April 2002

Fishy Tales of an Irish Boat.
An Irish registered boat is wreaking havoc on fish stocks off the coast of Africa, according to a UN report. The Atlantic Dawn is no mean craft: at 450' long and costing €75 million she is the largest fishing trawler in the world. The monster boat can hoover up and process 7,000 tons in a single voyage. But catches are now failing and thousands of jobs in Mauretania and Senegal have been lost.
There is continuing controversy over the legality of Atlantic Dawn as initially it was refused a fishing license by the EU. It has now however been granted a license "retrospectively".
The luxurious craft is owned by Donegal business man Kevin McHugh. He is also the owner of the Veronica another large trawler/processing vessel.
For more see UK Independent. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp
?story=275719

Irish Celebrity Chef lambastes Ireland's food policies.
Darina Allen of the world-famous Ballymaloe Cookery School has a new book on the market which, apart from its 637 pages of wonderful recipes and illustrations, is highy critical of the modern food industry. Samples of Darina's lively fare: "We try to stimulate debate about food policies that we see as unsustainable, or hygiene regulations that are out of proportion to the risks involved; We are being forced to think about the disastrous consequences of pushing animals and plants further and further beyond their natural limits: Ballymaloe food is only special because of the quality of the ingredients we have from the farm and producers around us: My message to the government and those who have the powers to determine future policy is to beg them to realise that the future of Irish agriculture and tourism will depend on us producing top quality naturally produced food." Book: ballmaloe cookery course published by Gill and Macmillan, Dublin.

Muck-raking
Peter Dargan of the Consumers Association of Ireland had a rant at organic food last week. 'Organic food could represent a bigger risk than conventionally produced food' he said ' because it is fertilised with animal dung that might contain e-coli 0157'. The consumer watchdog went on to say: ' I don't think they're better [organic foods} from a safety point of view and it's not really a practical method of farming'. His most surprising claim however was that all milk was organic!
The new chairman of IOFGA, John Hoey, was quick with a counter-attack (See: News on www.organicmattersmag.com ) as was fellow organic farmer, Michael Hickey. 'This is an old chestnut that was first brought up by the conventional food lobby in the US - the risk is non existent!". (Michael Hickey quoted on 5-7 Live, RTE, 5th April).
The "old chestnut" is the infamous John Stossel 20/20 programme, Feb 2000. The US network, ABC aired a notoriously biased interview with professional anti-organic spokesman Denis Avery who claimed: 'Organic food is more dangerous than commercially grown produce because organic farmers use manure'. Sound familiar? There was much discussion prompted by the programme but the best answer to Avery's slurs, and an explanation of where he and others like him are coming from, can be seen on: www.vegsource.com/articles/organics.2020.htm.
In answer to Mr Dargan's particular claim that organic farming is not practical see, Prof. Jules Pretty's arguments for sustainable farming on, www.members.tripod.com/~ngin/feedtheworld.htm. See these and others on my Articles page. See also Answering the organic attacks of Trewavas and Krebs et al.
As for the organic milk comment ..........! Perhaps John Hoey's advice to Mr Dargan, "get an education" is the kindest thing that could be said about that.

Ed. Mr Dargan would be well advised to do at least an iota of research before making public and damaging statements about a subject he is patently ignorant about. A few facts in the meantime: millions of tons of farmyard manure are spread yearly in Ireland and the UK on conventional farms. Most of this is not composted. In organic farms FYM applied directly to crops is required to be composted - high temperatures in proper composting kill pathogens.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that it is conventional rather than organic farming that is 'impractical'. The real cost of 'cheap food' i.e. including subsidies, environmental clean-up costs etc is now well known and when the proper political decisions are made there will be a level playing field between organic and other food.
Organic farming is not a perfect solution. I am sure that there are organic producers out there who cheat and I am certain that composting FYM and applying it is not always done with the degree of care that it should entail. But, despite this normal, human, less-than-perfect performance (which give big-hitters Avery, Trewavas and Krebs and even minor-league Dargan a target, however small, to hit) it is by far the best alternative we have to a food producing system that could ultimately make life on earth unsustainable.

A Rare Occasion. A Rare and Special Plant Fair will take place at Lakeview Gardens, Mullagh, Co.Cavan on Sunday 12th May 2002. It sounds like it could be an interesting day with over 40 exhibitors attending. Although Lakeview Farm and Gardens are organic and there will be organic food and plants for sale it is not an exclusively organic event. Further details from Daphne and Jonathan Shackleton, email Jshack@indigo.ie and www.lakeviewgardens.net

Site of the month. I really enjoyed visiting this site. Not only are there fine in-depth articles - see especially Aspartame and All commercial food is toxic but it is witty and informative and the sombreness of some of the material is wondefully dispelled by Impressionism paintings at the end of every page. Find out why, by visiting Burton Linne's characterful site and following the links. www.all-organic-food.com

Irish organic farmer, David Notley, suffered a devastating blow recently when many of his sheep were killed by dogs. The local Annaduff branch of the Irish Farmers Association have opened a fund to help relieve the estimated €10,000 financial loss involved.See David Storey's Organic Diary April 4th: www.organicmattersmag.com

Contact:

David Notley Fund
Bank of Ireland,
Mohill Branch,
Co. Leitrim.
Acc. No. 5743529