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23rd January, 2002 Soil Association suppresses organic prices' report. A report by UK economist Dr Anna Ross, which claims that supermarkets are overcharging on their organic lines, has been withheld from publication by the UK Soil Association.http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=115439 Excerpts from the report were to have been published in Living Earth, a Soil Association quarterly, but were withdrawn by the Director, Patrick Holden. In one instance, the report claimed that Tesco were 69% over-priced on their organic produce. Holden defends this by claiming that to deny the supermarkets their high prices would mean bankruptcy for organic producers. At the AGM this week he will be proposing that we pay too little for our food and we must be prepared to pay more for organic. Ed. I think he is completely on the wrong tack here and is in for a right pasting . I would agree that we must pay more for our food but I would suggest the path to go down is to expose the fraud of conventional produce pricing, i.e. hugely subsidised by central governments and not reflecting true environmental and health costs. Paying a substantial environmental/health premium to organic producers is another way of achieving a level playing field with conventional produce. Keeping organic prices apparently high will not, in my opinion, educate people to pay more for organic produce but keep it in a niche, exclusive ghetto and deny poorer sections of the community access to healthier food. The Commission on the Future of Farming (UK) is due to report this Friday. Some striking proposals are expected including that of a £200m "green farmers' fund", to encourage environmentally friendly farming. Special extra payments to organic farmers are also being suggested. Anticipating the report, a DEFRA spokesman said: " It is obvious that the future of farming is in linking food production and environmental protection". GM crops not needed to feed the world, Australian Prof. Roger Packam told a conference in Hobart last week. Corporate profits were the driving force behind GM crops, not any desire to alleviate hunger. Access to food is the real issue, he says, not productivity. www.ngin.org.uk , 15th January 2002 30% organic by 2010 - this is the demand made to legislators at the Organic Targets Rally in Westminster today. See www.sustainweb.org/homefra.htm for details. Today's report from, http://www.foe.co.uk/pubsinfo/infoteam/pressrel/2002/20020122174815.html Selected weeds can increase crops of maize by 30%. http://news.bmn.com/news/story?day=020121&story=1 Corporations seek moral authority by head-hunting prominent environmentalists. Lord Melchett's move into corporate PR prompts this article in the Independent which describes the increasing trend for corporations to employ high-profile environmentalists. Jonathan Porritt, ex-FOE and now adviser to Blair is quoted in defence of this apparent turn-coating, "There is a need for confrontational campaigning but it is still possible to keep one's radicallity whilst working for industry". http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=114351 . This contrasts with Peter Melchett being asked by Greenpeace Internationlal last week to resign from its board because of his new job with PR giant, Burson-Marsteller. GI said the Labout peer's new employment "could be in conflict with our principles and our campaigning goals". Irish organic body in disarray as governing board resigns. Amid claims that the Irish Organic Farmers and Growers Association, IOFGA, was losing its heart, costing too much to run, was out of touch with its members and becoming just an extension of the Dept of Agriculture, the whole governing board of the main Irish organic organisation resigned at a recent meeting. A caretaking board, chaired by long-time organic farmer and activist, Michael Hickey from Tipperary, will hold the fort until a new direction can be hammered out. Green MEP says Irish have the worst environmental record in Europe. Patricia McKenna of the Irish Greens, said this evening that, pro rata, Ireland has the highest number of environmental complaints against it of any EU member state and displays "an arrogant and irresponsible laissez-faire attitude" to environmental problems, especially waste management. http://www.rte.ie/news/2002/0123/environment.html and McKenna's site, www.pmckenna.com. Cooley Sheep Farmers accused of bleating hearts over loss of flocks and FMD compensation. The Irish, Late Late Show, last Friday, had a number of sheep farmers from the Cooley Peninsula in Co. Louth telling their stories of wiped-out sheep flocks and inadequate compensation offers from the govt. An exasperated young woman in the audience couldn't see the point of such lamenting. Accusing the farmers of hypocrisy she said the animals were going to killed anyway, somewhere down the line, to grace our plates with chops and suchlike. She has a point. And they had a point. Ed. The farmers' case would have been better served, methinks, if they had concentrated less on the sentimental pet-lamb-snatched-from-my-lap-and-killed view and asked for just-compensation for their prompt sacrifices in giving up their animals and their businesses in the national interest. Having escaped from a major epidemic by the skin of their teeth, it beggars belief that the govt is now, not only trying to shave costs over compensation for a bargain campaign, but is prepared to defend their carping case in the courts. As I have said previously, industries other than farming paid very dearly indeed for this national emergency and I think they are soft in the head for not pursuing the govt for compensation. Irish Farmers Journal to apologise to organic magazine for purloining letter. Whilst praising the IOFGA Organic Matters magazine last week, I commented on their balls in publishing a letter from some members deeply criticising the parent organisation. The IFJ, probably too journalistically lazy to write something original, or just so eager to publish what they saw to be a negative item on the sworn enemy, the organic movement, reproduced the letter as if it was addressed to them. It seems they will apologise in this week's issue. I don't read the Journal myself and their website defeats me, so, if someone out there would keep me informed on this I'd be grateful. The Journal site is, www.farmersjournal.ie Of Waste Space. Ex US space programme engineer describes govt. waste and environmental pollution on a grand scale. http://ens-news.com/ens/jan2002/2002L-01-18g.html. Bog
rhubarb as effective as prescription drugs at fighting hay fever
(France). BioFach
2002 - the leading world fair for organic consumer goods will be held in
Germany, 14th - 17th February. There will be over 1,700 exhibitors from 50
countries and more than 25,000 trade visiitors alone. www.biofach.de. Organic Matters magazine is giving me ten copies of the next issue to offer as prizes. To win a copy, email me with the answer to the folllowing: on what page of the OM website will you find an article entitled, " Do organic veg always win the nutrition stakes"? The website, in case you've forgotten it, is www.organicmattersmag.com.
