November 29th 2002

BSE Bull in Ireland. Breaking news today is that BSE has been discovered in a three and a half year-old bull. This is shattering news because, although cases of BSE are the highest ever this year in Ireland, until now, no cases were found in animals as young as this. However, this is the fifth, official case of BSE discovered in animals born since the ban on MBM in animal feed* since 1996 and, again, raises the question as to the effectiveness of this measure. It also calls into question whether BSE is caused by infected meat-and-bone meal at all and whether the disease can be passed at birth from cow to calf. See item below, BSE is not caused by infected meat and bone meal, MBM and look at the Veterinary page.
The boast (an inaccurate one for some time) of "no BSE in animals born in Ireland since 1996" has been a corner-stone of the marketing-speak of the Irish meat industry, used in persuading customers to buy Irish beef in the post BSE/nvCJD scare era. Russia has just started accepting beef again from all, as opposed to selected, counties in Ireland and negotiations are advanced in persuading Egypt to resume their imports (although ICSA's, Eddy Punch claimed today that the Egyptians have no money for beef imports in any case! So, why Eddy keep flogging this dead horse then?). These and other existing and potential markets for Irish beef could now be in complete jeopardy.

BSE Lamb in France? Adding to the grief of conventional Irish meat farmers, the French are proposing to insist on the removal of specified risk material, SRM, (basically, spinal tissue) from all lambs slaughtered after next January.The French claim thay are being cautious on behalf of their consumers "in case a link between sheep scrapie and BSE is proved". 
The Irish Farmers Association say that the French cannot be allowed to do this - "our lamb trade with France, is worth over €150 million per annum" they point out.
No cases of BSE have ever been recorded in organic home-reared animals.

* Traces of mammal tissue have recently turned up in imports of US dried brewers' grains. See below.  

Books Again. As thoughts turn to Christmas/Samhain, organic nuts could have their complicated needs met by a book from Walnut Books, Co.Cork. " A world of green reading at your fingertips", is how Rob Hopkins - otherwise famous for his straw-bale houses and courses - describes his mail-order book business, established over six years ago.* 
Bob and helpers and stall are oft-times present - and, as I've often observed, well-supported - at altenative conferences and events. For a full, free catalogue, with hundreds of books and videos on all aspects of practical sustainability, get in touch with Rob at, The Hollies, Castletown, Enniskeane, Co. Cork, Ireland. Tel; 023 47002. Email; walnutbooks@eircom.net. 
* I must extend apologies to Rob for neglecting, 'till now, to include his mail order business on my Publications page - see under Catalogues. 

Next week, Moby and fur, Moby Dick and sperm! Also, buffoon, Avery scales the heights of eco-nonsense. And finally, the review of Fatal Harvest.

November 25th 2002
Organics Attacked. The ABCs (Ag Biotech Corps) are getting their shit, specifically bullshit, together in London this week as they sponsor the World Conference on Food and Farming, a showcase for their biotech products in the lead-up to the Smithfield Show. Their organic-slayer, Denis Avery of the US, right-wing Hudson Institute, has been having a field day as he slashes and burns with his usual cant against the organic industry. See http://ngin.tripod.com/averylies.htm for samples of his well-paid-for invective.
But, as we say, he may be getting ahead of himself and Avery might soon have to pay the price of his cavalier sensationalism. Even his own side is getting uncomfortable over his selected use of statistics, "which doesn't seem to be convincing anybody who doesn't already have a predilection to believe you in the first place." (Greg Conko, co-founder of Ag Bio World to Avery on the pro-GM, Ag Bio List). 
A challenging, alternative view of how to feed the world is to be posed today at the Conference by the eminent Indian economist, Devindar Sharma, who will argue that with plenty of food available to feed the hungry of the world, claiming that bio-technology or free trade is needed to solve the problem is a deliberate distortion. See Paul Brown, The Guardian, November 25 www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,846939,00.html 

Studs to be taxed?The Irish bloodstock industry (which, I argue, is largely organic) is coming under close scrutiny by the Revenue Commissioners and will likely have its tax-free status, especially relating to stallion fees, changed in the December budget. Some estimates of the yearly cost to the Exchequer of this tax benefit to the horse industry are in the region of €100 million. Frank Fitzgibbon writing in the Sunday Times, 17th Nov., says that bloodstock industry leaders like 7,000 acre Coolmore Stud in Tipperary, have drawn the ire of a cash-strapped government upon themselves because of their high-profile, high-budget support of the anti-incineration (and thus anti-government) campaign and the extravagant (€3million ) high-society wedding of Coolmore's owner, John Magnier's daughter recently. The industry, which threatened to pull out of Ireland if the incinerator was built in Tipperary, is now desperately lobbying (even Labour leader Pat Rabbitte!) for its very existence. 
See my articles in Archived Weekly News  Burning questions, 11th June, Horses for Courses - The bloodstock industry could be described as the largest organic industry in the world, 25th July, Organic Speed for Race Horses, 8th August and For Something Completely Different (The Wedding) 28th August.

