Willow Farm does not exist.
I'll say that again.
There is no Willow Farm. No willows. No farm. No farmer called Willow leaning on a gate in wellies. It's fiction. Totally, 100%, abso-blooming-lutely made up.
And yet it's not alone. There are other made up farms too:
Redmere Farms
Boswell Farms
Woodside Farms
Nightingale Farms
Rosedene Farms
Suntrail Farms
So if they’re not farms, what are they?
They’re names. Brands. All invented by Tesco, all designed to make you picture ruddy-cheeked British farmers raising their livestock on rolling green hills or smiling as they plant their veg in muddy Fennish furrows.
But in reality, the ‘Willow Farms’ chicken might have come from an intensive poultry unit supplying several supermarkets at once, and the veg from ‘Redmere Farms’ from somewhere a long, long way from the UK.
Pretty outrageous, no?
And yet it’s been going on for nearly a decade. Tesco launched these brands in 2016. The National Farmers' Union quite properly called it cynical and misleading.
Farmers were furious.
Consumer groups complained.
Journalists investigated.
The issue was raised in Parliament.
And Tesco's response? They said the names represented a 'brand, not a farm'. Which is a bit like saying the Tooth Fairy represents a brand, not a fairy. Technically true. Completely beside the point.
The practice is now so widespread it has its own name – farmwashing. Slap a pastoral name on industrial produce and let the customer's imagination do the rest. The customer sees 'Willow Farm' and pictures a small family operation. Tesco sees 'Willow Farm' and pictures margin protection against Aldi and Lidl.
And yet, nothing has changed.
Willow Farm is still there, right on the packet. Brazen.
This is why provenance matters.
At Wylde, you know where your food comes from because we tell you – and because the producers themselves will tell you, given half a chance.
That's not a brand. That's a relationship.
Screw Willow soddin’ Farms.
Go Wylde.
Nick
PS - if we worked with our producers to do a seasonal veg box, would that be of interest? Let me know?
