Latest Organic News from Europe

from <www.organicts.com> 8/30/01
IRELAND: GROWTH AND GRANTS THE CARROTS FOR ORGANIC SECTOR
18 August, Irish Independent
The Irish Government is urging farmers and food producers to give serious
consideration to the organic option.
Less than one per cent of land is farmed organically in Ireland, ranking it
among the lowest of European countries, but with annual growth in the market
expected to be around 25-30pc in the foreseeable future, a rise in the
number of producers is predicted.
Recently Junior Agriculture Minister Noel Davern officially opened the
Organic Centre at Rossinver, Co Leitrim. Since its inception in 1995, the
non-profit organisation has grown to become on of the most comprehensive
sources of education, information and training on organic growing and
farming methods in the country.
And the minister stressed the Government's commitment to developing the
organic sector in Ireland: "Everyone in the farming and food production
sectors should be looking very seriously at the organic option."
There are now an estimated 1,000 organic farmers and about 75,000 acres
under organic production. With the market currently worth around £25m a
year, Ireland still relied heavily on imports and efforts should be made to
increase production to supply the home and export market, the minister said.
Grants totalling £6m over the next five years include 40pc assistance for on
farm projects up to £40,000 and 40pc for off-farm projects up to £200,000.

NETHERLANDS: ORGANIC FARM OF THE FUTURE?
August 22, Guardian (UK)
Sigrún Davídsdóttir writing in the Guardian reports on a Dutch government
idea to place an industrial farm where consumers and supermarkets are ­ in
the city, Rotterdam to be precise.
The scale is vast: imagine 10 football fields laid out in a rectangle,
roughly 1km by 400 metres, and then six floors of equal area, a total of 200
hectares (500 acres) stretching skywards. Within the building would be
animal production, aquaculture, vegetable and insect growing. The complex,
known as Deltapark envisages 300,000 pigs, 1.2m chickens, tens of thousands
of fish and a giant vegetable growing area all under one roof.
The pigs could inhale the sea breeze on the balcony, enjoying more space
than in an average pig farm, and ending their days in the slaughterhouse
downstairs. Space without daylight in the giant building could be used for
cultivating mushroom and chicory which thrive in the dark. Higher up,
greenhouses full of tomatoes and flowers, grown in nutrient solutions
collected from elsewhere in the building would profit from the light and,
with wind turbines on the roof to power the whole thing, the system is
theoretically a complete ecological farming cycle, with one activity feeding
another and everything being recycled.
Deltapark is an "agro-production park", run by managers, not farmers. The
key concept is its "clustering" of production, the running together of
different productions to maximise environmental efficiency and it would be
³organic.² The whole idea was to think the unthinkable for the Innovations
Network, a think-tank at the Dutch ministry of agriculture and it has
created a furious debate in the Netherlands and attracted attention abroad.
Jan Broeze, scientific researcher at the University of Wegeningen, whose
brainchild Deltapark is, will only go so far as to say that Deltapark is an
ecological improvement to the current situation as it can reduce the
environmental burden of agriculture. The goal, he says, is to suggest new
scientific ways to reduce the environmental strain of food production. "The
report was only a theoretical proposition, not a detailed plan. Further
studies are needed," he says. Broeze says that industry has shown interest,
but no money has yet been allocated for the project. In spite of the
political interest, Deltapark will only be built with private money. "But I
believe we will see clustering of some kind in agriculture, both in the
Netherlands and elsewhere, as it allows for a more efficient way of using
resources," he says.
There would be little to stop a giant bio-farm such as the one proposed by
the Dutch getting classed as "organic", but it would shock to the core most
existing organic farmers who tend to run relatively small operations and who
have a long-held belief that ecological and social considerations are and
should be firmly linked.
Most organic production standards, it could be argued, would be met by an
operation on the scale of Deltapark, especially if it did not envisage much
soil being used. But the great objection would be that Deltapark does not
consider the wider social impact of the farming system. One of the great
debates in the organic movement is how far this guideline should be taken.
As organic farming becomes more mainstream, so big money and agribusiness is
moving in and pressure to dilute the defining principles is growing. One
Deltapark, apart from potentially undermining thousands of existing organic
farms which could not possibly compete on scale, would create an
unimaginable furore.
But the kind of "eco-loops" which mimic nature, as suggested by Deltapark,
are widely thought to be the future, and more and more businesses are
starting to investigate how one industrial process can use another's waste
as an input, so reducing pollution and energy. Deltapark may be a logical,
efficient way forward but it raises the fundamental question of what is
truly "ecological".
Thomas Cierpka, executive direc tor of the International Federation of
Organic Agriculture Movement (Ifoam), said. "Organic farmers want to control
their production but not nature as a whole. Food production of this kind,
unattached to nature, can in my mind never be called ecological."

