Tuesday November 23rd 2004
Talking turkey  I suppose I shouldn't have mentioned the succulent, big-breasted, seasonal, flightless avians last week. I've had a rash of requests about them. Would someone tell me where in Dublin to order organic birds? And Belfast? Are O'Tooles still around? (I see they don't advertise in Organic Matters anymore).
What are "bronze" turkeys? What's NYD? I'm not very chukkie-literate, I'm afraid. But at least I do know what RIR stands for - Royal Irish Roosters.

I'm hampered. Some time ago, I needed to honour a good friend and his new partner at their housewarming party in Dublin. Although they are not of the organic persuasion, I decided that I would give them a near-organic hamper. I bought a good-size basket, linen-lined, and over two months filled it with a selection of organic and Irish craft-food items. I added some fresh produce at the last minute (like our local Milleens cheese, honey from my neighbour up the road and a bunch of herbs from my own garden) and tarted it all up with some bottles of organic wine from Kilkenny-based www.vemdemiawine.com 
They and their friends still rave about that gift and the wonderful tastes they enjoyed.
Nice one, I thought, gift problem solved (cheaper than I expected) and new customers for the organic industry. 
I started thinking about hampers again last week and thought - being the season that's in it - it might be good to draw attention to Irish organic hampers. I asked around and googled the subject but found nothing. De nada. Zilch. Can this be true? Surely, organic hampers could be a nice little earner (and a way of dealing with the much-complained of organic meat surplus). If I've missed anyone, I apologise, unhamper me, and I will only be too glad to feature your venture here and give you a top spot on the Products or Where to Buy... pages. 
If there are no Irish hampers, try one (even if just for the ideas) of these UK sources and contribute even more to our national deficit in organic trade. Not all, however, will deliver to the Republic and those that do will charge an arm and a leg for it (blame UK P & T). And then there is the Sterling surcharge - simply, £10.00 = € 15.00. 

www.daylesfordorganic.com Gourmet meat and meat products, bread and cheddar - create your own box or hamper. They do an all-in turkey box, including bacon and sausage meat for merely £ 67.50.

www.graiguefarm.co.uk  Gourmet, salmon, Christmas cakes and puddings, brandy butter, wine etc. - £69.99 and Luxury - £132.99.

www.eversfieldmanor.co.uk A brimming hamper of their own organic meat, game, cheese, Xmas pud, chestnuts etc - £185.25 

www.helenbrowningorganics.co.uk  Hebridean lamb, Friesian veal, and seasonal fowl, can be supplied in boxes or hampers by 'Organic Hero' (Sainsbury's award) Helen Browning, mostly from her 1,350 acre mixed farm near Swindon. I can personally vouch for Eastbrook Farm and its wonderful produce having spent a few winter weeks working there four years ago.

www.cornucopiafoods.co.uk Their Millionaire's Hamper is a snip at €1,500, plus delivery to Ireland. But look at what you get; caviar, a kilo of the black stuff, a black-foot pig's leg from Spain, foie gras with truffles (I prefer my triffles Butler-style) and so on.

The Staff of Life  Later this week, I'll let you in on a secret recipe for Irish Soda Mini-bread. Bread-taking!

Art exhibition Congratulations to my sister Elma on her part in Triune, a three-woman exhibition in Kilkenny. The works are on display at Watergate, Kilkenny, Mon - Fri 10am - 7pm. Sat 2pm-6pm. Tel. 056 61674.

Saturday November 20th 2004
Mea culpa  Several of you pointed out that the newly-posted photos in the Photo Gallery  earlier this week didn't open up. I've put that right now. Nice to see that the page is being well frequented.

Mea culpa  I mentioned Lawrence Woodward of EFRC on Tuesday. I should have added that he will be one of the speakers at a conference next Tuesday 23rd Nov., at Sheepdrove Farm, Berks. Is organic food different from conventional food? Is it worth the money? is the theme. "Organic farming might be good for the environment but is organic food healthier than conventional? Is it more holistic?
Constantly asked questions that will be addressed in this conference which presents new research and insights into the concepts and methodologies that can be used to assess organically produced food.
German R&D has given a new boost to the drive to assess organic food holistically. Other research in Europe and the UK has found differences between organic and conventionally produced food but what does this mean for health?
Leading researchers and commentators on organic good and farming will present research findings and encourage participants to air their views on these issues which go to the heart of the question of whether the quality of organic food can be linked to environmental health and that of the soil, plant, animal and man." See http://www.efrc.com/newspolicy/eqconf.htm for further details and booking form. Click here

Christmas is coming and if you want a superior, organic bird, order now from Lakeview Organic Farm & Gardens. Bronze Turkeys, 15-20 lb weight, oven-ready or NYD. Daphne & Jonathan Shackleton, Lakeview, Mullagh, via Kells, Co. Cavan.  Tel: 046-9242480 Fax; 046-9242406 087-2579052 jshack@indigo.ie 

Gi'e us a job  Could anyone offer to a capable, utterly trustworthy, mature, male writer a house/cottage/castle-sitting/care-taking job for a period from December to April. Ireland preferably, but UK or further afield (this side of Vladivostock) would be considered. Details to my good self; info@planorganic.com . Please head email, "House-sitter job". 

