Prince Charles's Interest in Organic Farming and Gardening

[Jalmey]

Prince Charles talks to the vegetables
Ananova

The Prince of Wales has admitted he has enjoyed some good banter
while talking to different vegetables.

He made the comments as he opened an extension to Europe's largest
organic research centre, Ryton Organic Gardens, in Warwickshire, as
part of a one-day tour of the county.

On opening a new interactive exhibition on the history of vegetables,
he said: "Bearing in mind some of my more illuminating conversations
have been with vegetables, none of you will be surprised that I am
delighted with this development. I have had the odd banter with a
brassica."

While bemoaning the loss of almost 2,000 varieties of vegetables from
cultivation since the 1970s, the Prince said he was sure a runner
bean would make a good confidant, adding: "I think because runner
beans don't run off to the press."

Charles, who is patron of the Henry Doubleday Research Association,
which runs the gardens, was shown around part of the 23-acre site,
including the new exhibition illustrating the part vegetables have
played in social history.

He stopped briefly to play with a giant interactive green pepper and
larger-than-life leek. He also met local children studying for a
rural science GCSE which required them to maintain plants and animals
at school.

The Prince, who last visited the site 14 years ago, said he was
encouraged by their work and overran his visit by half an hour.
Earlier in the day, the Prince voiced his support for Britain's
smaller agricultural producers on a visit to a farm food hall.

After an hour-long tour of the Field To Kitchen farm produce shop
based at Dobbies Garden World, in Mancetter, he told suppliers and
staff: "It is a very brave and courageous business that you are
involved in."

 

[susan alicia]

speech of charles (I have to cut it in 2 postings because it is a bit long)

Italy TERRA MADRE - Agriculture The Most Important Of Humanity's Productive Activities

By HRH The Prince of Wales, who gave the closing speech on Saturday October 23 2004

Ladies and Gentlemen, I can't tell you how pleased I am to be with you today and to share in this vitally important discussion about the future of small scale agriculture and of artisan food producers throughout the world.

The fact that no fewer than 5,000 food producers have gathered here today, under the "Slow Food" banner, is a small but significant challenge to the massed forces of globalization, the industrialization of agriculture and the homogenization of food - which seem somehow to have invaded almost all areas of our life today.

I have always believed that agriculture is not only the oldest, but also the most important of humanity's productive activities. It is the engine of rural employment and the foundation stone of culture, even of civilization itself. And this is not just some romantic vision of the past: today some 60 per cent of the four billion people living in developing countries are still working on the land.

So when I read "visions", such as that for the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, for instance, which are based on transforming traditional, local agricultural economies into "powerhouses" of technological agriculture, based around monoculture, artificial fertilisers, pesticides and GM, my heart sinks. The missing ingredient in these great plans is always sustainable livelihoods and its absence increases the existing, awful drift towards degraded, dysfunctional and unmanageable cities.

The one resource the developing world has in abundance is people, so why are we promoting systems of agriculture that negate this advantage and seem bound to contribute directly to further human misery and indignity?

It is a sobering thought, ladies and gentlemen, that almost all of the next one billion of net global population growth (over the next twelve to fifteen years) will take place in urban slums. In one slum alone - which I'm not going to name because it is in a country for which I have great affection - more than 800,000 people, half of them under the age of fifteen, already live illegally in less than four square kilometres of the city. Even more sobering is the thought: what will these conditions breed for the future? Hopelessness, crime, extremism, terrorism? Who will deal with these chickens when they come home to roost on a globalized perch?

Despite the best intentions of many, we have to face up to the fact that often, the consequence of globalization is greater unsustainability. It is all very well talking meaningfully of the need for "globalization with a human face", but the reality is frequently somewhat different. Left to its own devices, I fear that globalization will - ironically - sow seeds of ever-greater poverty, disease and hunger in the cities and the loss of viable, self-sufficient rural populations. I don't think anyone would claim to have many answers, technological or otherwise, about what could possibly be done to reverse this process. The 800,000 people in the slum I mentioned earlier are not simply going to head back to the land overnight. But, surely, the first step to finding solutions is being willing to face up to both the causes and the scale of the problem -and this requires the globalization of responsibility.

