OF&G :: The blog

An interesting piece in the New York Times on which organic products are the best to choose for their apparent benefits.

In reality the article is there to promote a new book, but what’s more interesting is the looooong debate that goes on at the end of it in the comments section - 320 of them at the time of posting…

UPDATE: And boy does this debate rage. Just checked this again, out of interest, and the posts keep coming. 425 at the time of this update (8 Nov). Organics really does get people stirred up!

The first UK composting facility to achieve Quality Compost Protocol certification is an OF&G licensee.

Derbyshire-based Vital Earth has met the criteria of the protocol for the 15,000 tonnes of compost it produces each year, meaning that the compost can be treated as a product, rather than a waste material.

OF&G is one of two bodies providing certification for the PAS 100 quality standard and the Quality Compost Protocol, which we operate on behalf of The Composting Association.

Read more about Vital Earth here…

There has been much recent debate about the Soil Association having a ‘consultation’ on how it feels about organic produce traveling by air. The SA has been pushing forward ideas for tackling this which could include slapping ‘air freighted’ stickers on produce, or even an outright ban on flying organic products around the globe.

Of course there is no simple answer to this. There are pros and cons in everything and it is likely that any measure would end up penalising exporters, such as the Kenyan farmers, in a very painful way that would, to many people at least, be hard to justify. This is especially true if we consider that a tomato grown in a heated UK greenhouse could be more environmentally harmful than flying in a foreign one.

Now, just to add some more confusion to the issue, we see a report that suggests container ships may be doing more ecological damage than aircraft… That should set the cat among the pigeons!

This is not, apparently, because they are more polluting mile for mile, but because of the sheer amount of ships racing regularly across the oceans burning low grade “bunker fuel”.

It’s getting trickier and trickier to unravel this one.

[The title of this post is best enjoyed hummed to the tune of the Band Aid single]

One of the regular accusations leveled at organic food production by its detractors (yes, there still are some) is that it can’t feed the world. Well, fine. It’s not like we’re trying to right now anyway. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a realistic likelihood that organic scales up very well and could achieve the aforementioned!

Now new research reported in the New Scientist has actually suggested that, not only could organic farming feed the world, but it could actually result in higher yields than we currently get from non-organic methods.

Of course we know that there are lies, damn lies and statistics, but these figures have come from the compilation of 293 previous comparisons - which makes them pretty sound, one would imagine.

So next time you are faced with someone bandying around that well-worn argument against organics you are equipped. Hooray for the boffins!