The Linking Environment And Farming (LEAF) logo will be appearing in supermarkets as part of a government-funded initiative to raise the organisation's profile.

The LEAF Marque initiative is intended to raise shoppers' awareness of how fresh produce arrives on supermarket shelves.

The logo will be means of assuring customers that the produce was farmed in an environmentally responsible way.

The England Rural Development Programme – Rural Enterprise Scheme has given LEAF a grant of more than £175,000 to promote the initiative. Three leading retailers – Waitrose, Marks and Spencer, and Safeway – have already committed to the scheme.

LEAF's commercial manager Jeremy Boxall said: 'It's about informing consumers, letting them know where the produce has come from and giving farmers the recognition they deserve for responsible farming.

'Working and collaborating with others in the food chain, we do not seek to duplicate, rather, the LEAF Marque will provide and, more importantly, complementary environmental standard to existing schemes [such as the red tractor scheme and the Soil Association logo].'

Topics