Next week; GM corn can produce allergies - new research in the US; Organic Matters, latest issue; Tofurkey! Etc, etc.

Tuesday November 16th 2004 
A newpaper article that supports organic farming  Bucking the recent trend in negative reports on organics, the Irish Sunday Business Post has a good word for not only organic but farmers' markets generally. Interesting to hear that box-scheme specialist, Absolutely Organic, is going from strength to strength with over 350 box-scheme subscribers now. See amended entry for them in Where to Buy and Products pages. Denis Healy's comments on the organic scene and particularly his former dealings with supermarkets are worth reading. See his terrific fruit and veg stalls at the "charming" (Finucane's sneer) Temple Bar Market on Saturday mornings and join the queue.  Full article

Irish Food Mythology I hear that Bord Bia have joined the hounds too, giving tongue to the anti-organic lobby's claims that there is no advantage in buying organic food. But should anyone take them seriously? I point out again their Darby O'Gill paddywhackery gushings on one of their websites that gives a flavour of where they're coming from -  www.foodisland.com/irishfood/history.html  I am a continuing enthusiast of Irish history, culture and mythology (ten years ago I even went back to university to deepen those interests) but not in my wildest manderings or desire to buff-up our world image would I draw the inference (as they do) that our food and farming today has a jot to do with the fact that the Roman Empire never held sway here or that our Celtic heritage somehow guarantees "the natural ingredients and the antiquity of her (Ireland's) agricultural and culinary traditions". Read it - it is quite an unbelievably bit of creative hagiography in the grand tradition of the Lives (=Lies) of our early Christian saints. How they think that any hard-nosed, international food buyer would fall for this Disney-esque blatherskite, beats me. Have they no shame? I tried to get the Advertising Standards Authority to do something about that Food Island page but they claimed it was not in their bailiwick. Site visitors - help me out here, read the page, and give them an email wallop. 
As there is no one putting up a visible case to Ms Finucane* B.B. and their like, please read my on-site page Scientific evidence of the benefits of organic food and farming . It is, as far as I know, the only attempt to put together such information. Another article I've just found, Science and Organic Farming, by Lawrence Woodward**, Director of the British, Elm Farm Research Station, is very well worth reading. See www.efrc.com/updates_main.htm 

*Despite a flood of emails from listeners to the Marian Finucane programme - I even sent the show  a copy of my page - there hasn't been a sausage (or should I say "Baloney") of a reply to myself or others. In contrast, the Sunday Times sent a polite, personal reply - albeit turning me down -  to my recent letter. 

**I met Mr Woodward at a conference in Ipswich two years ago - Otley Organic Conference  A sound man, he is an articulate and passionate orator of organic philosophy.

Damn Beavers  For a very funny pair of real letters about "pollution" in the US, contact me directly. All the "damns" here are fall-out from this dam story.

Damn Shopping  Will supermarkets, like the tobacco industry, be one day in the dock for deliberately peddling and promoting dangerous substances to an unsuspecting consumer public? This and so many other quesions are raised in the book, Shopping; The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets by Joanna Blythman, Fourth Estate, 2004, £12.99. Irish readers, try Reeds of Dublin and Cork for this and other books mentioned here for very much cheaper prices.

Damn the Da Vinci Code  That pesky book eat up all my sleep one night. It's a great, rollicking read but too many people will forget that it's a novel not a documentary. It has lots of stimulating ideas about the history of Christianity and of western civilization but a lot of the information is, without any doubt, spurious. There is however a wonderful antidote, a balancing, scholarly but very readable, tome; Secrets of the Code; The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da Vinci Code by Dan Burstein. Don't buy the former without the latter - it would be bad for your mental health.
Are any of you that have read the DVC upset about the choice of lead in the forthcoming film? Who do you think should play the part of Robert Langdon? I thought myself there was only one possible candidate.
Organic chocolates will be sent to the first to point out the connection between this item and organics. A clue is on this page.

