More and more farmers are converting to organic agriculture, but could the influx cause a reduction in organic standards, asks Alison Healy
It's a good time to be involved in the organic trade. We've never been more obsessed with the history of the food we eat and we've never had more money to spend on premium products. Supermarkets are reserving large swathes of shelving for organic produce, and chefs such as Richard Corrigan regularly urge consumers to think organic.
He ruffled more than a few feathers in the poultry houses when he described Irish chicken as "muck, crap . . . fed a load of antibiotics and a load of crap". But this was music to the ears of the organic producers whose €15 chickens sit on the same shelves as the €3.99 value-brand chickens.
The organic sector here is still a niche, with 1,100 producers and processors and less than 1 per cent of land under organic production, compared with an EU average of 4.5 per cent. But the Irish Organic Farmers' and Growers' Association (IOFGA) believes producer numbers could double in the next three years.
It is the largest of three organic bodies and has seen 100 more producers join in each of the last two years, swelling its numbers to more than 800. Pascal Gillard, certification manager with the IOFGA, says his office receives hundreds of calls from farmers interested in converting from conventional to organic farming.
Under the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (Reps), farmers receive a top-up of €181 per hectare for the first two years and €91 per hectare afterwards. They also receive a premium for their produce, varying from 20 to 25 per cent for organic red meat to significantly more for chicken because of the added costs in producing it.
But premium prices can attract unscrupulous producers. Earlier this year, an ITV programme found butchers in Dorset and Devon illegally selling conventional and non-organic meat as organic at a farmers' market.
Quentin Gargan, smallholder and former environmental campaigner, says some farmers are entering the organic sector with an eye on the money but no genuine belief in the movement.
"They are going out and spraying their land just before they join the scheme, because they know they won't be able to do it afterwards," he says. "Commercialisation of organic produce has brought in its wake attempts to dilute the standards applied in order to make organic farming more accessible to producers."
Both IOFGA and the Department of Agriculture deny that organic standards are being watered down as the sector dips its toe in the mainstream. Michael O'Donovan, principal officer in the agriculture structures division, says the Department of Agriculture operates a stringent policing system. Every organic farmer and processor is inspected at least once a year by one of three certification bodies: IOFGA, Organic Trust and Demeter Standards. Department inspectors can also inspect them at any time.
If someone flouts the regulations, he or she will lose their right to sell produce as organic and could have to refund Reps payments. For the first time since it received new powers in 2003, the department has initiated court proceedings against one trader for selling non-organic food as organic. "If we feel that someone is acting the maggot, we will most certainly go after them," O'Donovan says. For its part, IOFGA expels two or three members every year for flouting the regulations.
But is organic food worth the expense? Dr Patrick Wall, of UCD's school of public health, says there is "not much difference" in terms of food safety between organic and conventional food. He points to the example of a lamb that has been roaming the hills of Connemara all its life until it is slaughtered. "It's virtually organic. It's the same with cattle. Levels of pesticide use are very controlled. You can't say vegetables are contaminated with chemicals. I think food has probably never been safer than now." He says Richard Corrigan's chicken rant might have been true in the past "but not now. Antibiotics are very tightly controlled."
Dr Wall believes the real bonus of organic food is its flavour and the way it makes people think about what they eat. "You are buying into more than the food," he says. But it's still a luxury. "It's a niche and, because it's more expensive, it's not for everybody." He believes it is "a bit arrogant" of promoters of organic food to criticise people for not paying €18 for a chicken. Chicken is still nutritious, whether it costs €5 or €18. "The important thing is that people are getting a balanced diet."
But chef and cookery writer Darina Allen says organic food is not a luxury: "It's a necessity," she says. What about the expense? "Think of what you spend on magazines, or beer, or your nails or hair. You will always find money for what you think is important." She says there is a fixation with cheap food in some quarters. "When some people do the shopping, their only concern is "how much is that?" she says. "We need to think more about the connection between the food we eat and how healthy we feel."
Gargan advises, "Buy as much of your food local and in season, educate yourself about the various symbols and look out for ones that come from biodynamic organisations as your first choice".
The biodynamic movement in Ireland is tiny, with just a handful of farmers, but the Biodynamic Agricultural Association of Ireland (BDAAI) believes its time is coming. Biodynamics centres on self-sufficiency, special compost and soil treatments and the use of an astronomical calendar to determine when crops should be planted and harvested.
Michael Miklis, BDAAI co-ordinator, says the writing is on the wall for conventional agriculture because of its reliance on oil in the form of artificial fertiliser and other products. "In the long run, our choices are not too plentiful," he says. "What happens when our oil gets dearer and even runs out? We have to take sustainability as far as we can bring it."
