Organic news archive: October 2005
"Greenpeace is absolutely right, in its report published last week, to highlight the scandal of some supermarkets - Asda is branded the worst offender - selling threatened fish species," writes Max Hastings in The Guardian. "The world's oceans are being plundered, and nobody seems willing or able to stop the slaughter. It is striking to contrast the wave of alarm, if not panic, sweeping the world about avian flu with our indifference to the plight of fish. As long as there are fillets in the shops, we buy them. When species vanish, people shrug and eat something else." (The Guardian - 31/10/05)
Ministers have agreed to go ahead with the use of GM maize without waiting for Parliament to discuss it, in spite of assurances that MPs would debate the issue first. Caroline Flint, the junior health minister, said it was authorised owing to a technicality in the EU and the summer recess of Parliament. (The Independent - 29/10/05)
The Daily Express looks at what the Trading Standards Institute (TSI) is doing after rogue organic traders were discovered in Richmond. TSI official David Pickering says, "There are people setting out to deceive. We want to find the best way to catch them. We are trying to maintain a level playing field so consumers can have confidence." Robert Duxbury, the Soil Association's certification director, is quoted, "Each [certified] operator receives an annual inspection which is very rigorous. It is inevitable that a few will take advantage, but they are very much the exception." (Daily Express - 31/10/05)
Shoppers should boycott supermarkets to help preserve the rural way of life, the new chairman of the Countryside Alliance said yesterday. Kate Hoey, the pro-hunt MP for the inner London constituency of Vauxhall, said consumers should fight for the countryside. "People who genuinely care about the future of farming and our countryside should always try to shop at shops that are bringing in their own produce," she said. Miss Hoey added: "The demands put on local producers are really terrible, in what supermarkets want, will buy from them and what they won't. I try to avoid supermarkets as much as possible. "For those who profess to love the countryside they must realise that their actions in urban areas can help. Although it's not always possible to stay out of supermarkets, we should question where our food comes from." She also echoed prince [Charles's recent] call for more organic farming, and called on the Government to provide subsidies. "I appreciate that it can be more expensive," she said. "And that's why the Government has a role to play because with the organic industry, if it got a tiny amount of the subsidy that other elements of framing have, we could get the price down." (Daily Telegraph - 31/10/05)
The Times features an article on "wibbly-wobbly" carrots after Prince Charles urged the carrot-buying public to embrace carrot diversity. The Soil Association says it is "delighted" with his remarks. According to the Soil Association 75% of the carrots grown in Britain are of the Nairobi variety - "because it travels and stores well". (29/10/05)
Tony Blair writes about climate change. "Climate change will only be addressed through both technological development and a robust, inclusive and binding international treaty. We are working hard to achieve both." (The Observer - 30/10/05)
A Government ban on the sale or display of birds in markets, shows or fairs will take effect from 29 October as part of EU-wide measures to halt the spread of avian flu agreed last week.
Prince Charles yesterday made a plea to the UK Government and the British public to take better care of the environment. He said "If you think about your and my grandchildren, this is what really worries me. I don't want them, if I'm still alive by then, to say, 'Why didn't you do something about it, when you could have done?'" (The Daily Mail, The Times - 28/10/05)
The European Food Standards Authority has confirmed that there is no risk of humans contracting avian influenza through consumption of poultry and eggs. (Farmers Guardian - 28/10/05)
A mass cull of poultry in the UK is being prepared by Defra officials in meetings with some of the main agricultural firms involved in the clean up and disposal of hundreds of thousands of cattle, pig and sheep carcasses during the foot and mouth epidemic. Experts from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs are holding detailed discussions with contractors about the most appropriate disposal methods should the deadly H5NI form of avian flu reach Britain. Millions of chickens, turkeys and geese could be killed in an official slaughter. Some leading British vets welcomed the fact that Defra is planning ahead having learned from its mistakes in foot and mouth and bird flu outbreaks in other countries. Bob McCracken, a poultry expert and former president of the British Veterinary Association, said badly handled epidemics of avian flu in America and the Netherlands had resulted in the unnecessary culling of hundreds of thousands of turkeys and chickens. "When an outbreak is confirmed it's rather late in the day to run around trying to find contractors able to do the work. Hopefully what this means is that if it is detected in domestic poultry it will be spotted early and that should actually reduce the need for a mass cull."
