Nature’s Feast pledges to support UK farmers
Nature’s Feast, one of the UK’s leading and most established brands in the wild bird care market, has launched a new initiative that will help secure the future survival of the nation’s farmland.
Officially launched at this year’s Gardeners’ World Live, the brand has pledged to support farmers operating in an environmentally friendly way as part of its commitment to the responsible sourcing of ingredients, and to meet customers’ high expectations.
The pledge, will see Nature’s Feast, where possible, source as many raw ingredients for its extensive range of birdseed from UK farmers who are signed up to the Environmental Stewardship (ES) Scheme.
The scheme is delivered by Natural England on behalf of the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra). It encourages effective environmental management across a range of farmland, from conserving wildlife and maintaining biodiversity, to protecting natural resources, and maintaining and enhancing landscape quality and character.
Rachael Dickinson, Senior Brand Manager at Westland, comments: “Our support of the Environmental Stewardship (ES) Scheme is testament to our commitment to green issues as we further strengthen our corporate social responsibility. As a result, our customers can be assured that through buying Nature’s Feast they are not only helping Britain’s birds, but also conserving and safeguarding the countryside for future generations to enjoy.”
Importantly, the ES Scheme also supports efforts to reverse the decline in farmland birds. For example, more than 18,000 skylark plots are providing breeding skylark pairs with a suitable habitat in cereal crops throughout the breeding season. Environmental Stewardship has also helped deliver increases in the numbers of grey partridge, stone curlew and cirl bunting.
The Nature’s Feast range includes award-winning seeds that are blended and packaged in the UK’s most advanced birdseed manufacturing facilities. In 2012, the premier production facilities, which are owned by Westland Horticulture, were awarded a third consecutive ‘A’ grade rating from the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
The stringent requirements needed for BRC rating requires the Driffield site to adhere to ten key requirements in relation to production, packaging, storage and distribution. The company exceeded all standards and, as such, remain the only company in the bird food sector to have achieved BRC accreditation.
