What exactly is it to be called Organic?

The following are my comments on the high cost of organic animal feed situation :


January 31, 2009

Farmers seeking organic 'holiday'
By Keith Doyle BBC News

"Farmers have approached ministers seeking a relaxation in organic rules to help them survive the recession. The BBC has seen figures showing a demand for organic food has fallen. The move would mean farmers could cut costs without losing their organic status. Peter Melchett, policy director of the Soil Association, said farmers could put animals on non-organic feed without their land losing its organic status. Sales of organic foods have plummeted by 13% in the last three months.

Editor's Comment: The Timesonline article on 22 December, 2008 stated: "Sales of organic food slumped 10 per cent in the 12 weeks up to the end of November, according to the latest figures from the consumer researchers TNS." [See Newsletter 273, 31 December, 2008] Again, I have searched the TNS site and cannot find this reference. Now the figure cited is 13% and I am no closer to finding the source of these statistics. Sales have dropped because growth has slowed. Many reports that I have seen confirm that growth has slowed but demand is still strong. Let me provide some examples here:

'Sales of organic produce fall 19%' (8 September, 2008)Clio Turton, of the Soil Association, says, "What we are seeing now is a plateau rather than reversal. Year-on-year over the last decade, average growth has been 25 per cent. We are predicting a 10 per cent growth for 2007. While this is down, it is still a growing market."Financial Times (5 Sept)

Asda: 25 per cent increase in organic salesAsda have sent out a press release titled "Supermarket bucks the trend and reports significant growth in organics." It writes: "Despite the bleak economic outlook, ASDA has seen an increase of 25 per cent in sales of its organic range in the last quarter whilst the rest of the market has grown at just under three per cent." (Sept 2008) It lists one of the reasons behind this growth as due to better availability of organic products as ASDA now stocks a range of 900 organic items.

"Wholefoods’ Mr. Besancon argued consumers were treating organic purchases differently from those of other premium products. '...When you buy organic you believe it is inherently better for you and the planet,' he said. 'Who can afford to get sick? So people are becoming more introspective about what they eat. There is growth in the category. It is just less than it was.'" BY NIGEL HUNT and BRAD DORFMAN, Reuters 29 January, 2009

"Patrick Holden, director of Britain’s leading organic certification body the Soil Association, said he was getting mixed reports, with some consumers switching from organic to cheaper free-range products. Demand for many products is, however, holding up well. Some are benefiting from growing demand for locally produced food. 'Organic food with a local story is bucking the recession," he said. "This recession has destabilized things a little, but not catastrophically.' Mr. Holden said about 20% of organic food sales were vulnerable, being bought by "light green" purchasers who had been influenced by the actions of other consumers. These he contrasted with the "deep greens" who make up 80% of demand and are committed to the benefits for health and the environment. 'Storm and tempest won’t affect their buying habits," he said. "I think that rump of committed consumers [is] with us to stay.'"

Editor's Comment: Then why ask DEFRA for a derogation to separate organic land from organic stock?

BY NIGEL HUNT and BRAD DORFMAN, Reuters 29 January, 2009

Editor's Comment: Why risk undermining consumer confidence in organic principles and procedures by twiddling the organic regulations to favour one set of organic producers [grain] over another set? [cattle] Surely the Soil Association charity should be keeping at arms length from these certification controversies. As Lawrence Woodward of Elm Farm Research says below: "It undermines the view that consumers have about the integrity of organic product."

The Soil Association has already asked Rural Affairs Secretary Hilary Benn to consider the benefits of relaxing the rules for an indefinite period while it consults other bodies. Mr Melchett said: "Over a dozen other certifying groups are backing the proposal which would allow meat and dairy farmers to use non-organic feed, typically costing half the price.

Editor's Comment: There are not a dozen more certifying groups operating in the UK, so this must take in other EU countries as well.

"The animals would not be sold as organic but farmers would not [editor's emphasis] have to go through the lengthy and expensive process of returning their land to being organic when the economy picks up."

Editor's Comment: Of course, this does not apply to the stock. The Soil Association made it quite clear on 22 December Today's News entry - "Farmers would be encouraged to return to full standards as soon as possible and would need to go through the same conversion period as any converting farmer."

Dairy farmer Noel Marsh has spent two years and hundreds of thousands of pounds to make his farm organic, but is living through tough times. He told BBC Breakfast: "People are buying less organic milk and more conventional. "And the product we are selling is not achieving the price it should at the moment, with feed costs higher than we have ever known them."

Editor's Comment: The question that is crying out to be asked here is: Who decides what the price should be? For instance, what should the price of a house be? As for the cost of organic feed, as I wrote to Helen Browning, who provides organic grain? If the problem is that organic grain is too high, then I recommend that this problem be investigated. Is it the organic grain producer that is charging too much? Is it the wholesaler? Is it the retailer? Find out and put pressure where it is needed. Or, maybe the problem is the attitude that justifies a business to simply charge as much as the market will bear.

Mr Marsh is undecided on whether the proposal would work for him but thinks other organic farmers would benefit. But Lawrence Woodward of the Organic Research Centre rejected the idea as "muddled" and "arguably stupid". He said: "It undermines the view that consumers have about the integrity of organic product, about the fact that organic farmers are principled producers. "Their farming system is based on principle, that the system that we have developed is a system that really delivers these things and every time we talk about things like taking holidays from principles it undermines that belief and that integrity."

Editor's Comment: Lawrence Woodward has captured the essence of this situation exactly and clearly stated it. I thoroughly agree with him here.

Renee Elliott, founder of the Planet Organic chain, said: "Consumer trust is crucial. It's a very complicated, very well regulated mechanism for producing the best quality food. This cannot affect that." The National Farmers Union has not yet endorsed the proposal, saying it wants to be certain that anything which helps one group of farmers does not harm another. And the Government is biding its time, saying it wants more evidence showing just how bad the situation is for organic farmers and how much support the Soil Association has.

Editor's Comment: Technically, an organically certified producer is prohibited from bringing in manure from a non organic farm for the obvious reason that the animal will have passed through possibly harmful pesticides, herbicides and fungicides from the feed. This is just one of many problems that will come up if this derogation is allowed. What makes a farm organic and who decides what procedures and principles are organic? Well, folks, since 1991, it has been the European Commission. (formally ECC)