Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

ISIS Press Release 29/11/07

Transparent Label An Alternative to Organic Certification
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Organic food flown in from poor African countries to the UK
has triggered debate over organic certification; the
solution may be a transparent voluntary label that directly
informs consumers. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

Is airfreight organic food really organic?

The organic market grew by 25 percent in the UK to £1.97 bn
in the year 2006-2007, but more than 30 percent of organic
products is imported, some even flown in from sub-Saharan
Africa [1]. Does that make sense in the cost in CO2
emissions? Especially when so many hungry people there are
too poor to buy the food grown in their own countries?

After months of consultation on the issue, the Soil
Association, which certifies 70 percent of organic food in
the UK, published its recommendations based on more than 200
written submissions.  The details of the proposal will be up
for further consultation in 2008, and new certification
rules are expected to come into effect January 2009.

The impact on the organic market may be relatively small, as
less than one percent of organic imports enter the UK by
air. But 80 percent of airfreight organics comes from low or
lower-middle income countries.

The Soil Association is proposing [2] that any airfreight
products should meet its own ethical trading standards or
the Fairtrade Foundation’s standards by 2011. It wants
businesses dependent on airfreight organic products to
develop initiatives to reduce airfreight, and is encouraging
people and businesses to be less reliant on fossil fuels for
their livelihood.

The proposal to have ethical trade standards mandatory in
its organic certification is new, as they are now voluntary.
The standards entail “fair and ethical tradition
relationships”, “socially responsible practices” and “fair
and ethical employment” throughout the entire organic food
chain, from producer to retailer and in both developing and
developed countries.



Read the rest of this article here
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/transparentlabelorganic.php

Or read more articles about Science and Food here
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/scifood.php