But Robin Maynard, from the Soil Association, condemned any planned cull, saying Defra should be considering stockpiling a vaccine which has been used in Hong Kong rather than considering "medieval" practices like mass slaughter. Paul van Aarle, from the pharmaceutical firm Intervet, which produces the Nobilis Influenza H5 vaccine said it was an alternative to mass culling. In Hong Kong it was used in an avian influenza control programme and there have been no new bird or human outbreaks since, he said.
News of Defra's plans came as fears grew that the lethal H5NI form of avian flu had reached the heart of the European Union. German vets were yesterday carrying out tests on 35 dead wild geese and ducks discovered over the last two days in a lake in Neuwied, near Bonn. Experts are waiting for the outcome of tests to see whether the birds had been carrying the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain. In France agriculture officials ordered free range poultry farmed in more than one fifth of the country to be kept inside yesterday over concerns that migratory wildfowl could spread bird flu to the country. (The Guardian - 26/10/05)
The European Food Safety Agency has advised consumers to avoid eating raw eggs and meat to prevent the spread of bird flu. The food safety watchdog - which advises European authorities but does not have the power to issue binding recommendations - said: "We don't have any evidence that the virus can be transmitted through food. But we can't exclude it either." A spokesperson for the British Egg Information Service, which represents 85 per cent of producers, said: "We don't have avian flu in the UK. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs assess the risk as low, even now." The Soil Association also accused the agency of causing unnecessary panic. Patrick Holden said: "I think there are two viruses going around at the moment - one is avian flu and the other is the fear of avian flu. If there is good science to show raw eggs present a real public health threat, we have to take that seriously. But I am not aware of that science and I would have thought this is an over-reaction. (Daily Mail - 26/10/05)
Britons could be at the back of the queue for flu vaccines because the Government failed to pre-order stocks, it emerged last night. Chiron, a leading drug firm, said it has not been asked to provide a vaccine for victims of a pandemic should avian flu virus mutate into a human killer. Other nations are already in talks with drug firms to ensure they have reserve stocks ready. (Daily Express - 26/10/05)
GM crops can contaminate significant numbers of plants up to 50 yards away, the Government's own research has revealed. The latest results come from the four-year long Farm- Scale Evaluation Trials, funded by Defra, which have now finished. For a type of winter oil seed rape known as varietal association, they found that 77 plants per 10,000 were contaminated at 50 metres (54 yards). For the spring version of the same type of oil seed rape contamination reached 37 per 10,000 plants. Previous research has shown that GM seed can travel well beyond 50 metres with some even found as far as 16 miles away. But this is understood to be the first time that precise levels of contamination at this distance have been studied. (Daily Mail - 26/10/05)
Jamie Oliver opened the first specialist training kitchen for school dinner ladies. The kitchen is the brainchild of Jeanette Orrey, the award-winning dinner lady. She has been working with food supplier Ashlyns Organics to develop the centre at High Laver Hall, near Harlow. Gary Stokes, director of the Ashlyns Training Kitchen, said: "There has been considerable concern at the quality of meals served in schools across the country and the training kitchen is the way that those concerns can be addressed." (The Evening Standard, The Guardian, BBC News - 24/10/05; The Independent, Daily Express, Daily Mirror, Daily Mail - 25/10/05)
The Alternative Technology Centre hosts its sixth Big Green Week, 4-13 November 2005. For more information visit www.alternativetechnology.org.uk or email [email protected].
