OF&G :: The blog

…get your facts straight!

Opponents of organic love to trot out ‘facts’ that attempt to detract from the plain-as-the-nose-on-your-face realities or organic systems.

So when Robert Johnston decided to ‘explode’ the ‘five myths’ about organic food on The First Post website there was something of a stir created.

Fortunately a comprehensive rebuttal has now appeared on that same website courtesy of the Soil Association’s Robin Maynard. We’re posting this here because it’s a neat and fairly painless way to re-cap both sides of the argument ready for the next time you’re challenged in the pub!

So widespread is the use of genetically modified soya and corn in the US, it’s becoming nigh-on impossible to avoid the stuff unless you buy organic (and it’s getting harder for the organic food producers to find non-GM supplies).

Given this wholesale adoption of GM over the pond, it’s somewhat surprising to learn that a couple of US Senators have managed to put the brakes on the latest emerging abhorrence ‘Frankenmeat’ - or the use of cloned animals for food.

The situation seems to be summed up nicely in this report from thedailygreen.com:

Senate Says No to Frankenmeat (and Frankenmilk)

It may only be a delay for now, but if nothing else it should open up the debate, rather than have GM meat sneaking in through the back door.

I feel another heated debate (and costly lobbying on all sides) coming on…

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!

On the day that we breathe a collective sigh of relief that the results of two more suspect
FMD cases have proved negative in initial tests, it is reported that there is growing concern among scientists that the deadly bluetongue virus is not far from UK shores.

The disease is a killer to livestock and is spread by midges, which makes it very hard to control, according to news from Organic Inform. Click here for the Organic Inform coverage…

There has been a verrrrry interesting proposition from the boffins on generating massive amounts of green energy from relatively small amounts of seawater, using lasers.

For anyone of a truly scientific bent the concept of nuclear fusion (a long time dream of scientists apparently) might not be news. But to us lesser mortals (okay, me) it’s a fascinating prospect. Too good to be true though? Maybe not in this case…

Scientists believe they’ve come up with a way of testing whether food is really organic.
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