OF&G :: The Blog

Once again the Food Standards Agency has managed to garner a boat load of silly season headlines for a report on organic food that tells us little but is likely to damage sales.

“No additional health benefits of organic food” is the gist of the coverage of this latest publication by the FSA. It’s the kind of headline that many people will take at face value – and that’s a huge shame.

The report is an analysis of a variety of studies from the last 50 years on organic food and nutrition. However, you could argue it’s flawed in a number of ways, not least because it deliberately ignores any study that doesn’t have an abstract in English. Given that a lot of work has been done by researchers outside of the UK, particularly elsewhere in Europe, this could lead to big holes in it.

In fact, look at the title: Comparison of putative health effects of organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs: a systematic review.

“Putative”. Take a look at this definition. It means “supposed”. So they’re comparing “supposed” health effects, not scientifically proven ones???

Now take a look at this from the report’s own executive summary:

In conclusion, because of the limited and highly variable data available, and concerns over the reliability of some reported findings, there is currently no evidence of a health benefit from consuming organic compared to conventionally produced foodstuffs.  It should be noted that this conclusion relates to the evidence base currently available on the nutrient content of foodstuffs, which contains limitations in the design and in the comparability of
studies.

So, what they’re saying is they have compared “limited and highly variable” data and they have concerns over the “reliability” of some of the findings. And there are “limitations” in the way some of those studies were designed and can be compared.

In addition, we’d say this report is somewhat unfairly jumping the gun. Very thorough research now being done will show some very clear nutritional benefits of organic food, maybe even by later this year. You can already read about some of the findings from the QLIF project here (in an article from 2007!). But of course by then the damage will have been done, if it hasn’t been already. As I write, this story is the ‘most emailed’ and second ‘most read’ on the BBC News website. That’s no doubt an awful lot of people getting this very negative message.

In essence the FSA has published a report that tells it nothing it hasn’t already said publicly. We can only hope it will find the funds to revisit this topic when we have heard from the very extensive, Europe-wide Quality Low Input Food study, currently under way and led by Carlo Leifert, at Newcastle University.

It’s not even that we’re being prickly and defensive for the sake of it here. If there are really no nutritional benefits to organic food (unlikely), and we can be told that as a fact, fine. But please, Powers-that-Be, don’t damage an already disproportionately credit crunch-affected sector with what can only be seen as a premature report based on, by the author’s own admission, unreliable data.

Organics does not sell itself on nutritional benefits. The key points of organic food and farming are that it has animal welfare at its heart, protects and enhances the finite resource that is our soil, doesn’t rely on chemical inputs or routine antibiotics for animals and has clearly proven benefits for wildlife. The FSA itself even says on its website:

“Eating organic food is one way to reduce consumption of pesticide residues and additives”

Of course we can argue until we’re blue in the face about the real benefits of organic food and farming. The truth is that the headlines alone will damage the livelihoods of hard working organic farmers and food producers. The FSA has an awful lot of power and responsibility in this respect. We wouldn’t ask it to sit on a report just because it was negative, but perhaps more thought should go into what it studies in the first place. Looking back at 50 years of data is going to skew anyone’s results. Science has moved on in just the last five years and will tell us more than we have ever known about organic food in the next couple of years. Perhaps they could have waited while a major project was completed?

Roll on the day that good, strong, scientific evidence emerges. It will.

Just found this great write-up on our National Organic Cereals 09 event from Jimi and Sarah at Launceston Farm.

They’ve had some great coverage themselves in the national press and it’s very satisfying to learn that their long journey to Suffolk had positive benefits for them. They’re not alone – the feedback from the day is still coming in and it’s all extremely up-beat!

If you’ve read further back in this blog you’ll have seen us being very pleased about the success of our Organic Cereals 2009 event this month.

The key to that success was delivering a focused agenda that dealt with the honest practicalities of venturing into organic arable. People came to find out facts and informed opinion and we were determined that’s what they would leave with. And they did.

OF&G CEO, Richard Jacobs, with Annette Bertram (left) and Alison Lidbetter of Organic Conferences Ltd.

So now we’re shifting that focused approach across to the act of selling, and communicating about, organic food. We’ve announced our involvement in a new one-day conference titled ‘Selling Organics: What’s the Story?’.

OF&G has teamed-up with Organic Conferences Ltd to pull together key people in the organic sector who will share their knowledge and insight of what it takes to create and promote an organic brand. But it’s not just about individual brand marketing. Our speakers will be taking a close look at what the organic sector needs to do to explain itself to its consumers.