Organic food is number 8 in a list of the top 50 icons helping shape who we are. The Social Issues and Research Centre report, for finance firm Egg, also puts Jamie Oliver at number 14, and Farmers Markets at number 24. The top three are 9/11, Tsunami, and War on Terror. (The Daily Mirror - 24/10/05)
More than 300 farmers have dropped out of the government's organic farming scheme as subsidies dried up and profit margins tumbled. Since 2001, more than £21.8 million has gone to farmers to convert to organic production, while £7 million in grants has been awarded to organic producers to support infrastructure investments of around £34 million. But since the funding stopped, farmers have struggled with low returns, high supermarket prices, increasing bureaucracy and a lack of government backing. Carey Coombs, policy manager for the Soil Association in Scotland, says there has been a "high drop-out rate", particularly among hill farmers. "When the Executive was trying to encourage as many farmers to convert to organic as possible, a lot of hill farmers thought it would be an easy way to get a few quid, and quite rightly too," he said. "But it was a badly constructed scheme and we've learnt by that and we have to look forward and make sure we learn from the mistakes." (The Scotsman - 24/10/05)
"Greenpeace is absolutely right, in its report published last week, to highlight the scandal of some supermarkets - Asda is branded the worst offender - selling threatened fish species," writes Max Hastings in The Guardian. "The world's oceans are being plundered, and nobody seems willing or able to stop the slaughter. It is striking to contrast the wave of alarm, if not panic, sweeping the world about avian flu with our indifference to the plight of fish. As long as there are fillets in the shops, we buy them. When species vanish, people shrug and eat something else." (The Guardian - 31/10/05)
Ministers have agreed to go ahead with the use of GM maize without waiting for Parliament to discuss it, in spite of assurances that MPs would debate the issue first. Caroline Flint, the junior health minister, said it was authorised owing to a technicality in the EU and the summer recess of Parliament. (The Independent - 29/10/05)
The Daily Express looks at what the Trading Standards Institute (TSI) is doing after rogue organic traders were discovered in Richmond. TSI official David Pickering says, "There are people setting out to deceive. We want to find the best way to catch them. We are trying to maintain a level playing field so consumers can have confidence." Robert Duxbury, the Soil Association's certification director, is quoted, "Each [certified] operator receives an annual inspection which is very rigorous. It is inevitable that a few will take advantage, but they are very much the exception." (Daily Express - 31/10/05)
Shoppers should boycott supermarkets to help preserve the rural way of life, the new chairman of the Countryside Alliance said yesterday. Kate Hoey, the pro-hunt MP for the inner London constituency of Vauxhall, said consumers should fight for the countryside. "People who genuinely care about the future of farming and our countryside should always try to shop at shops that are bringing in their own produce," she said. Miss Hoey added: "The demands put on local producers are really terrible, in what supermarkets want, will buy from them and what they won't. I try to avoid supermarkets as much as possible. "For those who profess to love the countryside they must realise that their actions in urban areas can help. Although it's not always possible to stay out of supermarkets, we should question where our food comes from." She also echoed prince [Charles's recent] call for more organic farming, and called on the Government to provide subsidies. "I appreciate that it can be more expensive," she said. "And that's why the Government has a role to play because with the organic industry, if it got a tiny amount of the subsidy that other elements of framing have, we could get the price down." (Daily Telegraph - 31/10/05)
The Times features an article on "wibbly-wobbly" carrots after Prince Charles urged the carrot-buying public to embrace carrot diversity. The Soil Association says it is "delighted" with his remarks. According to the Soil Association 75% of the carrots grown in Britain are of the Nairobi variety - "because it travels and stores well". (29/10/05)
Tony Blair writes about climate change. "Climate change will only be addressed through both technological development and a robust, inclusive and binding international treaty. We are working hard to achieve both." (The Observer - 30/10/05)
A Government ban on the sale or display of birds in markets, shows or fairs will take effect from 29 October as part of EU-wide measures to halt the spread of avian flu agreed last week.
Prince Charles yesterday made a plea to the UK Government and the British public to take better care of the environment. He said "If you think about your and my grandchildren, this is what really worries me. I don't want them, if I'm still alive by then, to say, 'Why didn't you do something about it, when you could have done?'" (The Daily Mail, The Times - 28/10/05)
The European Food Standards Authority has confirmed that there is no risk of humans contracting avian influenza through consumption of poultry and eggs. (Farmers Guardian - 28/10/05)
A mass cull of poultry in the UK is being prepared by Defra officials in meetings with some of the main agricultural firms involved in the clean up and disposal of hundreds of thousands of cattle, pig and sheep carcasses during the foot and mouth epidemic. Experts from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs are holding detailed discussions with contractors about the most appropriate disposal methods should the deadly H5NI form of avian flu reach Britain. Millions of chickens, turkeys and geese could be killed in an official slaughter. Some leading British vets welcomed the fact that Defra is planning ahead having learned from its mistakes in foot and mouth and bird flu outbreaks in other countries. Bob McCracken, a poultry expert and former president of the British Veterinary Association, said badly handled epidemics of avian flu in America and the Netherlands had resulted in the unnecessary culling of hundreds of thousands of turkeys and chickens. "When an outbreak is confirmed it's rather late in the day to run around trying to find contractors able to do the work. Hopefully what this means is that if it is detected in domestic poultry it will be spotted early and that should actually reduce the need for a mass cull."
