Wednesday, February 24, 2021
  • ABOUT US
  • WEBMAIL
  • GENSOCIAL
Genesis Radio Birmingham
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • ALTERNATIVE NEWSNEW
    • ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
    • FOOD NEWS
    • HEALTH NEWS
    • MOVIE TRAILERS
    • LOCAL NEWS
    • MUSIC NEWS
  • WHATS ON
  • GENSOCIAL
  • GENESISTV
  • BEATZCLOUD
No Result
View All Result
Genesis Radio Birmingham
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • ALTERNATIVE NEWSNEW
    • ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
    • FOOD NEWS
    • HEALTH NEWS
    • MOVIE TRAILERS
    • LOCAL NEWS
    • MUSIC NEWS
  • WHATS ON
  • GENSOCIAL
  • GENESISTV
  • BEATZCLOUD
No Result
View All Result
Genesis Radio Birmingham
No Result
View All Result
Home Food News

The Black Farmer: ‘The moment you operate outside a stereotype, it confuses people’

Genesis Radio by Genesis Radio
11 November 2020
in Food News
0 0
0
The Black Farmer: ‘The moment you operate outside a stereotype, it confuses people’
1
VIEWS
Share on Facebook


WILFRED EMMANUEL-JONES isn’t just any black farmer, he is The Black Farmer.

Born in Clarendon, Jamaica, Emmanuel-Jones came to the UK as part of the Windrush generation.

While he’d spent the first few years of his life in rural Jamaica, Emmanuel-Jones’ first farming encounter was hands-on, cultivating an allotment his father had in Small Heath in Birmingham, where his family settled once they arrived in England.

It was this experience that first ignited Emmanuel-Jones’ desire to one day own his own farm.

“Because we were quite poor, there were 11 of us in my family, my father had an allotment and it was my job as the oldest boy to look after this allotment.

“It shouldn’t be that you’ve got to be rich in order to actually get access to land”

“I loved it so much. It was then when I was around the age of 11, that I decided that one day I would like to have my own farm,” he says.

But it wouldn’t be until 35 years later that he was able to realise this dream. Something Emmanuel-Jones only managed because he was able to earn enough money to do so.

Overcoming barriers

And while his rags-to-riches success story is inspirational, he doesn’t want other black people to face the same barriers he did.

He is calling on institutions that own land, such as the Church and universities to actively facilitate the process to enable more black and minority ethnic people to get access to farming land.

“I’m saying to all of these institutions part of your social responsibility is to say to your land agents; a certain percentage – let’s say 10 per cent of the land you’re managing for us should be leased to or rented out to people from diverse communities… it shouldn’t be that you’ve got to be rich in order to actually get access to land,” he says.

Raising the money to purchase land isn’t the only obstacle aspiring black farmers face in Britain. Operating in a sector dominated by white people, Emmanuel-Jones was confronted with concerns from his family members when they heard about his plans to plant roots in Devon, and he says locals suspected he was secretly growing cannabis.

“The moment you operate outside a stereotype, it confuses people. They think there’s some sort of negative motive behind it and I’ve always been of the belief that the key thing in life is not to be distracted by other people’s prejudices or other people’s concerns,” he says. “If I ever stopped and thought about what people thought, I would still be in Small Heath in Birmingham.”

Emmanuel-Jones doesn’t mince his words. It’s this ambitious attitude combined with his independence that saw him take on the major supermarkets, challenging them to stock his new range of sausages for Black History Month.

The range of jerk pork and chicken sausages feature the faces of inspiring figures from British black history. One pack features nurse Mary Seacole, the others feature first world war veteran and civil rights campaigner George Arthur Roberts and Lincoln Orville Lynch, a distinguished RAF air gunner who served in the Second World War.

“This year I wrote to all of the big chief executives and all the big supermarkets and said, ‘this is the time that you lot need to do something to demonstrate that you are supporting the change. You have black customers shopping in your supermarkets, we want to demonstrate that actually you care about their pound as much as you care about somebody else’s’,” he says.

“What we as black people have to come to terms with is that we have power and we should be utilising that power a lot more”

Sainsbury’s, Co-op, Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl, Waitrose, Budgen’s and Ocado all agreed to stock the special sausages.

