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The government needs to encourage consumers to reform their diets rather than calling on farmers to produce more food, according to a leading European organic group.

Christopher Stopes, president of the International Federation of Organic Movement’s EU group, said the UK government’s decision to encourage greater production was wrong.

Speaking at the Organic Research Center’s annual conference in Birmingham on Wednesday (19 January), he said DEFRA had become production-orientated – an attitude which needed to change.

“The production narrative is not enough,” he said. “We need to confront issues of consumption.

“We shouldn’t be increasing production, we should be reducing consumption to a level that’s sustainable.

“I don’t accept [DEFRA secretary] Caroline Spelman saying we need to increase production. We can feed ourselves, but we need to change.”

DEFRA also needed to be more vocal in its support for organic production if it was serious about transforming the UK’s food production systems, Mr Stopes said.

It was vital the government made efforts to lift the UK from the bottom of the European tables for organic and conversion payments.

“DEFRA’s attitude towards organic is a disgrace,” he added. “I don’t see any evidence that it gets behind efforts to change the UK’s position on the league table.

“In other member states, governments say organic is a good idea, so supermarkets continue to list it. Retailers won’t follow until the government leads them.