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Organic – the Coporate Take Over |
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‘We understood that being connected to the land and producing healthy food was something we really valued…Only lately has it been, in some ways, co-opted by marketing interests and now large corporations who see there is a lot of profit to be made from the organic industry’.
Linda Prym organic farmer and farming inspector.
The first European organic farms date back to the 1920s. The organic movement began to take off in Northern Europe, North America, New Zealand and Australia in the 1960s and 70s, following Rachael Carsons best selling expose of the dangers of synthetic pesticides Silent Spring.
The 1990s saw organic food distinctly breakthrough to the mainstream, no doubt in part attributable to the reaction to increasing concerns about food safety, BSE, CJD and geneticall engineering. In the 15 countries of the European Union between 1986 and 1999 the land area being farmed organically grew on average by 25% every year. The global organic food market is now worth over $5 billion a year.
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Along the way organic farming has changed greatly, once the preserve of a few pioneering and idealistic individuals struggling against the grain, organic is now a fast growing sector of the mainstream food industry. There are still great many committed small organic growers producing good healthy food in an ecologically aware manner, but the kind of large-scale producers that are now beginning to grow organic are inspired by simple profit. The big food and agribusiness corporations have not failed to notice the growing amount of affluent consumers willing and able to pay extra for healthier options. Their move into organic is certainly not due to a new found interest in public health or the environment, they will go on producing polluted food for everyone else. As Paul Rosenburg points out ‘we could find ourselves in a future where the poor eat poisoned food which the affluent avoid, and no longer even think about’. Food Manufacturers The prominent example is Mars buying out Seeds of Change, a small independent seed company that promotes rare varieties and biodiversity. Mars have invested heavily in marketing and advertising their range of organic food products under the Seeds of Change name in Europe and the US. Other manufacturers who have bought up independent organic companies include, Kellogg (bought natural cereal maker Kashi), Kraft Foods, part of Phillip Morris, (bought Balance bar company and Boca Burger Inc), General Mills (Small Planet Foods Co.), Coca-cola (Odwalla, maker of natural juices). Meanwhile Rank Hovis MacDougal have launched their own organic range under the name of the Enjoy Organic Company. Supermarkets However today due to competition from supermarkets many box schemes have declined. Organic farmers who sell to the supermarkets find themselves coming under the same squeeze as their conventional counterparts. Supermarkets aim to buy in bulk and at the lowest possible prices, favouring large farms that do less to protect the environment. The organic sector has started to resemble the conventional food sector in the way foods are distributed, transported, stored, packaged and marketed. Organic certification simply covers food produced without chemicals. Energy used in transport, processing and packaging as well as the pay and labour conditions of farm workers are not considerations. According to a 2001 report by the Soil Association, 80% of UK customers now buy their organic products at the supermarket and over 70% of the organic food that they buy has been imported. A survey by economist Dr Anna Ross compared prices of organic foods sold in different outlets. The conclusion was that supermarkets are the most expensive of all organic food retailers and that they offer a smaller range of fresh produce than box schemes, farm shops and farmers markets. Dr Rosss report came out of research she was commissioned to carry out by the Soil Association and was originally meant to be published in their magazine Living Earth. However at the last moment the Soil Association got cold feet saying that Dr. Ross conclusions were ‘unhelpful at this time’. This is an indication of how important ties with the supermarkets have become to Britains leading organic organisation. Ross was even threatened by letter when she published the report herself, the Soil association wrote ‘you should compensate the SA for using copyrighted material without permission in your report or cease to sell the publication’. Costs of certification Phil Chandler is director of the Wholesome Food Association a body set up to offer a way for producers to market local ecologically farmed produce at much lower cost than ‘organic’ certification. He points out ‘It is not feasible for the smaller grower to cough up nearly ?500 for the privilege of using the SA logo. There is also a lot of unrest about its association with supermarkets’. No grower is legally allowed to use the term organic unless they are registered with an organic certification body that is a member of UK Register of Organic Food Standards. It is this government body, and not the Soil Association, which controls the standards of organic food production in the UK. In both Europe and North America the decision about what can and cannot be labeled organic does not rest with the producers, or the national organic farming movements. The US movement recently had to fight very hard to prevent food produced using sewage sludge, irradiation or genetically engineered crops from be allowed to be labeled as organic. Since 1999 the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation has taken over the international standards of organic agriculture and requirements for organic food labeling. This is done through the little known body, Codex Alimentarius, is a food industry dominated committee that wields great power behind the scenes by deciding on international rules on how all foods can be produced. Conclusion Large scale food growers and manufactures will be able to offer cost price organic foods due to the kinds of economies they achieve by their sheer scale. Small-scale growers who follow ecologically sound practices need to find other methods of developing trust in their customers than through organic certification. We have many more positive things to say about our products and methods than the big commercial producer does by simply reaching the minimum organic standards. All growers are likely within the next few years to be under increasing threat from cross-pollination with nearby genetically engineered crops. Organic growers face the added threat of their crops losing their organic symbol. This is a difficult time and food consumers are being bombarded with confusing messages due to the constant stream of industry propaganda that finds its way into the media. But there are reasons to be hopeful. There is a growing awareness of the problems of industrial food production and the beginnings of a movement for local food production that will open new opportunities to market produce to local customers. Rebuilding locally based and controlled food production and distribution systems that completely bypass the mass industry, based, not on centralised control, but on direct contact between growers, consumers and communities. SOURCES Organic farming: evolution and challenges A talk by Lynda Prim Organic panic by Andy Rowell http://www.domainomania.com/wfa/downloads/organic_panic.html Organic Food Prices 2002 Comparisons of prices: Supermarkets; Farm Shops; Box Schemes, Farmers’ Markets. Report by Dr. Anna Ross, brief outline of conclusions online at http://www.domainomania.com/wfa/ross_report.html Nation’s growth-starved food conglomerates suddenly have rage for organic food market, Kevin Helliker, The Wall Street Journal |
