Once upon a time, Wilma Finlay worked in marketing at Motorola. From her Glasgow office, she dreamed of running an ethical business in the countryside.

Now, Wilma has an MBE for her work in supporting eco-tourism in South-West Scotland and, along with husband David, runs a successful organic ice-cream business from their environmentally-friendly farm in Galloway.

Wilma and David founded Cream O'Galloway ice cream on David's family farm in the early 1990s, after poor milk prices meant they needed to find new ways to make it economically sustainable. One of their first steps was to turn the farm organic, after Wilma's interest in ethical business combined with David's scepticism about the agricultural methods he'd grown up with. “It was difficult to start with,” says David, “but in the end it was the right thing to do, and that's the bottom line.”

“Tourism was a last-minute addition,” says Wilma. “The shop was slated to become storage space for the ice-cream business if the visitor centre failed, but it boomed and now we get up to 60,000 visitors a year.”

The visitor centre at Cream O'Galloway allows children to see organic farming, learn how ice-cream is made, and find out about the countries round the world that Cream O'Galloway's fair trade ingredients come from.

What really makes Cream O'Galloway stand out from other organic farms is the lengths the Finlays have gone to to reduce their impact on the environment. The farm is home to Gatehouse of Fleet's community wind turbine, geothermal heating is being installed in parts of the visitor centre, and some of the farm buildings have solar panels fitted. And Wilma and David also have an innovative approach to animal welfare, trying to find new ways to treat their sheep and cows well.

Now Wilma and David's thriving ethical business is at the heart of a community of local, sustainable food producers in Galloway – and many of the them are women. Su Inman of Wigwam Bakery, Ruby Marr of Marrbury Smokehouse and Celia Pickup at Craigadam's Country Larder all show how women are spearheading local, sustainable food in Scotland.

Visit the Cream o'Galloway website & don't forget to check out their truly delicious Fairtrade Organic range of ice creams and frozen smoothies.

Sarah Irving is features editor of Ethical Consumer magazine and a freelance writer. See www.sarahirving.net and http://theethicalwedding.blogspot.com for more.