Organic Food Helps Revive Fortunes of Europe’s Farmers

 

Organic Food Helps Revive Fortunes of Europe’s Farmers
by Adam Mitchell / Rachel Shields

BRUSSELS - The organic revolution is sweeping across Europe, with the
area of land dedicated to environmentally-friendly, pesticide-free food
production more than doubling in the last decade.

Organic farming now accounts for more than 4 per cent of agricultural
land in the EU, more than double its 1998 share, according to a new
report from its official statistics agency, Eurostat. 0614 07

And organic land is likely to make greater inroads, as the consumer
appetite shows no sign of slowing.

“Organic almost certainly will continue to grow and we think it’s a
good thing,” Michael Mann, an EU agriculture spokesman said.

The growth is partly being driven by Europe’s farmers, who are being
undercut by produce imported from countries such as Brazil. For many
farmers, organic foods are becoming a key way to reinvent their failing
farms.

“Farmers are coming under growing pressure from low-cost producers
abroad,” Mr Mann said. “They have to be smart and think of increasing
profit margins and organic is one way of doing that.”

Conscious of this ballooning market, agriculture ministers from the 27
member states agreed this week on a compulsory logo, to be introduced
from 2009, designed to reassure consumers that they are getting the
genuine article.

The logo guarantees that at least 95 per cent of ingredients are
completely free of chemicals - and imports will be subject to the same
rule. But it also permits up to 0.9 per cent from genetically-modified
organisms, a level that has angered green campaigners.

“It is a total cop-out by the European Union - setting a level of 0.9
per cent could result in the creeping GM contamination of organic
food,” said Ben Ayliffe, of Greenpeace. “It should be 0.1 per cent.”

“Go into any supermarket and they are bursting with organic food, while
GM foods are conspicuous by their absence. That’s because consumers
don’t want them!” he added.

In recent years, European consumers have shown themselves willing to
pay more for organic produce, reflecting an aversion to chemicals and a
growing preference for natural farming techniques over the
high-intensity production that has been blamed for crises such as BSE
and foot-and-mouth disease.

Recognising this fact, Brussels will now provide higher levels of
subsidy for organic farming, than that given to non organic fruit and
vegetables.

The UK has been a leader in organic farming. In 2005, more than 600,000
hectares of the country’s farmland were cultivated organically, putting
it ahead of France, a country more than twice its size. Yet only 3.8
per cent of UK farmland was devoted to organic production, compared
with 11 per cent in Austria. The Alpine nation has a reputation as a
strong opponent of intensive and biotech farming, recently refusing to
follow an EU ruling allowing a type of genetically-modified maize made
by Monsanto.

While the Eurostat report primarily compared the 15 nations that joined
the EU before 2004, it also pointed out that some of the biggest
organic farms now are to be found in newcomers Slovakia and Czech
Republic.

© 2007 Independent News and Media Limited

 

wrote:


First of all I wish you would adjust your line length in order that
your posts were more readable.  Secondly, I wish you would stop your
damned topposting.  Your posts are a mess to read.


This last line shows how full of shit you are sherwin.  Actually the
whole post is shit, your denigration and deprecation of organic farming
and your outright lying about profit motive.

By the way, I put this back in rec.gardens, which you trimmed, where it
originated, and where folks are a little more willing to call you on
your shill ways.

 



Uh, by and large, I agree with you Charlie but in truth between the
Government and the industrial agri-business complex there is a whole
lotta hanky-panky goin' on. You want organic? Go to your local farmers
market. Look 'em in the eye and ask what they are selling. Foor god's
sake don't go to Whole Foods and think you are getting the real deal.
Whole foods has a zillion stores to fill and they like one stop
industrial shopping. If the producer can produce an organic label, that
is all that they want to see, even if it is still a factory. The food on
your plate doesn't have to travel 1,500 miles to get there.

Think Global. Eat Local.

- Billy
Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)

 



failing

genetically-modified

600,000

putting

Personally I am not that hung up on the concept of 'organic'. The term is
often used fast and loosely to envoke all things good. I am happy to buy
locally, and somewhat seasonally. That things are organic or not is a subset
of that thinking. Just because a banana grown 5,000 miles away is organic or
not doesn't make a huge bearing on whether or not I buy the banana. Some
mandarins grown organically 20 or 50 kms away may, or some moderate spray
mandarins grown 20 or 50 km away may prevail in my shopping hierarchy.

That said, coffee or chocolate (or whatever) grown where fair prices are
paid to the producers will sometimes be a condition on my purchases. Often
such 'fair trade' growing are also organicly grown anyway. Buying things
locally keep a lot of money in local circulation, buying fiar trade puts
more money in the pockets of farmers who are sometimes at the bottom of the
heap.

Organic products, grown on slavery wages and shipped 1/2 way round the world
to me rate little higher than chemical enhanced products, grown on slave
wages & shipped 1/2 way round the world to me.

Local goods, with reasonable money going to the producer, do rate quite
highly in my book. If they are organic & the grower uses practises that
enhance the soil then that is great. If they are not organic they are still
acceptable.

rob

 



I'm pretty much with you Rob. Sustainability is another concept that I
think is important; not relying on petrochemical insecticides and
fertilizers. See Senior moment post for yesterday and the excerpts from
Michael Pollan's book "Omnivor'e Dilemma".

- Billy

Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)