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April-21-05 - Philip Hughes

In recent weeks Jamie Oliver's school meals programme has grabbed an awful lot of headlines.  It was interesting to read recently that primary schools which belonged to the governments National Healthy School Programme where pupils are better fed and exercised, have out-performed others in national tests in reading, writing, maths and science according to research. These finding have underlined a link between healthy lifestyle and educational attainment, and put fresh pressure on ministers to spend more money per head on school meals amid the growing debate concerning poor nutritional standard. 

This government commissioned research analysed 2,314 schools and 16 inner-city and rural educational authorities.  The measure of improvement used was the change for the proportion of 11 year old pupils achieving Level 4 or higher in English, Maths and Science end of Key Stage 2.  Progress is measured over a two year period.  The improvement was small - 1.5% across the three subjects, but the fact that is was universal to all schools suggests it was significant.

Here at Rhug we also believe that more nutritious food would lead to a longer term healthier nation with less demand placed upon the National Health Service.  We have also learnt with interest, that animal fat is a great holder of pesticides and herbicides as a residue which naturally passes on to the end consumer.  We hope that you enjoy eating our product and that our Soil Association Organic status provides you with confidence that you are giving yourself and your family the best opportunity for a healthy vibrant and successful life.

For further reading we recommend a book written by a Guardian Newspaper Journalist called "What's Not On The Label", this is a fascinating account of the current state of our food sector, anyone that is concerned about what they and their family eat, it is compulsive reading by Felicity Lawrence".

We are delighted to announce a new product for 2005. We are now rearing organic pork on the Peplow Estate (Rhug’s sister estate) which is for sale along with our other meat products. We have been pleased to see pork sales increasing steadily and customer feedback has been very positive. Due to the large number of requests we have developed a home made dry cured bacon (streaky and back) which after extensive taste tests in the office every morning we have given it our ‘lip-smacking’ award, we hope you like it too.  We hope to enter the bacon in a number of competitions this year

Our new improved website has just gone live, the main change is you can order live and make credit card payment online. This is done through a secure gateway and the system we are using complies with the highest security systems, you can still pay in the usual methods though if you prefer.   If you haven’t visited the website recently there are lots of new areas such as farm, retail and estate diaries, events program, recipe suggestions and things to do in the area.

Written By: Philip Hughes

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