Kitchen Garden Forum

Homebase's new range of Jamie Oliver endorsed products to encourage first-time growers.

http://www.which.co.uk/news/2011/02/jam ... se-244507/

Composts
The range also includes a range of composts. These contain some peat – which the government wants to phase out by 2030 for environmental reasons. Homebase told us that it had chosen peat-based composts because they're more reliable – and first-time growers are easily put off growing their own if they fail even once.

It's a pity, given his eye-watering wealth, that Oliver couldn't at least get some proper research done on the environmental impacts of peat extraction.

He's fallen for the old trick of assuming that peat composts are the only show in town, but of course this statement carefully doesn't say what they are supposedly more reliable than.

I guess we can't expect Oliver's eco-credentials to read that well: those whose mission is to flog as much stuff (in this case Jamie-branded stuff) as possible rarely do.

We've a few more weeks to let the government know what we think about their consultation on peat use: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9202

If only we cared so deeply and strongly about our peat bogs as we do about our forests: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... ne-spelman

John Walker,
Your sad comments about Jamie Oliver tells me more about you than it does about Jamie Oliver.
What did you think of Jamie Oliver when he was "front man" for the Soil Associations School Meals campaign?
This campaign was run by the SA using Jamie Oliver's popularity and during the campaign programmes the SA were never ever mentioned.
When I voted for Jamie I got an Email from the SA thanking me for voting for "their" School Meals Campaign along with all the normal load of old rubbish they send out. That is the typical underhand way they work.
Jamie Oliver is a free agent and is only doing for Homebase what he did for the SA and most of us can see this but apparently you cannot!
At least we know that the SA are not lurking in the background on this issue.
JB.

Jamie Oliver is a free agent and is only doing for Homebase what he did for the SA and most of us can see this but apparently you cannot!

I don't think you can compare them. While Jamie Oliver's campaigns for better school dinners, and tackling obesity are to be applauded, it's pretty obvious that this link up with Homebase is only to do with making even more money for himself and the industry.


I find his whole persona fairly grating when he seems to always be flogging something, be it a television show, a cookbook on the back of the TV show, Jamie Oliver branded goods. Even a magazine. His now reaching into gardening products is just another attempt to expand his empire.
He's made millions and fair enough but I find his mixture of helping people alongside encouraging us to buy his branded products a bit exploitative. It's overkill.

richard. surely anyone gullible enough to swallow his adverts and any other celebrities adverts is down to them. I personally feel that at the bottom of each advert should show how much they are being paid.

Jamie Oliver is undoubtedly by now a very rich young man. In his early days I appreciated his initiatives which I think were well intended, but like many other people in the celebrity field, people soon seem to lose sight of their original intentions in the hope of making a great deal of money by allowing their names to be used to branded ranges of products in just about every consumer field imaginable.

Wouldn't it be nicely refreshing if they decided to divert some of the money they're making into some really worthwhile charities. Heavens knows, you don't need so many millions of pounds to live a comfortable life and there are plenty of good causes out there that could really do with some of this money.

Before you start slagging off Jamie Oliver check the facts!

Jamie Oliver enters Britain's 1,000 wealthiest and is also among the nation's 25 most generous

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... erous.html

OK. Knuckes wrapped. Rebuke accepted.

I wasn't 'slagging off' Jamie Oliver. And neither I think was Primrose. We've both raised a valid point.

richward wrote:I wasn't 'slagging off' Jamie Oliver. And neither I think was Primrose. We've both raised a valid point.

richward wrote:I find his whole persona fairly grating when he seems to always be flogging something, be it a television show, a cookbook on the back of the TV show, Jamie Oliver branded goods. Even a magazine. His now reaching into gardening products is just another attempt to expand his empire.
He's made millions and fair enough but I find his mixture of helping people alongside encouraging us to buy his branded products a bit exploitative. It's overkill.

Hmm!

I find J.O a bit irritating, but I like his approach to food; mostly simple but with good ingredients, in some ways similar to Rick Stein, whose food I like too.
But I noticed J.Os range in Homebase today while shopping for a new spade (expensive but lovely) and my immediate reaction was to avoid whatever it was because it would be more pricey because of his name on it.
And I'm hard-wired to be anti-celeb by my genes, or some of them, anyway.

Hi Alan,
Hmm indeed!
And who was it that berated me for using the word bashing on line!
Hmm.
JB.