Damn politics  Did you ever hear the story about the father explaining politics to his young son? Contact me if you want to hear that one too. Organic connection? No prizes. 

Monday November 8th 2004 
Organics bad mouthed by Irish radio presenter  Marian Finucane, a popular presenter of a one-hour radio show on Irish national radio, gave a whole show over to a discussion of organic food on Thursday morning last. Many issues were touched on but little of substance emerged. Eamon Quinn (Radio Ad.- "We are proud of our beef") got a good platform for promoting the family firm of up-market supermarkets and their "floury potatoes" (Eamon, ahmm, what about the green ones, I've talked to your father and yourself about?); Yvonne Scully used the opportunity to promote her new, non-organic children's fast food, "good quality, and Irish"( begorrah!); Vincent Cleary of Glenisk Yogurt was puffed after a late arrival but interesting about how he converted to organic as a result of allergies diagnosed in Germany; Ger Shortle, head of a state organic farm, managed to get in a line or two about our "great image" as a food producer and the opportunities we have in the new, post-Fischler de-coupled age (is this the kind of language you should use on a family breakfast programme?). David Notley of the main organic body, IOFGA, a hands-on producer for 15 years, declared his aspiration that Ireland could be "the organic island of Europe" but then again (so as not to upset anybody?), "We produce some of the best food in the world". 
The sloppiness of the programme was sadly - if hilariously - underlined by a test of organic cornflakes, carrots and apples. I am haunted still by the indecipherable munchings and crunchings and mumbles about "number one" and "number two". Were they eating or going to the toilet? Is it just me or did anyone get anything out of that exercise? Do the radio producers there not realise that they are black and white radio - not television?
But it is the perceived bias of Finucane that has particularly infuriated myself and many of my correspondents. Organics are a "Load of baloney", "An awful cod","Flat-earthy quality", "Ordinary people, non-privileged, haven't the opportunity to visit charming farmers' markets" etc, were some of the expressions she used. 
I have normally a high regard for Ms Finucane and her worth as a presenter and a humanitarian (her generous support for a children's Aids hospice in South Africa, the subject of a TV documentary recently was deeply moving) but I am perplexed about her sneering attitude towards organic food and farming. Is it that the organic community in Ireland has failed to convey its message? Is there a conspiracy?*
Whatever, the programme has certainly trod on the dreams of those who have long laboured at really improving food quality and the environment in Ireland and trying to bring us up to speed on organics compared to our European and US neighbours - or even Cuba!
It is truly a shame that a messy piece of broadcasting like this should have such a negative effect on a movement that is ultimately as philanthropic and worthwhile as the presenter's work for her African charity. 
Ms Finucane, I'm afraid, in this particular broadcast, the usual high standards were somehow side-stepped - in fact, it was a research and structural disaster - and the whole programme was, to borrow your words, a load of baloney and your comments an awful cod. Do justice to the organic community - and Irish consumers, privileged and non-privileged, a favour - and do another programme. Different producer and researcher though. I offer to produce it for you. I have no experience but I couldn't do worse than that effort. 

*See www.gmwatch.org  Saturday's Newsletter, Lies and smears in GM lobby organic pesto attack, and their archives about the Hudson Institute, the Avery's, Monsanto, Prof.Trewavas et al. 
I tried to contact

I tried to contact the 1850 715 105 number whilst the programme was on. Continuously engaged or unanswered. I finally got through on Friday but by the time the keyboarder had finished taking down my points, they were off the air. I was not being long-winded this time, honest. 
My emails had just an "automatic-response". I hoped there would have been some reaction this morning on the programme but no, nothing.

To marian@rte.ie 5th November 
Hello again - I emailed you yesterday as well.
Your programme yesterday stirred up a hornet's nest in the organic community, "...steam coming out my ears", "the programme has done more damage in 40 flippant, dismissive minutes..." are some of the comments I received. Another said that the outcome of the programme, guided by Marian's "Baloney!" attitude was, "sure isn't it all a cod, and as long as something is Irish and natural, isn't it all right?" Another said that "...Marian's biased comments are a reflection of the Bord Bia/Joe Walsh/IFA School of Food Misinformation."
I hope you will give right of reply to myself and others who have been working hard over the years at restoring the image of Irish food that has been deeply damaged by our rush into industrial farming.
In any case, see my News page shortly for a report on the Programme.

And now for something completely different...The Sunday Times article (see below Click here).I sent this email to them during the week. My success rate with letters is usually very good. No luck though this time. A bit long-winded for them and they might not have liked my direct assault on Tesco. 