By nature of the product, the sausages have been placed in aisles where they are likely to be seen by a cross-section of supermarket shoppers, not just those interested in Caribbean produce. Emmanuel-Jones’ says he always intended to steer away from creating products that would be deemed “ethnic”.

“I do not want to be categorised as an ‘ethnic’ brand because what happens is that you get stuck down in the bottom shelf…I said the first thing I want to do is I want to be a mainstream British brand – that in itself is a big challenge.”

Advice

For black entrepreneurs wanting to follow in his footsteps, he has this to say: “Stop waiting for permission. Stop waiting to be accepted, it ain’t going to happen.”

He adds that he wants people to realise that there is no helping hand when it comes to bringing about the change that is needed – but he believes there is untapped potential within the black community.

“What I think is that we as black people have to come to terms with is that we have power and we should be utilising that power a lot more than we have done in the past,” he says.

Today Emmanuel-Jones describes himself as a gentleman farmer, not spending his time getting muddy in fields but building his Black Farmer brand.

His new ventures include the launch of a new Black Farmer online shop, something he says was spurred on by the COVID-19 outbreak.

“The reason why it’s the right time to do direct-to-consumer is because of COVID. Before COVID getting fresh food to people’s house was really difficult because they weren’t in, they were at work or out and about,” Emmanuel-Jones says.

AMBITIOUS: Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones

And while the online grocery service opens up his products to a new market, he’d like to see the black community support it. “It’s really tough in an online business and what I would like is to get a lot of support from the black community because that is how these things succeed.”

Emmanuel-Jones’ hopes to expand don’t stop there. He has a physical flagship farm shop in his sights.

“My ultimate ambition is, in the next two years, to have a Black Farmer bricks and mortar farm shop…there’ll be restaurants, cookery schools, there’ll be an academy. It’ll be a destination site that anybody going down to the southwest will say: ‘I must stop off at The Black Farmer’.”

Stop off at The Black Farmer’s virtual shop at theblackfarmer.com

This article appeared in The Voice Black Business Guide 2020-21. To read the publication and discover more black-owned businesses, click here.



Source link

You might also like

Tabitha Brown is encouraging everyone to try vegan with her this Veganuary

Recipe: Honey and rum glazed gammon

Recipe: Boozy festive cake – Voice Online

Previous Post

Viagra Boys, 11 Nov 2020

Next Post

Seasonal livestreaming with Sarah Teibo

Genesis Radio

Genesis Radio

Related Posts

Tabitha Brown is encouraging everyone to try vegan with her this Veganuary
Food News

Tabitha Brown is encouraging everyone to try vegan with her this Veganuary

by Genesis Radio
29 December 2020
Recipe: Honey and rum glazed gammon
Food News

Recipe: Honey and rum glazed gammon

by Genesis Radio
12 December 2020
Recipe: Boozy festive cake – Voice Online
Food News

Recipe: Boozy festive cake – Voice Online

by Genesis Radio
5 December 2020
Recipe: sweet and spicy beef stew
Food News

Recipe: sweet and spicy beef stew

by Genesis Radio
30 November 2020
Let’s all support local food
Food News

Let’s all support local food

by Genesis Radio
30 November 2020
Next Post
Seasonal livestreaming with Sarah Teibo

Seasonal livestreaming with Sarah Teibo

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Genesis Radio Birmingham

Premier Music & Media Limited
27 Old Gloucester Street
London
WC1N 3AX

Company

  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Join Our Team
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions

Recent News

Women of Colour In The Film Industry – I am Excited About What’s Ahead for Us

Women of Colour In The Film Industry – I am Excited About What’s Ahead for Us

24 February 2021
19 year old Grime emcee SBK shares his new EP

19 year old Grime emcee SBK shares his new EP

24 February 2021

GenesisRadioBirmingham.com is a trademark of Premier Music & Media Ltd. © 2021

No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • ALTERNATIVE NEWS
    • ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
    • FOOD NEWS
    • HEALTH NEWS
    • MOVIE TRAILERS
    • LOCAL NEWS
    • MUSIC NEWS
  • WHATS ON
  • GENSOCIAL
  • GENESISTV
  • BEATZCLOUD

GenesisRadioBirmingham.com is a trademark of Premier Music & Media Ltd. © 2021

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

*By registering into our website, you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.