SPAIN: ORGANIC AREA HAS TREBLED IN THE LAST 5 YEARS
(ZMP)
According to the magazine Valencia Fruits the organically managed area in
Spain has trebled during the last 5 years. In 1996 103,743 ha were managed
organically and last year the corresponding figure was 380,838 ha. In
Extremadura region 7,404 enterprises manage an area of 170,000 ha, and in
Andalusia 2,921 enterprises (including 132 processors) manage 69,000 ha
(with 29,000 ha in conversion).
In Extremadura approximately 150,000 ha of the 170,000 are controlled by the
CEPAE (the committee of organic agriculture production of Extremadura)
together with 180,000 head of cattle. Fruit, fresh vegetables, paprika,
olive oil, honey products, jams, tinned vegetables and almonds are among the
range of products.
Within Andalusia organic farming is concentrated in the province of Almeria
where 16% of the organic area is located. This amounts to 10,671 ha managed
by 500 enterprises and only Cordoba and Grenada have similar interests.
During the last 5 years organic farming has quintupled in the province. Most
enterprises manage less than 5 ha with the main crops being olives and
almonds.
In the province of Huelva the organic farming represents only 5.7% of the
Andalusian total at 1,300 ha mainly involving livestock rearing.
In Alicante organic farming has developed rapidly in fruit growing and
vegetable production. The organically managed area in the province has
risen, according to the CAE (council for the organic farming in the region
of Valencia) from 5,000 ha (1999) to 5,450 ha (2000). Vegetables are grown
on 110 ha, citrus fruits on 56 ha with 60 ha dedicated to other fruits.
Other crops include 250 ha of olives, 470 ha of wine, 2,300 ha of dry
fruits, 156 ha of medicinal plants and spices and 1,900 ha of grain and
legumes. 70% of the organic production in Alicante comes from cooperatives,
with only 30% from private enterprises. For the next 5 years an annual
growth of 15% is forecast. Olives, almonds, vegetables and citrus fruits
will show the biggest growth rates.
In the region of Rioja almost 2,500 ha are organically managed by 105
enterprises. 4 traders and 40 processors (usually wineries) are active in
the region. Beekeeping is the predominant form of animal rearing. Almond
cultivation, with almost 700 ha, is also strong.

UK: CONSEQUENCES OF PUTTING PROFITS BEFORE THE HEALTH OF THE NATION
19 August, Observer (UK)

Monty Don is less than happy with the appointment of Lord Haskins as
chairman of the better regulation task force! Writing in The Observer he
feels that the appointment highlights how profoundly out of touch this
Government is with all matters to do with the countryside, food production,
agriculture and the environment.
Don is convinced that the issue of health, food and the environment is not
only right at the forefront of most people's interests but also at the heart
of British politics. Organic food he claims has belonged, until very
recently, to a tiny minority. Food producers and politicians have scorned it
without feeling too threatened. But BSE, genetic modification and the foot
and mouth crisis have forced mass food production into the public domain.
The likes of Northern Foods see themselves under real threat from food that
is produced organically. Hence the attacks are becoming more orchestrated.
Vast food companies finance research and suppress anything that will damage
their share price. Successive Governments have been irresponsible to an
astonishing degree in the management of our food and environment. But this
is changing. We don't trust you any more.
The nation's health bill soars as a result of poor diets and the evidence is
becoming overwhelming that many of the modern afflictions - especially in
children - such as asthma and eczema are a result of polluted 'cheap' food.
Heart disease is soaring at a huge cost to the NHS and industry partly as a
result of the fat-intensive diet of 'cheap' processed foods. BSE has so far
cost taxpayers £4 billion and a hundred people have died. There will be
more. Foot and mouth has cost £2.2 billion.
Don suggest that organic farmers be given the same subsidies as chemical
growers - or remove subsidies altogether. Provide people with more money to
pay for more 'expensive' food out of the billions that would be saved
annually from the health bill. Stop seeing food as something to fob off on
the 'poor' so that a few multi-national companies can make themselves
enormously wealthy, and accept that every single one of us has a right to
the best food we can provide.

UK: ORGANIX BRANDS CALLS FOR TIGHTER ORGANIC FOOD RULES
16 August, Organix Brands

Findings released by the Government's Pesticides Safety Directorate (PSD)
reveal that a wide range of everyday non-organic foods contain pesticide
residues and highlight the difference in purity between organic and
non-organic foods.
The report shows that conventionally-grown everyday foods are widely
contaminated by pesticide residue, with half of all bread and potatoes
affected. Four out five pears and three quarters of all apples tested
positive.
In contrast, only three out of twenty seven (11%) organic food samples
showed the presence of residues. Very low levels were identified in two
babyfoods produced by Baby Organix and an investigation led by the company's
founder, Lizzie Vann, has far reaching implications for the organic
industry. Flaws discovered in the organic certification process are being
tackled by the regulators and moves are already underway to tighten
regulations.
A six-month investigation carried out by Organix Brands traced the residue
found back to oats which the company had understood had been grown in the
UK, with full organic credentials. However, it was found that not only had
the oats possibly originated in Finland, but experts confirmed they
contained a level of the agrochemical chlormequat, commonly seen on
non-organic oats (but still within Government guidelines for safety).
Although independent expert advice confirmed that the level of residue found
was not a health or safety issue for children, the company immediately
withdrew the affected foods from sale and destroyed them.
As a result of this Organix has introduced industry leading testing
procedures covering every ingredient purchased. It rejects anything
containing detectable pesticide residue. In the first four months of 2001
it turned away 16 percent of the organic ingredients it was offered for
sale. The company also retests the final food as a precaution.
Lizzie Vann is now calling on regulators to act on three important
initiatives:
* A detailed independent study into the risk of residues being found in
organic foods on behalf of consumers, certifiers and manufacturers.
* Regular residue testing of all organic foods by the regulators as a
backstop to check on their authenticity, and publication of those results on
the Internet to help organic companies avoid those problem foods.
* New and tighter rules on organic foods covering segregation and
traceability through stages of transport, warehousing, processing, packaging
and storage.
"When our industry says a food is organic we must be able to prove that it
is. I hope the work we have done over the last six months will help move the
industry towards that perfectly attainable goal" said Lizzie.
For further information: Lizzie Vann, Organix Brands plc, Tel: 07768 100
553, Office: 01202 479 701.