The critics of organic farming were not slow to make their voices heard when sales of organic products began to fall in 2009. Some asked whether this might be the beginning of the end for organic food, dismissing it as a luxury that a cash-strapped country could ill afford.
The current economic climate is certainly the toughest that the organic movement has faced for 20 years, in what some are calling the worst
depression for a century. In common with much of the rest of the economy, trading conditions have been very difficult for many organic businesses.
However, despite the near 13% decline in organic sales, organic milk and baby food resisted the downward trend – their sales increased by 1% and 20.8% respectively. Sales of organic health and beauty products continued their rapid growth, increasing by a third to £36 million. The area of organic farmland increased by 9% on the previous year, up to 4.3% of agricultural land. While the rate of conversion to organic farming is slowing, the area of organic land will continue to increase for the foreseeable future.
This report points out that organic products continue to attract shoppers from across the social spectrum, with groups that include manual and casual workers, pensioners, students and people on benefits accounting for 33% of spend.
We have come through recessions before, and we shall do so again. As this report highlights, in early 2010 organic sales have started to pick up and seem likely to return to growth this year. The Soil Association thinks that there are firm signs of a revival in the organic market, and that there will be a modest growth, of around 2-5%, during 2010. Many organic companies continue to show great creativity in maintaining a strong customer base. Sales of organic food are still more than three times what they were in 1999 and over 50% higher than five years ago.
The question we should really be asking is not ‘canthe public afford organic food?’ but ‘can our policy makers afford to carry on ignoring the potential
of organic farming?’
December’s climate change talks in Copenhagen put the carbon footprint of agriculture in the spotlight as never before. Global livestock production alone is responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to 90% of our recommended carbon ‘allowance’ for 2050 if runaway climate change is to be avoided.
The Climate Change Act has committed the UK to a 34% cut in emissions by 2030. To come anywhere near meeting this target we must make
fundamental changes in the way we produce our food over the next 20 years. Organic farming continues to offer the best practical model for reducing emissions because it stores significantly higher levels of carbon in the soil, is less dependent on oil-based fertilisers and pesticides and improves the resilience of crops and soils in the face of climatic extremes. A major report on soil carbon, published by the Soil Association just before the Copenhagen summit, showed that converting crop growing areas of the UK to organic farming could take 3.2 million tonnes of carbon per
year out of the atmosphere and store it in the soil – equivalent to 23% of UK farming’s official global warming emissions. If the Government is serious
about tackling climate change then it needs to get serious about supporting organic agriculture.
Business as usual is simply not an option. We need significantly to increase the proportion of organic food served in schools, hospitals and
throughout the public sector. We need an agricultural equivalent of the car scrappage scheme that offers enhanced incentives through agri-environment funding for farmers who swap polluting old farming techniques for practices that maximise soil carbon storage. And we must increase research and development funding to support sustainable farming practices from 11% to 50% or more of the UK’s agriculture research budget.
For its part the organic movement needs to strengthen its collective effort to communicate all the benefits of organic food and farming to the
public. We need to rekindle the kind of consumer demand that it will ultimately be impossible for policy makers, and retailers, to ignore.
