Cadbury and organics?

You may well be wondering why there is a picture of a Cadbury Dairy Milk bar on my blog, and rightly so, it didn't grow in my garden, though my family and friends may well be surprised one hasn't appeared here before - I have enjoyed more than a few CDMs over the years - but this is the last one, ever.

The last ever? I can hear a few jaws dropping with incredulity, but yes.

When Cadbury resisted the first offer from Kraft they were derisory about the quality of the larger company and the way it is managed. None of that has changed, but worse still is the fact that, to buy Cadbury, Kraft has had to borrow heavily. There seem to be echoes of the very kind of thinking which beset the financial services industry and from which the world economies seem likely to suffer for years to come. It was possible to identify with the founding ethos of Cadbury, no matter how distant, that has gone completely now and forever, so goodbye CDM.

By contrast, as we gardeners busy ourselves planning for spring in the northern hemisphere, especially those of us committed to organic, sustainable methods, our thinking could not be further removed from that of the people who have melded the new Kraftbury. We know that nature does not allow us to buy off today at the expense of tomorrow, the dust bowl history, the use of DDT, deforestation and countless other lessons reinforce the message that there is no long term option but to work in harmony with nature and build for tomorrow, not borrow against it. It is surely immoral to leave future generations a poisoned earth or a crippled economy, just so we can enjoy some short term benefit.

I'll look back in sadness at the demise of Cadbury and my enjoyment of CDMs, but forwards with pleasure at the prospect of nurturing crops, garnering them in and, above all, sharing and eating the tastiest and freshest of home produced foods.