OF&G :: The Blog

A few of us have been chuckling our way around the office having seen this:

“Beware of misleading labels implying “freedom”; only the Soil Association accreditation offers any real guarantee of a decent standard of animal care.”
George Miller and Katharine Reeve,authors of the new Rough Guide to Food, The Times, 3 March 2009

Where on earth does a statement like that come from?

Let’s start with the fact that according to our own close analysis, the difference between Organic Farmers & Growers standards and the Soil Assocation Certification Ltd standards boils down to a very few variations in requirements, particularly with regard to livestock. Of those variations none of them could be called substantial and in an argument over whether our version or the SACL version is “better” for welfare, you might as well be debating whether the chicken or the egg came first, because your chances of reaching a consensus are about as good!

Secondly, quite what do the authors mean by “decent”? In organics, and with the OF&G standard, we shoot for “excellent”. Who wants “decent”?

Are they implying the SACL standard is only “decent” and not excellent???

We certainly have no desire to denigrate Soil Association Certification’s standards, but if the authors wanted to give such a piece of advice to their readership, perhaps it would have shown them to be better informed if they had substituted the words “Soil Assocation accreditation” for “organic accreditation”.

The SA, however, seem to be very pleased with the recommendation – we found that snippet in their daily news digest.

Many in the farming community were watching with some trepidation last night as sometimes controversial TV chef, Jamie Oliver, went to work on the reputation of British bacon.

Hopefully many more non-farmers, the consumers who should be buying British, were also tuned-in to Channel 4 and taking the whole thing on board.

The good news is that the programme was all about getting firmly behind the UK pig industry, which has seen the size of the national herd halved in the last ten years. There were no nasty suprises and no-one was aggressively put on the spot. Mr Oliver and his colleagues actually did a very good job of educating (with a few slightly pointless and irritating features thrown in i.e. ‘Pig Brother’).

Some of us were following the live debate on the Farmers Weekly website as the programme was aired and the reaction from those taking part in the discussion, farmers and non-farmers alike, was positive. The farmers appreciated the huge boost of support for UK pork and the non-farmers professed to having learnt a lot and having their eyes opened.

One thing that came out of the live debate, though, was the need for the pig industry to capitalise on this quickly, while there’s some momentum caused by the programme. The track record hasn’t been great for this in the past. Can UK farming get it right this time?

These thoughts are echoed today by ‘PR Guru’, Max Clifford, who was asked for his response by the Farmers Weekly team. He’s a man who knows his stuff.

What do we think? Is the industry now marketing savvy enough to capitalise? Are there funds available to do so? Does it even need huge funds, or just some creative thinking?

Surely making the most of such opportunities are in the interest of all UK farming, not just individual sectors.

For a number of years now farmers, vets and advisors have had access to the Compendium of Animal Health & Welfare in Organic Farming. Well now this very useful resource has got a new online face (by ‘new’ I have to say it looks like something one would have designed in their bedroom sometime around 1997 – but hey, this isn’t a beauty parade).

The Compendium is a collaboration led by Duchy College, Cornwall with VEERU at The University of Reading and The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow. Here’s how they describe it themselves:

Funded by Defra, this compendium of animal health and welfare information relevant to organic livestock production brings together appropriate material from a wide range of recent research and advisory sources, summarised into easily accessible parts for the benefit of farmers, veterinarians and organic advisors. The compendium is an updated version of an original first published in 2000. This version was completed in December 2007.

It well worth a look for anyone who wants or needs animal welfare information. In particular we find that a lot of vets are not up-to-speed with modern organic practice, so it’s particularly recommended to them.

Take a look at the Compendium at www.organicvet.co.uk

The Telegraph reports that Swedish researchers have concluded that battery hens are healthier than free-range ones [something of a chicken theme developing on here today...].

Fortunately the Soil Association’s Anna Bassett was asked to respond and has put the nonsense in some perspective!