11th January, 2002 Organised,
orchestrated, organic bashing is now celebrating the beginning of its third
year. Well-funded and planned in the best tradition of cold war secret service
operations, the ABC (AgBiotechCorps) empire strikes back. Smarting from the
licking they suffered in Europe on GM food, new tactics were adopted. The
organic industry was targeted as their biggest threat (not anti-GM activists)
and resources were increased and concentrated to win the war for 'science and
reason'. Beginning largely with the infamous John Stossel/Denis Avery, 20/20
Show in the States and followed by the notorious BBC, Counterblast programme,
Jan 31st, 2000, and several others since then, they are increasingly gaining
substantial ground and winning over the hearts and minds of consumers. Search
in www.ngin.org.uk Ex-Greenpeace
Lord accused of sell-out. Lord Melchett, formerly Director of
Greepeace, is getting a lot of flak this week because of his recent appointment
to international PR consultants, Burson-Marsteller. BM have achieved some
notoriety amongst environmentalists because of the clients they have acted for -
Union Carbide (Bhopal disaster), Shell (oil rig fiasco), Babcock and Wilcox
(Three Mile Island nuclear incident), GM giant Monsanto etc. It
begins. 'The hope of the industry (ABCs – AgBioTech Corps) is that over time the
market is so flooded (with GM organisms) that there’s nothing you can do about
it. You just sort of surrender!' Don Westfall, Vice President, Promar
International, Washington, consultants to Kellogs, Unilever, Aventis etc. The Hare and the Dog. No - I haven't got the header wrong here, although you might be forgiven for the assumption as, after my peregrinations and celebrations in Penwith over Christmas and the New Year, 'hair of the dog' might have been an appropriate remedy and perhaps the title of a small news item. But no - I am referring to an article, Gangsters, guns and unlicensed gambling: welcome to the world of illegal coursing in the Independent this week about the atrocious 'sport' of live hare coursing in England, http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=112922 . Describing vicious intimidation of landowners, connections to the criminal underworld and of course the cruelty to the hares (and other animals like cats and small dogs used to blood the hounds), reminds me of my days as a bookseller in Clonmel, (Co. Tipperary, Ireland) the venue for the 'legal' Coursing Festival in February each year. I took my courage in my hands one year by demonstrating against the Festival, which brings millions to the local economy. This led to a boycott of my business by the publicans of the town. Strangely enough though, my turnover actually improved in the following weeks and I noticed a lot of publicans' wives and families in my shop that I hadn't seen before. Time for a change, I would say; there probably is a silent majority out there.The Junior Minister for Agriculture with the organic brief, Noel Davern, is the local, presiding Fianna Fail TD (MP) and is an enthusiastic supporter of hare coursing and fox hunting. Organic Minister awards Culchie* trophy. The same Org Min Ag, Noel Davern, presented a bottle of champagne to the Culchie of 2001, Ken Lee, (son of a good, farmer friend of mine, Christie Lee, who, incidentally, has in the past also taken a public stand against coursing). The Culchie Festival, now in its twelfth year was held in Fethard, Co Tipperary (my home town, pop. 800 approx.) this year. It is very much a fun affair which seeks to select a candidate who represents the best of country values but in particular one who has 'the ability to entertain at will, at any time of the day and night'. The young, personable Ken, has this quality and more and deservedly won against stiff opposition. He has such an ebullient personality that, in his job as a debt collector, his debtors reputedly pay up with a laugh. I was sorry to have missed the Festival myself and especially the 'Bacon and Cabbage Ball' (I will give you my recipe for B&C, my favourite nosh, next week) See one of the most-visited and earliest websites in Ireland, www.fethard.com for more on the Festival. *The term 'Culchie' (pronounced, cull she )in normal Irish usage, is used disparagingly by urbanites, especially Dubliners, to describe one recently 'up from the country'. The dictionary, Collins, interprets it as ' a rough, labouring countryman.