To letters@sunday-times.co.uk (not published)
Hello Letters Page
The article about fat and salt levels in organic food last week was interesting and to be welcomed. Any survey that would steer people away from high salt and fat foods, especially when they are operating under a health guise - and over-priced - is OK by my book. And, in fairness, it was stated that the products investigated were the supermarkets' own-label goods, and processed to their recipes.
However, this was not made that clear and many reacted as if this was "proof" that all organic food is a rip-off. Marion Finucane, for example, presenter of a popular RTE Radio show, seemed to use the findings of the article to bolster her opinion of organic food as a "Load of baloney".
This is a great pity as so much organic food is indeed what it is generally perceived to be - safe, nutritious and good for the environment. This is my sincere belief from wide experience as a conventional farmer and, latterly, organic horticulturist. But don't take my word for it; there is also, now, substantial scientific evidence of the advantages of organic food and farming methods. See my not-for-profit website www.planorganic.com  for more information in this area.
On the issue of price - contrary to general opinion - organic produce doesn't cost the supermarkets very much more (there are even examples of organic crops coming in cheaper than conventional ones) to purchase. A Tesco spokesman said to your researchers, that "they never positioned organic brands as healthy products". That puzzles me but it may be so. But certainly, organic products contribute very healthily and disproportionately to some supermarkets' margins. One organic vegetable-box supplier told me this week that he sells carrots for 99 cents. Tesco Ireland, sell the same carrots, from the same grower at €2.25. Assuming a reasonable profit for the former of 25%, Tesco are making 500% more profit on that item than the organic retailer.
The problem is that some supermarkets have high-jacked organic food and milked it as a new, very lucrative cash cow. It is becoming increasingly obvious that organic producers will only get a just reward for their efforts (and the consumer a bargain) by selling direct via farm-gate sales and through the ever-increasing numbers of farmers' markets. On those stalls, and for many branded organic products, high levels of fat and salt are not an issue.

This is a letter that was published in the Sunday Times Letters page 7th November. Well done Ms Walker.

Organic is healthy option  I am disappointed that once again you have  focused on fat and salt as the two bogeymen in organic food (News, last week).The main reason for the varying macro-nutrient constitution between products was the use of different recipes.
Consumers usually buy organin food to avoid real or perceived harm from pesticide and herbicide residue and artificial food additives such as prservatives, colours and flavours. They may well then be pleasantly surprised by the improved taste and texture of the organic product which has probably been produced by more traditional methods than its non-organic equivalent.
Perhaps you could investigate what is put into those cheaper non-organic yoghurts so they have a "healthier" lower fat content. You'll find that it is modified maize starch - starch is essentially polymerised glucose - which digests to sugar once eaten.
Similarly, those healthier lower-fat pork sausages are probably padded out with wheat rusk.

Jacqueline Walker, Killaloe, Co. Clare.

And now for Sir Anthony  His organ, the Irish Independent, late to the feast, is having a go today (Monday) in an article headed "Is Organic worth the money". Somebody else will have to review that - I don't buy The Indo. 

And - Phew! - now, really, for something completely different, good news  One of the oldest-established organic farmers in the country has put up a website. Michael Hickey and his better half, Jutte, of Tipperary, producers of fabulous Angus beef, great ponies, and hospitality showcase all they have to offer on www.gortruaorganic.org  See their lovely thatched, round, stone house, wonderful hedgerows and holiday accomodation (Marian, you should book in - you might learn something).

Tuesday November 2nd 2004 
When the oil runs out  For those who are blessed to live in West Cork and want to get away from the meedja hysteria of the American presidential elections, there is a talk, film and discussion on tonight in Clonakilty that should be interesting. Dr.Colin Campbell, a world authority on oil depletion, will give the talk, Visioning Ireland beyond oil: the film is The End of Suburbia, '... a hard-hitting and uncompromising film that sets out very clearly where we find ourselves at the beginning of the end of the "oil age' ". There will be a group discussion afterwards. The venue is O'Donovan's Hotel, 7.30pm.
If all this is a bit heavy for you, there is the Tuesday Arthouse night in the cozy Bantry cinema. Tonight's film is Moro No Brasil, a celebration of folk and street music in Brazil. Book your seats - it's a popular evening. Tel. 027 55777 or look up www.cinemaxbantry.com 

Fatal Fern  My article Bracken is a killer last month generated quite a bit of correspondence. One writer, from Wales, pointed out that there is another problem with the plant; it harbours a tick which can infect humans with debilitating Bells Palsy and Lymes Disease. See www.nerc.ac.uk 

Ear to the ground and backside to the stove There is a new series of the Irish farming programme, Ear to the Ground starting next week - Thursday 7pm - with a new presenter. The previous presenter, Mairéad Mc Guinness, ex-potato farmer, has taken to politics and is now an MEP. She famously put organics in its place last year when she was asked, "Is organic important?". "No." said the doughty Mairéad, "I think the term refers to so little of what we eat that it is a hard job to find it." 
In the same interview, Melanie Morris asked her, " What's your favourite kitchen appliance." "The Aga." she replied, "Because we can roast our arses up beside it." 

