Pinch and a punch, it’s the first of the month. Wake up when Farming Today is on. That means before 6.00.
Read news, weather and deal with e mails. Spend an hour almost completing The Times Monday crossword. I’m stumped by “casemate” and “eleventh”. Gosh, it’s 8.00 already and someone is trying to batter down the front door. Robert and Bertie are poor guards so I don dressing gown (no slippers, thanks Bertie) and dash down to find delivery man trying to force a parcel through letter box. He pushes, I pull and I find it is for number 55, not 56.
Punctually at 9.30 the chairman of MP Evans pops up on screen to introduce a presentation about the company’s road map towards 100% sustainability. To begin with the palm oil industry, at best, paid lip service to the environment. It was slash, burn and have a barbecued orang-utan for lunch. As it happens, MPE only moved to Indonesia (from Malaysia) in 2005 and were in a position to adopt good practice from inception.
If I may digress, when I was in work I realised that compliance was a growing area; now it’s sustainability and social responsibility. I do not scoff, it’s a small step towards levelling the gross inequalities in the world. Palm oil is a fruit that has two qualities setting it aside from other oil producing plants. Production per hectare is spectacularly higher and palm oil is harvested every day of the year. This can be done most efficiently by hand, providing long term employment to a rural workforce. If you are interested the presentation will be on the MP Evans website (1 1/2 hours).
11.00. Look at e mails and get a link to the 2019 Cliveden Literary Festival. It’s the Rory Stewart Show and I love it. He is a showman and an entertainer. I hope he returns to public service. Just one thing, I have always thought he looks simian but I’ve changed my mind – he looks like Cliff Richard. Maybe next year …