature four farmers, together with Riverford founder Guy Singh-Watson and TV farmer Jimmy Doherty.

Mr Singh-Watson’s demand is clear – it’s time for retailers to stop misleading shoppers with false claims of traditional farming connections, and stop using the Union Flag inappropriately.

“Much of the produce beneath those British flags is imported, animal welfare claims are often cynically worded, and ‘trusted farms’ are actually US-style megafarms,” the letter states.

“Meanwhile, the quaint farms shown in adverts are struggling to survive. This is farmwashing.”

Among the campaign signatories are MPs, farmers, chefs, and many other familiar faces from the industry, including Tenant Farmers Association chief executive George Dunn and head of Organic Farmers and Growers Roger Kerr.

Campaign response

In response to the campaign, the British Retail Consortium director of food and sustainability Andrew Opie said: “Supermarkets are always keen to promote British farming and follow the strict legislation on the labelling of food, including the use of flags.

“In fact, they pushed the government to tighten these rules earlier this year.

“Retailers create new farm brands for some of their own-label goods in order to help consumers find the quality goods they are looking for.”

Survey findings

The Riverford campaign references a survey conducted by Censuswide, which included 202 horticultural and commercial farmers.

Results show that a “staggering” 61% of farmers now confess to being likely to give up their farms in the next 18 months, and 67% say they fear being delisted if they speak out about supermarkets.

Mr Singh-Watson warned: “British farming is at a breaking point. The public cares deeply about where their food comes from.

“The supermarkets know this and they are using that trust to steal farmer stories and to hoodwink shoppers into thinking they are buying from those small-scale, traditional British farms.”

The campaign and letter follows the 2023 Get Fair About Farming campaign, also headed up by Riverford, which claimed the buying practices of the six leading UK supermarkets were leaving farmers “struggling to survive”.