Cooperatives NorthWest

The Kindling Trust are holding a four day course in March as part of their work to encourage more people to consider commercial-scale food growing.

The course: Want to be be a Farmer? is being organised as part of the Greater Manchester Land Army project and is being run by Jenny Griggs of Climate Friendly Food - as part of a mentoring package provided by Making Local Food Work.

The training, which will run on four consecutive Wednesdays in March, will be a mixture of practical work and theory, and will include visits to Glebelands City Growers and Fir Tree Community Growers. The days will be themed, with one day each being spent on: business skills; salad production; machinery skills and field cropping.

The course runs from the 7th to the 28th March, on four Wednesdays. The first day will be in Hulme, the second day at Glebelands City Growers, the 3rd day at Climate Friendly Food's base at Fir Tree Farm, with the final day at Moss Brook Growers.

The course covers:

Day 1 – Classroom day - business skills to run a CFE that grows vegetables e.g. legal, records, H&S, working with volunteers, seed sowing schedule,
Day 2 – Commercial growing from small areas – Salad production similar to the Growing Communities urban apprenticeship in salad production at Glebelands – mix of classroom and practical lesson.
Day 3 – Machinery skills at Fir Tree Community Growers – ploughing, rotavating, weeding, tractor maintenance – practical lesson.
Day 4 – Growing skills for all field crops year round production – mix of classroom and practical lessons.

Anyone interested in becoming an organic grower for Greater Manchester, who can commit to a number of week day outings with the Land Army in this growing season, can apply for a place on the course.

To book your place please contact Chloe@kindling.org.uk

Move Your Money – a new campaign encouraging individuals to switch to a more ethical bank was launched on the 31 January 2011.

Based on a similar campaign in the United States, the UK campaign aims to encourage people to move their current and savings accounts to fairer and more local forms of bank – specifically credit unions, building societies and The Co-operative Bank.

Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Co-operatives UK, said:
"We have co-operative and mutual options for current accounts and savings right across the UK and every pound is reinvested for good rather than for bad. At an individual level, you can't do everything to put an unfair economy right - but you can do something. Move Your Money is the new fair trade. It is THE campaign for our times."

Across Great Britain, there are now 465 credit unions that serve 870,000 members. £600 million is saved in credit unions. Building societies have £220 billion of UK savings.

Since the credit crunch, The Co-operative Bank has been named by the Financial Times as the world's most sustainable bank, while Nationwide Building Society has been listed by Global Finance Magazine as one of the world's safest financial institutions.

The UK Move Your Money campaign can aim to achieve the success of co-operatives on the continent. In the Netherlands, half the population is with the highly successful co-operative Rabobank, while in Germany co-operative banks have 30 million members.

Overall, European co-operative banks have 20% of the market.

For more information on the campaign or to pledge your intention to move your money, visit http://moveyourmoney.org.uk/