Subscribe to our RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Government’s chief scientist discussed future of R & D with Horticulture bodies
Aug07Government chief scientist John Beddington met with horticulture representatives last week to discuss the crisis facing research and development in the sector.
For the full story click the link
Soil Association Response to FSA report
Aug03FSA report on organic food - our response
As you may be aware, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has just published a report on organic food, which claims that there are no significant benefits to be gained from eating organic. This is a serious piece of research, and the Soil Association will examine its conclusion seriously - however at first glance the research appears to be a fairly limited piece of analysis. For example, the review only looked at research papers written in English, it excluded the results of almost half the papers it found, and it ignored more up-to-date research from the European Union, published in April this year (despite knowing this research was due to be published). You can read our initial response to the report by following the link below, and in due course we will of course respond more fully.
Bigger benefits
That all said, it’s a popular myth that people who buy organic food only do so because they think it will make them healthier. Recent EU research has found that regular buyers of organic food (who buy about 80% of all organic products) have a much more sophisticated understanding of the range of benefits that organic farming and food deliver.
For example, the review failed to address the issue of the long-term effects of pesticides, herbicides and insecticides on human health. The European Commission, in 2006, reported links between certain cancers, male infertility and nervous system disorders and exposure to pesticides. The average industrially-produced apple may have been sprayed up to 16 times with 30 different chemicals.
Buying organic food also promotes a healthy environment. Organic farms have on average 30% more species and 50% more wildlife like birds, butterflies and bees. Compassion in World Farming, the recognised experts, say organic farming has the potential for the highest animal welfare standards. Other environmental benefits are self evident – there’s less dangerous waste on organic farms. Artificial nitrogen fertiliser is banned in organic farming, so there’s less run-off of nutrients that cause algae blooms in coastal waters.
There are more women and younger people involved in organic farming and organic farmers are more optimistic about the future. That future will be dominated by climate change. Here organic farming is leading the way, insisting on using solar powered fertility through crops like red clover that fix nitrogen into the soil for subsequent crops. For our own health and the health of the planet, organic food and farming will play a big part in our future.
organic subjected to science does not stand up but its about emotion really
Jul30Dangerous to mis-use science for PR claims better to stick to emotion
Prof. Carlo Leifert’s response to FSA report
Jul30Prof. Carlo Leifert, one of the STCRF Directors is co-ordinating a large EU-study, a component of which (subproject 2) studies “Why there are differences in the nutritional composition between organic, low-input and conventional foods” . It investigates compounds thought to be beneficial for human health (e.g. vitamin, omega-3 fatty acids, glucosinolate and antioxidant content), but also compounds that are deleterious to human health (pesticides, heavy metals, glycoalcaloids), which were not covered by the FSA study. The study is based on carefully designed field experiments and surveys and is likely to come to different conclusion to the FSA study which was based on an evaluation of the literature review only. For further information please see the QualityLowInputFood website (www.qlif.org<http://www.qlif.org>).