I have a feeling that by now it may be quite well known that I am inclined to doubt whether GM food, for instance, will be - on balance - a contribution to the greater good of humanity. In doing so, I am not simply being dogmatic. I believe it is both legitimate and important to ask whether some people's faith in the potential of this and other new technologies is a product of wishful thinking, or of the hype generated by vested interests. In the long-term, are these methods really going to solve mankind's problems, or just create new ones? And how will we regulate them effectively? There are a great many examples of earlier, well-meaning attempts to control pests or improve the environment which have gone drastically wrong. And I'm simply not convinced that we have absorbed the lesson, which is that manipulating Nature is, at best, an uncertain business.

Even if we discount the potential for disaster, there is still the question of whether this is the right direction to take. If all the money invested in agricultural biotechnology over the last fifteen years had been invested in developing and disseminating genuinely sustainable techniques - those that work with, rather than against, the grain of Nature - I believe that we would have seen extraordinary, and genuinely sustainable, progress.
The problem, perhaps, is that techniques such as inter-cropping, agroforestry, green manuring, composting and biological pest control offer less prospect of commercial gain to those who have money to invest. The hundreds of millions of people who would gain are the much-derided practitioners of so-called "peasant agriculture", who have very little money, but who are the long-term guardians of biodiversity.
One of the arguments used by the "agricultural industrialists" is that it is only through intensification that we will be able to feed an expanded world population. But even without significant investment, and often in the face of official disapproval, improved organic practices have increased yields and outputs dramatically. A recent UN-FAO study revealed that in Bolivia potato yields went up from four to fifteen tonnes per hectare. In Cuba, the vegetable yields of organic urban gardens almost doubled. In Ethiopia, which twenty years ago suffered appalling famine, sweet potato yields went up from six to thirty tonnes per hectare. In Kenya, maize yields increased from two-and-a-quarter to nine tonnes per hectare. And in Pakistan, mango yields have gone up from seven-and-a-half to twenty-two tonnes per hectare.

 

[susan alicia]

Imposing industrial farming systems on traditional agricultural economies is actively destroying both biological and social capital and eliminating the cultural identity which has its roots in working on the land. It is also fuelling the frightening acceleration of urbanization throughout the world and removing large parts of humanity from meaningful contact with Nature and the food that they eat.

So this "flight from the land" is happening in both developed and developing countries. Unfortunately, these trends towards urbanization are almost inevitable while societies throughout the world continue to put a low valuation on their food, denigrate food to the status of fuel and abandon any loyalty to their local and indigenous farmers.

But there is another consequence too. There is now a growing body of evidence that suggests that in the so-called developed world we are in the process of creating a nutritionally impoverished underclass - a generation which has grown up on highly processed fast food from intensive agriculture and for whom the future looks particularly bleak, both from a social and a health standpoint.

As Eric Schlosser has pointed out in his brilliant book "Fast Food Nation", fast food is a recent phenomenon. The extraordinary centralization and industrialization of our food system has occurred over as little as twenty years. Fast food may appear to be cheap food, and in the literal sense it often is. But that is because huge social and environmental costs are being excluded from the calculations. Any analysis of the real costs would have to look at such things as the rise in food-borne illnesses, the advent of new pathogens such as E. coli 0157, antibiotic resistance from the overuse of drugs in animal feed, extensive water pollution from intensive agricultural systems, and many other factors. These costs are not reflected in the price of fast food, but that doesn't mean that our society isn't paying them.

So perhaps, having said all this, you can begin to see why I am such an admirer of the Slow Food Movement and of all the hard-working, indomitably independent people like yourselves, all over the world, who are part of it.

Only a few years ago it would have been impossible to imagine that so many people across the world who are either directly involved in small-scale artisan food production, or are interested in consuming the fruits of such labours, should gather together in this way. This, of course, is a great tribute to the unceasing energy of Dr. Carlo Petrini.

Slow food is traditional food. It is also local - and local cuisine is one of the most important ways we identify with the place and region where we live. It is the same with the buildings in our towns, cities and villages. Well-designed places and buildings that relate to locality and landscape and that put people before cars enhance a sense of community and rootedness. All these things are connected. We no more want to live in anonymous concrete blocks that are just like anywhere else in the world than we want to eat anonymous junk food which can be bought anywhere. At the end of the day, values such as sustainability, community, health and taste are more important than pure convenience. We need to have distinctive and varied places and distinctive and varied food in order to retain our sanity, if nothing else.