But Robin Maynard, from the Soil Association, condemned any planned cull, saying Defra should be considering stockpiling a vaccine which has been used in Hong Kong rather than considering "medieval" practices like mass slaughter. Paul van Aarle, from the pharmaceutical firm Intervet, which produces the Nobilis Influenza H5 vaccine said it was an alternative to mass culling. In Hong Kong it was used in an avian influenza control programme and there have been no new bird or human outbreaks since, he said.
News of Defra's plans came as fears grew that the lethal H5NI form of avian flu had reached the heart of the European Union. German vets were yesterday carrying out tests on 35 dead wild geese and ducks discovered over the last two days in a lake in Neuwied, near Bonn. Experts are waiting for the outcome of tests to see whether the birds had been carrying the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain. In France agriculture officials ordered free range poultry farmed in more than one fifth of the country to be kept inside yesterday over concerns that migratory wildfowl could spread bird flu to the country. (The Guardian - 26/10/05)
The European Food Safety Agency has advised consumers to avoid eating raw eggs and meat to prevent the spread of bird flu. The food safety watchdog - which advises European authorities but does not have the power to issue binding recommendations - said: "We don't have any evidence that the virus can be transmitted through food. But we can't exclude it either." A spokesperson for the British Egg Information Service, which represents 85 per cent of producers, said: "We don't have avian flu in the UK. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs assess the risk as low, even now." The Soil Association also accused the agency of causing unnecessary panic. Patrick Holden said: "I think there are two viruses going around at the moment - one is avian flu and the other is the fear of avian flu. If there is good science to show raw eggs present a real public health threat, we have to take that seriously. But I am not aware of that science and I would have thought this is an over-reaction. (Daily Mail - 26/10/05)
Britons could be at the back of the queue for flu vaccines because the Government failed to pre-order stocks, it emerged last night. Chiron, a leading drug firm, said it has not been asked to provide a vaccine for victims of a pandemic should avian flu virus mutate into a human killer. Other nations are already in talks with drug firms to ensure they have reserve stocks ready. (Daily Express - 26/10/05)
GM crops can contaminate significant numbers of plants up to 50 yards away, the Government's own research has revealed. The latest results come from the four-year long Farm- Scale Evaluation Trials, funded by Defra, which have now finished. For a type of winter oil seed rape known as varietal association, they found that 77 plants per 10,000 were contaminated at 50 metres (54 yards). For the spring version of the same type of oil seed rape contamination reached 37 per 10,000 plants. Previous research has shown that GM seed can travel well beyond 50 metres with some even found as far as 16 miles away. But this is understood to be the first time that precise levels of contamination at this distance have been studied. (Daily Mail - 26/10/05)
Jamie Oliver opened the first specialist training kitchen for school dinner ladies. The kitchen is the brainchild of Jeanette Orrey, the award-winning dinner lady. She has been working with food supplier Ashlyns Organics to develop the centre at High Laver Hall, near Harlow. Gary Stokes, director of the Ashlyns Training Kitchen, said: "There has been considerable concern at the quality of meals served in schools across the country and the training kitchen is the way that those concerns can be addressed." (The Evening Standard, The Guardian, BBC News - 24/10/05; The Independent, Daily Express, Daily Mirror, Daily Mail - 25/10/05)
The Alternative Technology Centre hosts its sixth Big Green Week, 4-13 November 2005. For more information visit www.alternativetechnology.org.uk or email [email protected].
Organic food is number 8 in a list of the top 50 icons helping shape who we are. The Social Issues and Research Centre report, for finance firm Egg, also puts Jamie Oliver at number 14, and Farmers Markets at number 24. The top three are 9/11, Tsunami, and War on Terror. (The Daily Mirror - 24/10/05)
More than 300 farmers have dropped out of the government's organic farming scheme as subsidies dried up and profit margins tumbled. Since 2001, more than £21.8 million has gone to farmers to convert to organic production, while £7 million in grants has been awarded to organic producers to support infrastructure investments of around £34 million. But since the funding stopped, farmers have struggled with low returns, high supermarket prices, increasing bureaucracy and a lack of government backing. Carey Coombs, policy manager for the Soil Association in Scotland, says there has been a "high drop-out rate", particularly among hill farmers. "When the Executive was trying to encourage as many farmers to convert to organic as possible, a lot of hill farmers thought it would be an easy way to get a few quid, and quite rightly too," he said. "But it was a badly constructed scheme and we've learnt by that and we have to look forward and make sure we learn from the mistakes." (The Scotsman - 24/10/05)