(of unknown origin)' It is probably however derived from the Irish phrase for an outdoor toilet, cúl tighe, meaning literally, back of the house. Stop Press I've just been told by librarian/teacher Dorothy, she-whose-words-must-never-ever-be-challenged, that culchie comes from the town-name of Kiltimagh (pronounced, Kill she mock) in Co.Mayo, made extra-famous by Christy Moore in his Knock song. Royal Horse Hounds Photographer. The Guardian describes the harrowing tale of a long-range-lens photographer(definitely not paparazzi - according to himself) out to photograph the royals at play - slaughtering foxes - being bravely charged by the mounted Prince William. His dad, king-to-be, Prince Charles, followed up his cub's impetuous foray with a few choice, if un-princely, words to the hapless, ditch-drenched snapper. I admire Prince Charles and his huge contribution to the organic cause but I wish he would also perceive the throwback inanity of foxhunting, which our own Oscar memorably aphorised as 'the indescribable in pursuit of the inedible'. www.guardian.co.uk , page 4, supplement, Real Lives, 9th January. Organic Matters - so it does, so it does. The current issue, Jan/Feb, of the Irish magazine, Organic Matters is a particularly good one. Go to its new website, www.organicmattersmag.com for a list of articles (and some in full). Great to see that it doesn't balk at allowing criticisism of its own parent organisation, IOFGA. See Letters page. Also see, IOFGA's own site for upcoming meetings etc (there's not much else on it yet - my site is not even mentioned in their Links!). www.irishorganic.ie No of young people believing organic produce to be better for you almost halved. A recent Mintel poll of 1,000 consumers in the UK showed that in the 15 - 24 age group the number supporting organic produce dropped from 20% in 1999 to 11% in 2,000. For mo re see, Newsletter, 11th January, www.organicts.com, An Siopa Órgánach* - The Organic Shop. Farmer Marc O'Mahoney moved into his new premises in the English Market in Cork just before Christmas. Everything in the bright, open shop is organic so shoppers don't have to weary their eyes looking for symbols. Reflecting the ever-growing demand, Marc has also introduced the first dedicated organic butcher's counter in Munster which sells his own own beef and lamb at prices set to compete with local quality conventional meat. * I think this is a new Irish word - do you think it should have the fadas on the O and A? For Gaelgóirs only of course - English need not apply! Bio Fach Japan, an international organic trade show, seems to have been a success. Held in Japan, mid-December, it attracted almost 10,000 trade visitors alone. Full report on www.biofach-japan.com Mad Dog Englishman bites everybody. Sounds as if Mathew Fort of the Guardian and sometime organic produce judge is doing an O'Connor* and attacking everybody in sight. See www.guardian.co.uk/food/Story/0,2763,627681,00.html * I was described as a mad dog a few years ago after savaging everybody - in a talk entitled, The Killing Fields. Green, Fresh and Wholesome is how Ray Ryan of the Irish Examiner sees Ireland's image in an article, Local demand outstrips organic produce supply, in Monday's newspaper. Ray, talk to food importers in Germany - they'll likely be able to tell you about the Skibbereen farmer who deliberately introduced the BSE infected cow into his herd. The piece is mostly taken up with statistics from a not-so-fresh Bord Bia report from eighteen months ago and unconvincing platitudes from the not-so-green Org Ag Min Davern. Seed Sources. Will have an item on organic seed sources next week. If you want some lettuce seeds, Free, send me a small stamped, addressed envelope. I got the seed originally in Spain some years ago and it is my favourite lettuce of all time. I am calling it Flamenco Rose, because of its Andalucian origins, its fragrance (I mean that!), its rose-shape and its red-tinged skirts! Organic and Natural Guide:The Website Guide by Louis Douglas. I haven't read it yet but if this book was as good as it could be there would be no need for much of my site. But I doubt that it satisfies the activist's needs to any great degree and in any case, according to OM editor David Storey, it has very few Irish sites included. It costs £7.99, in real money, including postage. Email editorial@websiteguides.co.uk .
6th January, 2002. 'Health is the birthright of every living organism'. - Sir Albert Howard. 'The responsibility for ensuring safe, sustainable and ethical production is shared by consumers, producers and society.'- Sweden's Ag. Min., Margareta Winberg, April 2001 at EU meeting in Sweden. 'To feed the world takes political and financial will. (And) if anyone tells you that GM is going to feed the world, tell them that it is not…' Steve Smith, executive, Novartis (now SYNGENTA). '..Sustainable agriculture .. sounds like a luxury the poor can ill-afford. But in truth it is good science, addressing real needs and delivering real results. For too long it has been the preserve of environmentalists and a few aid charities. It is time for the major agricultural research centres and their funding agencies to join the revolution.' New Scientist, 3 February, 2001. 'Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction..' Martin Luther King. Have a good year. Jim.
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