The message has come across loud and clear in recent months that promoting the clear benefits of organic food is not something the sector has done well. Even Sainsburys boss, Justin King, has felt moved to comment on this. Initiatives are beginning to emerge to try and address the problem, but it’s going to take a change in thinking and approach from everyone to help shoppers realise why they should buy organic food. It seems that, at the moment, many are confused about why they would buy organic, or do so for perhaps one headline reason that may be personal to them.

Some will buy free-range eggs because they think that’s better for chickens than organic, without knowing that free-ranging is a core and essential part of the organic regulation. It is this kind of misconception we need to address.

So, on October 8, at London’s Southbank University, we will be joined by no less than: Craig Sams, founder of Green & Blacks;  Steve Clarke, marketing director at Rachel’s; Dom Lane, associate director of Bray Leino PR, which is working on a number of promotional projects around organics; Lawrence Woodward, director of Organic Research Centre – Elm Farm; plus fascinating academic research into branding and consumer perception presented by Professor Andrew Fearne and Dr Matt Reed.

It’s going to be an excellent day and the places are strictly limited to around 200, with bookings already being taken. If you’d like to come along please visit the Organic Conferences website to find out more and secure your place. There are also comments from our CEO here. It’s going to be a fascinating day.

Interesting reports are coming out of Tesco [link to Farmers Weekly] that sales of organic produce have risen 52 per cent since last November.

This is fascinating, particularly as everyone seems to have been intent on talking organics down in recent months. We’ve insisted all along, based on licensee feedback, that there has been no general collapse in sales across the board, even though some sectors, notably pigs and poultry, are suffering.

But to see a spike like that is somewhat perplexing. There is always a story behind statistics, and in this case it is being put down to heavy promotion, so it will be very interesting to see if these results are in any way mirrored by other major retailers.

The concern that arises when we start to talk about promotions is that the farmer or processor suppliers are having to foot the bill, putting even further pressure on their margins in these tough and costly times… That said, a 52 per cent rise seems very positive. Is it caused by price alone, or support for organics generally, do we think?

Well, National Organic Cereals 2009 is done and dusted – and it was a stonker!

I know that sounds like blowing our own trumpet, but it wasn’t the success it turned out to be purely because of the organisation. It was down to the fact that pretty much everyone who mattered was represented: farmers, millers, consultants, traders, professional and support organisations, you name it.

The official head count (as in, those ticked-off on the delegate and exhibitor registration sheet) amounted to 189. There were a few more people on top of that who showed up as well.

The speakers were very well received and the information imparted was right on-topic, making the day the practical, warts-and-all look at organic arable we intended it to be. The wide array of exhibitors added to the overall usefulness of the event and the caterers laid-on a superb lunch of organic beef, followed by afternoon tea and cake. The weather even played its part by staying dry until the tail end of the packing up!

We were delighted that our headline sponsor, Triodos Bank, was able to announce its ground-breaking initiative to provide a £5 million fund dedicated to supporting converts to organic arable farming at market-beating interest rates.

There was a buzz around John and Alice Pawsey’s farm, at Shimpling, Suffolk, throughout the day and we must pass on our thanks to them once again for being the perfect hosts.

John’s farm walks to view the specially planted trial plots were a highlight of the day which seemingly no-one wanted to miss.

Tonnes of credit has to go to OF&Gs’ development officer, Steven Jacobs, who was the driving force behind the whole thing and the man with the frazzled, “I’m only standing upright now because my backbone doesn’t have a hinge” look on his face at the end of the day. Nice job, Steven.

You can take a look at our collection of photos from the event on our Flickr set, here (or click on any of the photos above).

A lot of new acquaintances were made and some old ones renewed and, perhaps the most important result of the day, we spoke to non-organic farmers who came to learn and are now seriously considering delving into organics.

In approximately half an hour OF&Gs’ Chief Executive, Richard Jacobs, will be delivering a speech to an audience at the

OF&G Chief Executive, Richard Jacobs

Royal Show which will include EU Commissioners.

Richard was invited to do this by Defra, in order to present a view from a certifier. His presentation will be entitled ‘Organic food and farming: setting the tone for a sustainable future‘.

It will address the capability of organic farming to meet the needs of the world food supply (as supported by more than one recent research study) and what organic practices have to offer to all farming in a future where circumstances are likely to dictate reduced reliance on agricultural chemicals and lower GHG emissions.