Organic To Benefit U. K. Farmers
December 21 2007
It was reported some time ago that the Soil Association wanted to ban the term ‘organic’ for food that had been air freighted into the U.K.
At the time, I could not see the sense in this as, if food is organic, then flying it somewhere would not stop it being organic, and so I investigated further.
Now I have found out the facts. What the Soil Association want, is to only allow organic food to be air freighted in to the U.K. if it brings genuine benefits to farmers in developing countries.
The Soil Association also believe that we should also take into account the environmental costs of transporting the food, and so are working with the Carbon Trust and British Standards Agency to determine a reliable system of assessing the carbon footprint of this food.
I am pleased that farmers in developing countries will not suffer, as trade with other countries has long been a necessary part of our lives (you don’t see many banana plantations here!), but although there is a need to import some foods, thank goodness that we are all doing our bit to buy locally and support local business and local communities. With continued support, our businesses will survive - with our help.
The tragedy is that, although the majority of people want to support local farm shops, many want a ‘one-stop shop’ because they are so busy, and some produce can be expensive as the shops are not able to buy in bulk like the supermarkets. I read that good healthy food is not expensive, but most people would tell you otherwise. Isn’t it time that the government made healthy food an affordable option for the majority of the people of this country, and support our local farmers at the same time?
Perhaps a system from the Carbon Trust could persuade them, but the system would have to be very complex to determine every factor involved in the transport of each delivery, as it would have to calculate in many factors involved, including the airline.
I am not a systems expert, but I remember a man from one of the big supermarkets telling us that to determine the carbon footprint of individual items of their food was nigh on impossible, with different amounts of food per delivery etc. I don’t think it was because he was unwilling to provide the information - I am sure that it would be an absolutely enormous task, possibly too huge for one company to sort – perhaps the Carbon Trust can come up with the goods? Every little helps!
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