Organic food high in fat and salt  Acccording to research initiated by the Sunday Times and published in last week's paper (Irish edition), they found that almost half of "expensive organic food" on sale in three supermarket chains in Ireland and the UK were less nutritious in at least one respect than their non-organic equivalent. It found e.g. that an organic Greek-style yoghurt costing almost three times more than the conventional product had four times the fat percentage. 
That is dramatic, sure, but nothing to do with the original producers who, you can be certain - like all of the multiples' suppliers - are squeezed on price. It is worth noting too that all the samples tested were "own-brands". The authors of the article did point out that the fat and salt levels in many supermarkets' own-brand products contrast poorly with those of well-known brands." The brand-leader, Heinz's organic tomato soup contained 15% less fat and half the salt of its non-organic product.
Which surely all goes to prove that the supermarkets are ripping us off on own-brand organic products on a price basis as well as on nutritional content. They just profiteer on price with branded organic products. We also know that some processors are ripping off both producers and consumers. Both types of skullduggery are doing a huge disservice to the organic movement. 
A Tesco spokeswoman reveals the drift, "We have never positioned our organic brands as a healthy product. Our customers understand it relates to a production method and buy it for that reason..."  What about the huge market for organic baby food - is that there because the mothers admire the production methods?
One wonders whether our local organic cheese makers were right when they said, "Supermarkets have no right to sell organic food. They are the enemy of food". See 30th Sept.below.

No organic organisation seems to have been asked for their reaction to the research. 

You might like to look up http://hdra.org.uk/news/news_topic.php?id=81 where 300 HDRA members keep a watch on UK supermarkets and their organic products.

Organic chicken in the wars again  Ben Bradshaw, the UK Minister for Nature Conservation and Fisheries, is allowing organic poultry flock sizes of up to 12,000 birds in a single house at densities of 12 laying birds per square meter to continue until 2010. This is despite advice from the Advisory Committee on Organic Standards to bring an end to large flock sizes in 2005. 
(Is this the density used in the Moy Park organic chicken operation? And, if so, should we eat eggs or meat from such operations?).
The Soil Association is very much against the derogation and claims that it will only certify flocks of 2,000 laying birds and 1,000 broiler chickens. The SA's main competiting certifying agency, Organic Farmers and Growers was consulted by the minister together with representatives of the poultry industry. 

Pre-suckling pig, Nigella Lawson and barbarity  Birds in cages are one thing - and not a good thing - but what about this? We have wild animals in cages here in Ireland that we slaughter excruciatingly for their fur. An item on the popular Joe Duffy RTE radio show yesterday about Nigella Lawson's delectation of eating artificially aborted pig foetuses, prompted a range of stimulating responses. What some people will eat!*
But it was the contribution of Mary Anne Bartlett of the Irish branch of Compassion in World Farming that most riveted attention. She told us that there are 140,000 mink and 7,000 silver foxes being reared on 8 farms throughout the Republic. All officially licensed of course by ex-Min Joe's dept. To preserve the pelts, the mink are gassed. Being aquatic mammals that can hold their breaths for long periods under water, this is a particularly horrible way of killing the animals. But the ultimate barbarity is reserved for the foxes. They are electrocuted by having one electrode put in their mouths and the other in their anus (Ms Bartlett is obviously more delicate in her choice of words than Ms McGuinness). 
One wonders what happens to the flesh of the skinned animals? 
Anyone wearing these furs could be pelted (!) with eggs, even with UK certified organic ones?
See Compasssion in World Farming website at www.ciwf.ie  

* Several described eating guinea pigs in South America - one enjoying a roadside roast creature "on a stick". I must admit myself to having developed a taste for the little mammals when I spent a few months in Peru two decades ago. But they were "organic" then, at least the ones I had in Indian homes in the Andes (not a pesticide in sight). Now they are breeding (GM?) them in Peru to reach 4 or 5 pounds weigh,t so the whole family can enjoy the roast. Is anything sacred anymore?

Pesticide Action Keep abreast of the indefatigable Georgina Downes, victim of pesticide drift, and her energetic campaign against pesticide use. www.pesticidescampaign.co.uk   If you have experience of spray drift yourself, contact the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution at, http://www.rcep.org.uk/pesticides.htm