OF&G :: The Blog

The day is nearly upon us. The day we will discover the one logo to rule them all.

If you’ll excuse the slightly nerdy Lord of the Rings reference, I am, of course, referring to the EU organic logo. The results of the competition held to choose this hotly anticipated item of packaging decoration are due out this week.

That’s not to say we will actually find out this week which of the three shortlisted designs have won, because this is the EU we’re dealing with. But they said we’d find out this week, so we’re cranking up the pressure…

These were the choices for the compulsory EU organic logo

You may recall that the three designs caused something of a debate around Europe as to whether the method of inviting and choosing them was entirely suitable and whether the options selected by the judges for the final vote were really the best they could find.

We had our own concerns as it appeared that the voting website allowed you to cast multiple votes. The normal situation with even the most trivial of online polls is generally to be told “No you naughty little cheat, you can’t vote again” when you attempt to show more support than is fair for one particular option.

In its most basic form this is often enforced by the use of a ‘cookie’ (a little bit of text dropped into a special folder on your computer that tells the website you have already voted). Alternatively it is done by recording the unique Internet Protocol (IP) address of your computer when you vote. Sometimes both, plus other safeguards.

We couldn’t see any such protection on this vote and were able to force sequential numbers for the amount of votes cast out of the page that was loaded once a vote had been made. This worried us. We couldn’t find any relevant cookies on our machines and there was no “Don’t be naughty” message.

So the question was, did whoever put the site together simply fail to create a page that said your latest vote didn’t count because you’d already voted. Or did they just not bother to protect the vote…

Obviously someone must have the answer to this, so we emailed the organisers of the competition at the EU asking the questions posed above and seeking reassurance.

The response was deafening in its silence.

So, no doubt by now, with the poll closed, we have winner. Let’s hope whichever logo it was, the result wasn’t unduly influenced by someone who figured out they could game the vote. And no, we didn’t.

Hopefully we’re utterly wrong about this and doing the organisers of the competition a great disservice. If so though, it would have been nice for them to tell us that.

We’ll let you know which logo was picked as soon as we do!

So now we know what the compulsory EU organic logo could look like. But after all the (excruciating) build-up, it has to be said that the response here at the Old Estate Yard is one of being distinctly underwhelmed by the options.

We have three shortlisted finalists from a quite impressive 3422 entries. The trouble is, they all seem to be a bit dull and uninformative.

That’s not to be unkind to the artists who created them, who no doubt put in a lot of thought and effort, but this is a BIG thing for organics. Not only is it the introduction of a compulsory logo for the first time, but it should be an opportunity to strike a chord with consumers and create something that is instantly recognisable and understood as organic. We don’t really think any of the three chosen by the judges are going to achieve that.

What do you think?

These are your choices for the EU organic logo. So which will it be???

Even if you’re thinking “my five-year-old could have come up with something more exciting”, these are the options we’ve got. So, which will you vote for? It’s open to every EU citizen (though how they can rule out mischievous votes from beyond the Euro borders is hard to say…).

There is, I think, a clear favourite in our office, but everyone needs to cast their vote before the end of January, which you can do here:

http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/organic/logo/voting/voting_en.htm

Choose wisely…

[For details on the new labeling regulations, take a look at this page on our website. You can also follow some more of our thinking on the topic in this piece by Jess Halliday, at FoodNavigator.com]

Just a post for the record, really, but in case you haven’t seen it yet, Defra has launched its updated website.

They confess that not all of the information has been hauled right up-to-date yet, but they are working on it. So, for all your Government organic farming-related info you now need to go here.

Not entirely sure about the colour scheme – the phrase ’slightly garish’ springs to mind  and it’s far from clear that the designers consulted a colour wheel, but hey ho, a change is as good as a rest, n’est pas?

Okay, must clarify the headline. No-one from here has actually been to the top of Everest. Maybe one or two have conquered The Wrekin or the Long Mynd and our Certification Manager, Steve, spends many a weekend tramping around very tall parts of the country – but I digress.

Sir Ranulph Fiennes conquers Everest with support from Science In Sport products, certified organic by OF&G

What is exciting is, as far as we know, for the first time an OF&G certified product has been to this highest of high places and in the hands of none other than adventurer extraordinaire, Sir Ranulph Feinnes!

Sir Ran sought advice and essential supplies from Science In Sport, which is a leader in sports nutrition, and has chosen OF&G as its certifier for a range of organic products. Among the SIS products Sir Ran took on his successful ascent, in May, were the organic ones (which he’s pictured holding).

This very British hero even went as far as to tell SIS that its energy formulations had “definitely powered me to the top” and he wished he’d had them with him on his previous attempts!

SIS really knows its stuff when it comes to sports nutrition and works with leading names in sport both nationally and internationally, including the heavily Olympic gold-medalled GB sailing and cycling teams, 2009 Tour de France winner, Alberto Contador, last year’s Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre, plus their very successful team mates, as well as leading athletes and teams in a whole cross-section of other sports.

OF&G is very pleased to provide certification services to SIS, who joined us on stand at the Natural and Organic Products Europe show, at Olympia, this year.

We’d like to pass our own congratulations on to Sir Ran for his achievement, which you can read about in more detail here.

This is the kind of news we like to see! As reported by the Food & Drink Innovation Network:

The first ever organic Islay single malt whisky has been released to coincide with the opening of a new island barley facility for farmers and Bruichladdich distillery.

This got our development officer, Steve, fairly well excited as this is a product from his personal favourite distillery. The news has even prompted talk of moving up to live next door to it – but we’re putting that down to over-excitement. He’ll settle down in a while

One for the record. Reuters reports that the US and Canada have reached agreement to accept each other’s organic standards and the US Deputy Agriculture Secretary apparently sees it as “an important first step toward global harmonization of organic standards”…

This is a very interesting piece from the Independent, Ireland. Apparently the country has seen a 79 per cent (!) increase in applications for organic conversion between last year and this.

Are they seeing a similar pattern to the one that happened in the UK in the last few years? Is this their big upswing, as we had over the course of recent years here?

Hopefully it’s not just a fad based on obtaining the available subsidies and there is a market for the converting produce that will come into the system in a year or so…

The market for organic food is still healthy and still growing, but the conversion period can distort the balance between supply and demand, leading to peaks and troughs in both availability and profitability. You always need to look closely at whatever forecasts are available for the market you intend to supply.

Interesting debate may be on the cards following the publication by the journal Food Policy (via FoodNavigator.com) of research into whether the public would accept food labelled as being “in-conversion” to organic.

It’s easy to see people coming down firmly on each side of the fence on this issue. We’d be fascinated to hear your comments below.

On one hand an “in-conversion” label would give producers who are on the road to full status the chance to possibly recoup some level of premium price for their efforts. On the other hand, would we risk confusing shoppers if we haven’t yet done a good enough job of explaining the reasons why they should be buying certified organic produce?