Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

livingontheland - [Livingontheland] The wholesome truth about organic food

livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] The wholesome truth about organic food
  • Date: Wed, 14 May 2008 09:55:58 -0600


The wholesome truth about organic food
Robin Maynard of the Soil Association responds to Robert Johnston’s report on
the ‘myths’ of organic foods
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/22212,opinion,the-wholesome-truth-about-organic-food

Far from "exploding myths about the benefits of organic food", Robert
Johnston peddles some old chestnuts, as well as constructing myths of his
own. Many seem familiar, stemming from 'interest groups' like the Hudson
Institute, a US think-tank which receives funding from some of the world's
largest agrochemical and GM companies.

Organic husbandry vastly reduces farmers' reliance on the products those
companies manufacture, so any increase in public support for organic food and
expansion of organic acreage threatens their profits.

Johnston is ignorant of actual organic practices allowed under Soil
Association standards and UK and European law, ­ though the details are
freely available on our website. For instance, organic chickens cannot be
kept indoors, other than for a limited period in the event of an actual
outbreak of bird flu.

The article was sign-posted, 'Organic, the lies they tell', but Johnston
doesn't specify who 'they' are. As the main organic food and farming body in
the UK - funded by charitable donations - your readers might reasonably
assume he means the Soil Association. We don't make unsubstantiated claims -
­ a significant body of evidence confirms distinct differences in and
benefits from organic farming and food compared to non-organic.

Six published, peer reviewed studies have found that organic whole milk has
more beneficial fat-soluble nutrients - omega-3 fatty acid, Vitamin E and
beta-carotene. The most recent study by Glasgow and Liverpool Universities
found UK organic whole milk has on average 68 per cent higher levels of
omega-3 than non-organic milk. The Government Food Standards Agency
acknowledges these nutritional differences, but doesn't yet accept these
deliver demonstrable health benefits. (Although Dutch research published only
last year showed that infants fed on organic dairy foods and whose mothers
also ate organic dairy products, suffered a 36 per cent lower incidence of
eczema.)

The environmental benefits of organic farming are well-established and
accepted by respected wildlife groups such as the RSPB and WWF, as well as
the Government's own conservation advisors. A review of 66 published studies
concluded that on average wildlife is 50 per cent more abundant on organic
farms and there are 30 per cent more species than on non-organic farms.

The Soil Association has never claimed organic food doesn't contain
additives, only that it contains far fewer. Johnston claims, "at least three
dozen 'E' numbers are allowed". Not quite. Soil Association standards permit
30 additives, some of which like iron, thiamine (Vitamin B1) and vitamins in
baby food are required by law, 90 per cent fewer than the 300-plus additives
allowed in non-organic food.

Nor do we say our organic farmers 'don't use any pesticides', just that they
can only use four with special permission, compared to the 311 freely
available to non-organic farmers. Polls show the majority of people don't
want pesticides in their food, yet 40 per cent of fruit and vegetable items
on sale in the EU are contaminated with pesticides and one food item in 30
contains pesticides above legal limits. Consumers are right to be concerned,
given the European Commission's acknowledgement that 'long-term exposure to
pesticides can lead to serious disturbances to the immune system, sexual
disorders, cancers, sterility, birth defects, damage to the nervous system
and genetic damage'.

The criticism most commonly levelled against organic farming is that it
'can't feed the world'. A Danish study presented last year at a UN Food &
Agriculture Organisation conference challenges this, finding there wouldn't
be any serious negative effect on food security for sub-Saharan Africa if 50
per cent of agricultural land in the food exporting regions of Europe and
North America converted to organic by 2020 and that a similar shift in
sub-Saharan Africa could help the region's hungry by reducing reliance on
imports.

The UK organic market has grown more than 25 per cent year on year over the
past decade, a cause for celebration for those wanting more sustainable food
and farming, but clearly worrying for those flogging pesticides and
artificial fertilisers.
soilassociation.org





  • [Livingontheland] The wholesome truth about organic food, Tradingpost, 05/14/2008

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page