45000 Respond to Organic Farming Consultation

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45000 Respond to Organic Farming Consultation

A 45000 person on line survey on organic food, commissioned by the European Commission, was conducted in the first quarter of this year. Its purpose was to feed into future policy development for the organic sector, specifically a review of the political and legal framework for organic agriculture in Europe. The results came out in September. What did they find?

(photo: organic smoothies, EU commission)

While at 176, the number of respondents from Ireland was low, especially compared, even proportionally, to France, Italy and Belgium, it is still interesting to examine what they said.

Respondents from Ireland had a high confidence in organic products. While not in the highest category, respondents from Ireland were in the second tier of trust in organic food products.

Non-recognition of the recently introduced European organic logo was noteworthy in Ireland, with just 35% knowing it when they saw it. This was a similar rate to our nearest and most significant organic market, the UK, where the Soil Association logo is quite familiar in general and long established.

Respondents from Ireland were either strong on the organic rules or weak on flexibility for farmers and, concurrently growth in organic farming numbers, depending on your perspective.

Ireland, for example, registered opposition to the continuation of exemptions from organic farming rules.
This compares to countries like Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Norway and Poland where respondents “declared that the derogations should still exist in organic farming regulations.”

That said, its wise to be cognisant of preferences in our biggest markets. And respondents in both the UK and France were against rule exemptions. While the UK is our strongest market, the French market is growing really significantly, and respondents from France dominated this survey.

The survey tested an idea that would be very farmer friendly, and might work especially well with short supply chains. This is the idea of lowering the number of inspections for organic operators with a proven track record of abiding to the rules. However the majority of respondents (57%) disapproved of this idea. Just 36% were in favour of an alternative, described here as “a risk-based regularity of organic operators' inspections.”

This coupled with a preference for stronger control systems even if it meant a higher price doesn’t auger well for creative thinking about certification processes.

Organic feed is another good example of the strong organic standards preference reflected in the Irish-based respondents. As the report says, in relation to Ireland and some other countries: “Particular emphasis on the organic quality of feed irrespective of the place of origin was requested especially by questioned citizens”.
More positively from a farmer perspective, and in line with potentials stemming from the CAP reform process, were feed suggestions.

“The majority of the respondents (66%) indicated that the effective solution for addressing the shortage of organic protein-rich feed in Europe is to introduce in the EU legislation, initiatives to boost European production of organic protein crops. In addition, 61% found that a specific organic protein-crop production strategy should be developed.”

In general, respondents clearly identified four areas which would benefit from more research and innovation into the organic food and farming sector. These were the "Economic and social dimension of organic farming" (58%), "Seeds and plant propagating material adapted to low-input agriculture" (52%), "Local production of protein in-rich crops" (48%) and "Waste management".

So what does it all mean? Organic consumers seem to have broad environment and local food system preferences. They are willing to encourage organic feed development, but not as keen on rule flexibility to bring producers in. And Ireland and the UK differ from the rest of Europe in some key areas, such as logo recognition.

However, with the French market growing so spectacularly in recent years, it makes a lot of sense for the organic sector in Ireland to look, not just east, but south east.

That's our discussion regarding 45000 Respond to Organic Farming Consultation

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