Earlier this year, leading Israeli agro-products manufacturer Tama Plastic Industry produced a special one million run of their Edge-to-Edge hay silage and straw net wrapping, popular with British farmers. This special edition of the netwrap for the British market sported wide stripes of pink in aid of breast cancer awareness and a percentage of the sales money was donated to Cancer Research U.K.
With the harvesting of the Israeli cotton plantations which ended in November 2015, the Jezreel Valley kibbutz-based manufacturers also produced a large run of bright pink wrapping for the enormous round bales of cotton, making a striking sight in the fields across the Israeli countryside - especially when seen alongside the more familiar yellow wrapping– the aim here also being to generate breast cancer awareness and monetary support for cancer research in Israel.
Crop packaging is the knitted netwrap which makes the beautiful bales of hay, silage and straw stay firm and round - a familiar sight in rural Britain, throughout Europe and further afield. Last year Tama Plastic Industry ran a similar and very successful cancer awareness campaign in New Zealand, and this year it was decided to do the same in the U.K.
Normally the Edge-to-Edge netwrap is manufactured in black and white stripes but the special run in aid of breast cancer awareness introduced a new color to the British countryside, that of pink.
"Women have integral roles in the contracting and farming businesses with which we work, and seldom get the attention and recognition they deserve," explained a Tama Plastic Industry campaign manager. "Wishing to do something to encourage awareness of breast cancer in the rural community and making the netwrap pink, the familiar color indicator of campaign supporters, was our way of doing this and recognizing the unsung heroines in farming - the women!"
Tama Plastic Industry was founded over six decades ago by members of Kibbutz Mishmar Haemek, a community founded in the Jezreel Valley in 1922 by members of the Hashomer Hatzair movement from Poland. The Polish pioneers' first years were spent draining swamps, building roads, planting the thick forests which today cover the Menashe Hills, rearing livestock and introducing agriculture to the successfully drained swampland, eventually creating one of the most successful farming regions in the country.
"As farmers with a rich agricultural experience ourselves, we understand that farming is more than just an occupation, it is a way of life," said a Tama Plastic Industry spokesperson.
Welsh farmer and breast cancer survivor. Jane Cormack, was one of many British farmers who responded to the Tama campaign.
"As someone who has recently been treated for breast cancer, I now realize the importance of raising awareness about this disease which touches so many people's lives," said the 29 year-old in a recent interview.
"I am really excited to have the Tama netwrap on our farm and also to help raise support for the Prince Philip hospital in Llanelli. This really means a great deal to us here in Pembrokeshire," emphasized the young farmer who has also started her own website in order to raise funds for cancer research.