ISLAND consumers should ‘wise up’, understand what is behind a food label and inquire where food comes from when they purchase it, according to the chairman of the Jersey Milk Marketing Board, Andrew Le Gallais.

He was speaking at the recent Country Crossroads Forum held at the Jersey Evening Post West Show on the subject of how local consumers could help the agricultural industry and the Island’s countryside by ‘buying local’.

He said: ‘I think there is a great opportunity here for the Genuine Jersey Association to promote some sort of badge of pride about our countryside with a slogan such as: ‘I’m a Genuine Jersey sales representative, and I support Jersey’s countryside’.

I think everyone in this Island would buy into that.

‘Wouldn’t it be great, if when we went into a local supermarket or restaurant we could wear perhaps a tie, badge or brooch that identified the wearer as a supporter of local produce, the local industry, and therefore of the local countryside?