The Slow Food Movement is about celebrating the culture of food, and about sharing the extraordinary knowledge - developed over millennia - of the traditions involved with quality food production. So it is important to ask how this gathering can promote those ideals more widely, particularly when we are faced with remorseless pressure to operate on a larger and ever more impersonal scale.

I believe you are in a better position to answer that question than me, but for what it's worth, I do believe that simply coming together and sharing ideas, and above all joining the international Slow Food Movement and to create, by the extraordinary process of cross-fertilization and invigoration which takes place at gatherings like these, an ever more influential and powerful association that cannot be so easily ignored, the the answers will emerge organically. As the old saying goes, there is safety in numbers, and people tend to listen to organisations with a very large membership. They do!

On this theme it does seem to me that the other great food movement with which I am associated, the organic movement, has so much in common with the Slow Food Movement and this communality of purpose and direction ought to be a source of co-operation and, also of course, celebration! So I do hope that we may see ever-closer links between these two important movements.

And the importance of your Movement cannot be overstated. That is, after all, why I am here - to try and help draw attention to the fact that in certain circumstances "small will always be beautiful", and to remind people, as John Ruskin in the 19th century did, back in England, that "industry without art is brutality". After all, the food you produce is far more than just food, for it represents an entire culture - the culture of the family farm. It represents the ancient tapestry of rural life; the dedicated animal husbandry, the struggle with the natural elements, the love of landscape, the childhood memories, the knowledge and wisdom learnt from parents and grandparents, the intimate understanding of local climate and conditions, the hopes and fears of succeeding generations. Ladies and gentlemen, all of you represent genuinely sustainable agriculture and I salute you.

 

[una]

Prince Charles's interest in organic farming and gardening

AFTER famously creating a showpiece organic garden at Highgrove, Prince Charles has rolled up his sleeves and dug deep to do the same at his Scottish home.

The Prince has applied for full organic certification from the Soil Association for his garden at Birkhall, Balmoral, turning the retreat into his "Highgrove of the north".

The prince has been quietly converting Birkhall's gardens to organic methods - doing some of the work himself - over the past two years to comply with standards set by the Soil Association, of which he is patron.

Now Clarence House has confirmed that the nature-loving heir to the throne has applied for official organic status at Birkhall, the part of the Balmoral estate he inherited from the late Queen Mother.

The work at Birkhall's two-acre flower garden will finish a conversion to organic methods begun by the Queen Mother.
Charles has had to rip out a huge hedge planted by his grandmother that was threatening Birkhall's foundations and has also built a meditative gazebo in the grounds.
"He has introduced more natural methods of weed control and has introduced a whole range of environmentally friendly methods," said an aide.

"The garden is all flowers and shrubs - no vegetables - with species reflecting this exposed area of Deeside.

"Gardening in Scotland is different to gardening in Gloucestershire, and that has been part of the challenge.

"It is only two acres - but very beautiful. In comparison, Highgrove is spread over 20 acres. But the Prince is very proud of his work and hands-on in both."

 

[love_cc]

Prince Charles's interest in organic farming and gardening

The article is in Chinese language. I just translated it and gave a general idea.
http://www.jx.xinhua.org/news_center/2006-06/09/content_7219790.htm
When he was in University of Cambridge, Prince Charles met Meng Jian Zhu, the leader of Jiang Xi Province, China.
During the discussion, they exchanged ideas about issues such as the development of modern agriculture,environment protection, and sustainable development in China. Prince Charles praised the progress of developing the economy in Jiang Xi Province,while implementing the policies including protecting the enviroment, developing organic agriculture and promoting sustainable development.

Quite interesting news, isn't? I am just so suprised to read this news. I just wondered how could Charles and Meng meet in Unversity of Cambridge. Does that mean Charles showing his diplomacy towards Chinese officials? Perhaps it is. Meng is probably acted as a messager to improve the relationships between Chinese officials and Prince Charles after his hostile remarks in "appalling old waxworks" incident. I just want to have a laugh.

 

[AgnesK]

Prince seeks apprentice organic gardener:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/07/31/nprince31.xml

 

[Skydragon]

Prince Charles digs up Queen mums roses to plant veggies!

http://in.news.yahoo.com/060925/139/67wsh.html

 

[Jo of Palatine]

Prince Charles digs up Queen mums roses to plant veggies!

http://in.news.yahoo.com/060925/139/67wsh.html

Just want to add that any gardener knows that you can't plant new roses where old ones were. So considering the times that has passed since Queen Mum moved into Clarence House and assuming that she planted her rose garden early on, it's about time to do something new with this space in the garden. While vegetables are known to be perfect intermediates for old rose gardens, as the fertilizer used for them in addition with the left overs of the plants give new life to the old soil, thus making it possible to plant roses again afterwards.

