Wilfred Emmanuel-JonesMBE (born 7 November 1957) is a British businessman, farmer, and founder of "The Black Farmer" range of food products. He was an unsuccessfulConservative Party candidate for theChippenham constituency for the2010 general election.[1]
Emmanuel-Jones was born inClarendon, Jamaica, but in 1961 he moved with his parents to theUnited Kingdom. They settled inSmall Heath in Birmingham, where he was one of nine children living in a smallterrace house.[2][3]
After working in the catering industry Emmanuel-Jones enrolled on a training scheme that led to a job working forPeter Bazalgette on theBBC television seriesFood and Drink. He later continued to work in television, as a producer and director for 15 years and appeared in theRobert Llewellyn productionCarpool on 22 January 2010.
Cameron's Black Tory, shown onChannel 4 after the General Election on 6 June 2010, filmed Emmanuel-Jones over a four-year period in his bid to become the Conservative Party MP for the nominallyLiberal Democrat seat ofChippenham.[4]
Emmanuel-Jones' television career gave him the capital to buy Higher West Kitcham Farm, on the border of Devon and Cornwall inSt Giles on the Heath, Launceston, which he continues to farm. He became known to the locals who helped him initially with farming as "The Black Farmer", which inspired him to set up the brand of the same name, whose products include awarding-winning sausages, chicken, ham and sauces.
Danny Clarke, a British horticulturalist, inspired by the success of the Black Farmer, nicknamed himself the Black Gardener thus giving himself professional visibility.
Emmanuel-Jones has become involved in setting up the Black Farmer Scholarship, which aims to help and encourageethnic minorities to work in the rural community, an area where to date they have been under-represented. This aim has been made into aChannel 4 TV series,Young Black Farmers, a series of three, which sees him take a group of nineinner-city school leavers from ethnic minorities on a scholarship on his Devon farm.
Emmanuel-Jones was appointedMember of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the2020 New Year Honours for services to British farming.[5]
Emmanuel-Jones set up amarketing agency in London, specializing in food brands, includingLoyd Grossman,Kettle Chips andPlymouth Gin.[citation needed]
Emmanuel-Jones failed to win theChippenham constituency in the2010 general election for theConservative Party.[1]
He revealed onQuestion Time that he voted to leave the EU in the2016 EU referendum.
Emmanuel-Jones is married and the couple have a son and a daughter. He has an adult son from his first marriage.[3]
Lincoln Lynch is depicted alongsideMary Seacole andGeorge Arthur Roberts on products produced with the Black Farmer brand.