There are a couple of genuinely interesting articles that have caught our eyes in the last few days, which we’ll share below. Plus, one with some encouraging market data:
- Author and PR pro, Antonia Chitty, highlights on her Family Friendly Working blog some research done by OF&G licensees, Essential Trading. It has done a cost comparison on its products compared to similar ones bought from a supermarket. Apart from equitable pricing, Essential points out the depth of benefit to be found in its Fairtrade and organic ranges. Eye-opening stuff.
- The Global Post takes a close look at India’s “Organic Tea King”, Swaraj Kumar “Rajah” Banerjee, on how he led the way on the conversion of the Darjeeling tea plantations, the benefits this has brought to his land and workers and what he plans to do next.
- We know there are lies, damn lies and statistics, but all data is useful intelligence in one way or another. That’s why it’s worth casting your eye over this piece that indicates a continuing “boom” for organic produce around the world.
- In a slightly intriguing (perhaps due to its vagueness!) report, The Jakarta Post, tells us that groups on Bali have declared their home an “organic island”. Apparently they are backed by officials, though the gist of the story seems to be that it’s more an aspiration than new legislation. Still, it’s a very positive move that could lead to great benefits if it truly is made reality.
Obviously, the headline refers to a ‘pee bale’. What else?
Staff at the National Trust Wimpole Estate attracted quite some attention recently with the story of their open-air, non-flushing, recyclable, compostable, loo-with-a-view.
In an enlightened move, the gardeners at the stunning Wimpole Hall, in Royston, Cambridgeshire, (the associated Wimpole Home Farm is converting to organic with OF&G) have installed their bales against a spare wall and the men use it in preference to the more traditional water closet.
This has a number of benefits, not least saving many unnecessary toilet flushes and it gives a marvellous natural boost to the compost that it is eventually added to. I imagine it also removes the need for a walk to wherever the toilets are, so you could say it also results in saved man-hours.
That’s not a sexist turn of phrase, by the way; bale relief is limited to the men because apparently their urine is less acidic (plus other fairly obvious practical reasons, one would imagine).
They certainly got plenty of attention for their new habit, with not only a lighthearted piece by the local BBC TV news, but an interview on Radio Four’s Today programme, no less. Links to both are here.
Though it crossed my mind, it’s far from clear that the ladies would stand for a similar arrangement being enacted here at the Old Estate Yard…
Sometimes you’re just left scratching your head.
Here’s a simple scenario: BBC One’s Countryfile does a piece looking at the state of the market for organic food. Fair enough.
In it they talk to people involved in organic food and get a rather perceptive take from a marketer on how the sector could be pushing itself (putting aside, for a moment, the fierce and constant opposition from the ASA and FSA to even the most innocuous claim made by organics).
You wouldn’t think there was anything more controversial than normal in any of that. But no. Wait a moment. Who’s this galloping over the horizon waving a red biro and a flag saying “I’m a licence payer too!”? Aha, tis the Crop Protection Association, which, according to Farmers Guardian, has complained to the BBC Trust because the programme didn’t include any representatives of non-organic food and farming…………………………………….
Can you hear that? It’s the sound of a gentle wind blowing tumble weed down the street as everyone stands still and tries to figure out what on earth the CPA people can have been thinking.
It seems the best they can come up with is that Countryfile was ‘favourable’ to organic farming while portraying non-organic farming ‘neutrally’. Yes, well, that would be neutral as in not part of the report in the first place.
Honestly, that fact that word had gone around the organic community that a piece was going to be on Countryfile should be an indicator that it’s still rare enough to be noteworthy, so why the CPA’s Dominic Dyer is so rattled about non-organic farming not being part of the report is baffling.
At OF&G we have every respect for all UK farmers, which is probably why we WON’T be writing to the chairman of the BBC Trust demanding that organic farming is mentioned every time there is a report on non-organic farming on the BBC. Can’t say fairer than that.
Next year sees new regulation from the EU on managing salmonella in turkey flocks. Any producers potentially affected by this can read more in this very well explained piece from the Welsh Poultry Centre.
As the piece points out, salmonella is not actually *that* great of an issue in the UK, but it can be elsewhere in Europe and, as we’re all Europeans now, we’re all caught in this net. There are exclusions from the new testing regime, so if you’ve got turkeys, it’s well worth a read.
Taiwan is marking its Organic Agriculture Day today and there are some comments from the Speaker of the country’s legislature that sum up a few key issues, as reported in the Taiwan News.
Much like what we heard at our Selling Organics: What’s the Story? conference last month, he’s talking about the growing scarcity of resources and the need to capitalise on forward planning and better explanation of what ‘organic’ means with regard to food.
And while organic is only a tiny, tiny part of the farming picture in Taiwan right now, they obviously have ambition and pro-active plans (is Australia listening?).
Sometimes, having to adhere to strict regulation can seem burdensome. However, especially when it comes to food, we have adapted and accepted the need for safeguards and reassurances.
Sometimes there are challenges, but when it comes to it, the consumer is better off knowing that there are governmental and non-governmental bodies looking out for their interests. When there is just one case of deception relating to organic food it is big headline news, precisely because it is so rare.
In some ways, we take this safety net for-granted, particularly in Europe and North America. That’s why the pains organic production in Australia seems to feel on an ongoing basis seem so alien to us. I think we often assume their structures and values almost precisely mirror our own (albeit that they take sport even more seriously than we do!).
We mentioned on here a while back (in May, actually) that things were not looking positive for organic regulation Down Under. Now comes a story from the Sydney Morning Herald about pork being passed-off as organic in restaurants. There’s some suggestion that it’s largely unintentional, at least on the part of the restaurateurs, but it highlights the yawning chasm between the application of organic standards in much of the rest of the world compared to Australia.
Part of the backdrop to this is, it seems, that Australia hasn’t really embraced organic food and farming. But of course without a solid regulatory framework that consumers can trust without question, how will the market ever really get going? The suggestions in a number of pieces we’ve read recently are that there really isn’t much in the way of political will to apply a solution there (Psst, Aussie Government, we have a model you can use…).
Perhaps we should work on marketing to Australia with the message that when our exports say organic, they mean organic. That might kick them into life.