Somehow my mind boggles - are all journalists who report about royality absolute dimwits? Or is there any other reason why they never seem to get the facts straight, facts that anyone could research - those where you need no "insider knowledge but just common sense, an internet access or a phonebook in case you want to call an expert?

 

[Elspeth]

Just want to add that any gardener knows that you can't plant new roses where old ones were. So considering the times that has passed since Queen Mum moved into Clarence House and assuming that she planted her rose garden early on, it's about time to do something new with this space in the garden. While vegetables are known to be perfect intermediates for old rose gardens, as the fertilizer used for them in addition with the left overs of the plants give new life to the old soil, thus making it possible to plant roses again afterwards.

Somehow my mind boggles - are all journalists who report about royality absolute dimwits? Or is there any other reason why they never seem to get the facts straight, facts that anyone could research - those where you need no "insider knowledge but just common sense, an internet access or a phonebook in case you want to call an expert?

They just know what sells. A hint about a rift between Charles and his beloved granny is going to sell more copies than a straight gardening story about how to best treat an old rosebed. It isn't their intelligence that's at fault a lot of the time, it's their integrity.

 

[Roslyn]

This rose garden story has tickled my fancy. Where I live roses are extremely long lived plants as long as the climate is favourable and they get plenty of sun and lots of mulch and blood & bone.

How big is the rose garden at Clarence House? I've been googling for information on the size of the garden but haven't found much. I have this wonderful image in my head of the garden from The Good Life - every inch of the garden space taken up with veggie plots and with a few chooks to snap up the snails and provide eggs, and maybe even a pig.

To provide enough organic veggies to feed guests on a regular basis, you'd need quite a large area. Unless he's also planning to plough up some of the parkland attached to one of the palaces, I don't think there's enough room.

I suspect an ulterior motive, I just can't imagine what it is.

 

[Elspeth]

Well, maybe he can't find enough vegetarian blood and bone?

 

[Skydragon]

This rose garden story has tickled my fancy. Where I live roses are extremely long lived plants as long as the climate is favourable and they get plenty of sun and lots of mulch and blood & bone.

You can't just replant in an existing bed, 9 times out of 10, they don't do well if indeed they survive. When roses have been growing in a certain position for a number of years, the soil in that spot can sufffer from rose soil sickness, it has lost many of the nutrients, minerals, trace elements etc.
Roses here seem to thrive with well rotted farmyard manure or of course Horse manure rather than Blood and Bone!

 

[Jo of Palatine]

You can't just replant in an existing bed, 9 times out of 10, they don't do well if indeed they survive. When roses have been growing in a certain position for a number of years, the soil in that spot can sufffer from rose soil sickness, it has lost many of the nutrients, minerals, trace elements etc.
Roses here seem to thrive with well rotted farmyard manure or of course Horse manure rather than Blood and Bone!

I use the manure made from the feces of my son's dwarf rabbits and that works wonders with my roses (and it doesn't stink at all...). I love Austin's English Roses and Delbard's Painter series and am looking forward to replanting some of them and adding some new ones in my new garden at the Ammersee (lake of the Ammer in the south of Munich).

Id someone could tell me how to insert a picture hosted at Imageshack, I'd post a pic of a bloom of Delbard's Camille Pisarro rose (aka Rainbow Nation rose).

 

[Roslyn]

I use the manure made from the feces of my son's dwarf rabbits and that works wonders with my roses (and it doesn't stink at all...). I love Austin's English Roses and Delbard's Painter series and am looking forward to replanting some of them and adding some new ones in my new garden at the Ammersee (lake of the Ammer in the south of Munich).

Id someone could tell me how to insert a picture hosted at Imageshack, I'd post a pic of a bloom of Delbard's Camille Pisarro rose (aka Rainbow Nation rose).

I'd love to see that picture. I adore roses, though they must have a fragrance to interest me. A rose without a fragrance is incomplete, IMO.

My rose mulch of choice is cow manure, supplemented by other organic fertilizers. There are some very good new well-balanced organic products with trace elements that don't smell at all.

