Organic Wheat Scandal in Germany

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany)

Jun. 4, 2002

Organic Farming Takes Heavy Hit In Wheat Scandal
F.A.Z. BERLIN. With the crises over mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth
disease still very much on consumers' minds, German agriculture is facing
yet another potentially damaging scandal.

Reports over the weekend said that at least 100 organically run farms
throughout Germany have been feeding wheat tainted with a herbicide,
Nitrofen, to their chickens. The Agriculture Ministry in Lower Saxony said
it was likely that the affected meat and eggs had entered the food chain.

Nitrofen, developed by scientists in the United States in the 1960s, is
banned throughout the European Union and is believed to cause cancer. Lower
Saxony's agriculture minister, Uwe Bartels, described the findings as the
"biggest scandal in organic farming in Germany," while Renate Künast, the
federal minister for consumer protection, food and agriculture, said it was
an "unbelievable affair."

The tainted wheat was first discovered on Friday on a farm in Lower Saxony.
The 100 tons of wheat used there are believed to have come from Brandenburg
last year. A company specializing in animal feed products in Lower Saxony is
thought to have sold the wheat to organic farms throughout Germany. It
remains unclear, however, why the public was informed so late. According to
Naturland, an association representing organic producers, traces of Nitrofen
were found in poultry at the end of January. "We must find out who knew what
and when and failed to pass on the information," said Ms. Künast.

She said her ministry had received "vague information" on Thursday which it
had passed on to Lower Saxony following its own research. Ms. Künast said
the state's authorities had "immediately launched their own investigations."
Mr. Bartels on Friday requested that the state's prosecutors office
investigate the matter. Prosecutors will be focusing on possible violations
against the law on animal feed and fraud, he said.

It remains unclear how the herbicide managed to get into the wheat. A
spokesman for the Agriculture Ministry in Brandenburg said that a
"deliberate attempt to influence chicken farming by using Nitrofen would be
a massive violation, especially in the area of organic farming."

The chairman of Naturland described the events as a severe blow to organic
farming. A spokesman for Germany's largest organic produce association,
Bioland, said the community's credibility was on the line.

Ulrike Höfken, the agriculture policy spokeswoman for Alliance 90/The
Greens, appealed to those states ruled by the opposition Christian
Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union,
not to block the new legislation on consumer protection put forward by the
Social Democratic Party and the Greens. The law would allow authorities to
name all products that may contain carcinogenic substances. At present, this
is not possible.
May 26, 2002

© Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 2000