A step-up in book supply in Ireland. It is always gratifying when the availablity of good books is improved. A new online start-up, Book Steps, is the creation of Muriel Lumb from Bantry. Muriel was one of my colleagues on a West Cork Enterprise Board course in website building. Although she missed several of the lectures she was one of the first to go online with her self-built site, www.booksteps.ie . The full catalogue, very good in hardcopy, is not yet online but the Favourites page has a temporary selection of about 50 books that will, I guarantee, have you all reaching for the cheque books. Book Steps' mission statement, as the jargon would have it, is: "We exist to provide practical solutions for living and growing, learning and working in harmony with our environment. All our books focus on practical solutions to day-to-day problems, be they environmental, physical, psychological, social, political, spiritual or educational." Contact Muriel at, info@booksteps.ie

November 21st 2002

Where did the organic movement come from and where is it going? These are questions that Laurence Woodward, Director of Elm Farm Research Centre addresses in this paper delivered at the Organic Food Quality and Health Conference in Suffolk, June 2002. Full article available at; 
http://econode.otleycollege.ac.uk/Conferences/Laurence%20Woodward.htm. 
I was at the conference and reported it in June and July last. See Archives.
As the anti-organic forces gather in London this week under the aegis of the British Crop Protection Council www.bcpc.org, and US champion organic-trasher Denis Avery (Prof. Trewavas holds the silver medal) is given prime podium time - including a turn at the American embassy - Woodward's essay might be a useful antidote to the blizzard of misinformation these guys are trying to create. Also, as a further specific, see a roundup of the findings of world agricultural development expert, Prof Jules Pretty, on sustainable farming projects at, Answering the organic attacks of Trewavas, Avery, Krebs et al. of Krebs/Trewavas/Avery allegations about organic farming methods.

The Rateaver Books URL is http://home.earthlink.net/~brateaver/books/index.htm Otherwise out-of-print books are available from them including Seaweed in Agriculture, Newman Turner's publications, Cure Your Own Cattle etc, Comfrey Report, and  Organic Method Primer.

Organic may be displaced as the realistic alternative to industrial farming in Europe. The EU Ag. Commissioner, Franz Fischler, was reported last June as saying; "We must ensure that we know what is expected from a modern agricultural production sector and that we deliver in the future quality to everyone and not only to a few who can afford it." Is the Comm's language and policy going in the direction of sustainable farming - as opposed to organic farming?
" We must provide the framework to avoid the creation of niche markets ....all consumers must have real value for money." It very much sounds as if Herr Fischler is influenced by Prof Jules Pretty's views on the future of agriculture, as outlined in the essay, New Farming for Britain; Towards a National Plan for Reconstruction, published by the Fabian Society, www.fabian-society.org.uk .

November 2nd to 17th November 2002 
( I seem to be jinxed with the Brateaver site address - Fertile Ideas item below. It's now correct - definitely). Fatal Harvest review coming this week. http://home.earthlink.net/~brateaver/books/index.htm

Is modern farming killing us? An essay, first presented to a Growing Awareness Conference (Ireland) envisions an alternative future for food production in Ireland. Click on The Killing Fields  

BSE is not caused by infected meat and bone meal, MBM, according to organic farmer and scientist Mark Purdey. See his website and the results of his 18 years' of research into the subject. www.markpurdey.com. 
There have been 298 cases of BSE in Ireland this year so far. Also this week, the 4th case of BSE in animals born since the ban on meat and bone meal in 1997 was discovered. According to RTE, 5-7Live on Friday, 15th Nov "This calls into question the ban on MBM and its effectiveness".
However, there may be another explanation, although no less disturbing, as traces of mammalian bone have been found in compound feeds this week.The contamination has been traced to imports of US brewers' grains(!). Almost 2,000 tons of the material have been impounded and a search continues throughout the animal feed supply chain to track down any other of these imports.  
 
A New Organic Era. On the left is the symbol of the new US Dept. Ag. National Organic Standards. It's the first time you are seeing this (I'd guess) in a publication, web or otherwise, this side of the pond but it certainly won't be the last. The launch of the long-awaited, and at times hotly-debated, Organic Standards has been huge news in the US. Even Iraq and the Congressional elections were pushed off the front pages by the launch euphoria and hubris. The New York Times, setting a pattern for countless other media, carried the headline on the 21st October - A NEW ORGANIC ERA. For one example, which gives a flavour of the rest, see http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=D8AE8227-310E-48
F2-AC512517D3D86CB2. The new US standards are causing a bit of a pickle however for other organic-producing countries. Canada feels that it is going to have to review its certification regs and even Denmark, 'till  recently the darling of the EU organic industry, worries that the new standards are too strict and will halt Danish organic exports to the US. 
Some months ago I urged readers of this page to dump, or sell short, shares in Monsanto (their shares have bombed by 50% these last months) and their ilk.You would have made a lot of lolly if you had - not that I expected many of the devotees of this site to have any such unethical investments. Now I urge those of you  that have been banking your generous REPS payments, to put a few €  into the organic industry which 'till now has been growing in the US by 20 - 25% per annum.  One to start with is, Horizon Organics, which is quoted on Nasdaq. Their acronym is HCOW. Send 10% of the huge profits you make to the planorganic.com welfare fund - the offshore one of course!

Organic Cornwall - again. I have a soft spot for Cornish products but especially when they are organic and good. The last item to take my fancy was a wonderful pesto which I reviewed some weeks ago. I've been on the look-out for organic personal care products and I now seem to have the bees knees. They are a range of care products produced by the small family-and-friends-run Spiezia Organics. Learn more aboout them by visiting their extraordinarily well-designed and commercially efficient website, www.spieziaorganics.com 

Organic Meat Ireland. If I have a soft spot for Cornwall I have an even more tender spot for my part of the world down here in the South West. And an even tenderer spot for those trying, in these difficult times, to market their produce directly to the consumer. Clover Farm, here on the Beara Peninsula in West Cork has just started supplying  organic lamb. Fresh and frozen in large and small quantities the personable, Christine and Paul O'Sullivan will be delighted to look after you. There's lamb - and there's Beara organic lamb! Clover Farm, Kealogue, Allihies, Co. Cork.