 

[Jo of Palatine]

I'd love to see that picture. I adore roses, though they must have a fragrance to interest me. A rose without a fragrance is incomplete, IMO.

My rose mulch of choice is cow manure, supplemented by other organic fertilizers. There are some very good new well-balanced organic products with trace elements that don't smell at all.

I'll try it.


Enjoy!

 

[Avalon]

Royal appointment for school dinner lady

A Mum who brought healthy organic food to her daughter's school is to meet Prince Charles along with the country's other top dinner ladies.
The Prince of Wales has invited 120 dinner ladies and headteachers to a special lunch at Clarence House to thank them for bringing nutritious meals to schools.

 

[milla Ca]

HRH writes a new book on organic gardening

The Prince of Wales - HRH writes a new book on organic gardening

 

[milla Ca]

The cover of Charles´ new book : The elements of organic gardening
(isn´t it a nice pic? )
HELLO! Photo gallery

 

[milla Ca]

Prince Charles visits the National Botanical Gardens of Wales
16th March

Britain's Royal Family on Yahoo! News Photos

 

[milla Ca]

HRH visits Myddfai and the National Botanic Garden of Wales in Carmarthenshire

The Prince of Wales - HRH visits Myddfai and the National Botanic Garden of Wales in Carmarthenshire

 

[iceflower]

Here is another gallery of pics of Charles today, visting the National Botanical Gardens --> pics

If you look at this pic, you may think that Charles had some problems with the pollen

 

[Skydragon]

A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales at a reception at the National Botanic Garden of Wales

First of all I would like to thank you for this honorary fellowship. The Fellowship scheme, launched today, is an important way in which individuals in particular can develop their support for the Botanic Garden and its activities, and I am delighted to be asked to be its first member. I hope to be a jolly good honorary fellow!

 

[Skydragon]

PRINCE OF SKILLS

Gardeners' date with Prince Charles

VOLUNTEERS from the Howard Street Community Garden, Burnley, got the chance to mix with royalty when they attended a reception hosted by the Prince of Wales

 

[milla Ca]

Organic farmers see Prince Charles as role model

Tetbury. - Warning. You are now entering a GMO-free zone.

Organic farmers see Prince Charles as role model | UK | Reuters

 

[Skydragon]

Prince Charles is an ale natural

Anyone who has paid twice the price for cardboard-tasting organic vegetables that may have been stuck on a truck for a week, then cold-warehoused for a month, knows that organic isn't always the best deal.

Star-Telegram.com | 06/06/2007 | Prince Charles is an ale natural

 

[CasiraghiTrio]

Latest from Clarence House: TRH visit the Brilliant restaurant in Southall (west London)

The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall today visited an Indian restaurant which is backing a new campaign encouraging customers to ask where their food was produced.
Their Royal Highnesses sampled cheeses and vegetables at the Brilliant restaurant in Southall, west London, and chatted to restaurateurs and food suppliers.
The restaurant is part of the Just Ask campaign, which was launched earlier this year and aims to raise public awareness about the origin of food and reconnect consumers with British farming.

 

[Skydragon]

FARMERS across West Lancashire have received a boost from Prince Charles.
They have welcomed his calls for people to buy locally-grown produce.

icseftonandwestlancs - Prince Charles wins praise from organic farmers​

 

[milla Ca]

Charles sign is a real shocker

A sign for an organic produce shop owned by Prince Charles has been blasted by locals.

Charles sign is a real shocker | Highgrove store | Prince Charles | The Sun |HomePage|News|Royals

 

[Skydragon]

Charles sign is a real shocker

A sign for an organic produce shop owned by Prince Charles has been blasted by locals.

Charles sign is a real shocker | Highgrove store | Prince Charles | The Sun |HomePage|News|Royals

I Thought this was only one of the signs up for consideration, but the Sun probably knows better!

 

[CasiraghiTrio]

^ Tetbury does seem like the kind of place that is touchy about things. I'm sure they will sort out the mess, though. In the end, Tetbury's council people must remember how much The Prince has done for the area since he bought Highgrove near three decades ago. I am sure they were already a fine area without him, but it can't be denied that he has brought so much more prestige and cachet, and the reputation of Highgrove has put the area on the world stage as far as organic gardening and produce are concerned. Say Highgrove to someone who really knows about organic agriculture and gardening, and it's a safe bet they know exactly what you are talking about.