Scotland's Year of Food and Drink 2015 has ended, but work is ongoing to keep up the momentum of record growth and it should come as no surprise that, in the light of the Scottish Government's ban on the growing of GM crops, organic food production is now having bit of a moment as a key player in the future of Scottish agriculture. It's being seen by many as a solution to the country's poor diet-related health record.
But it's going to be an uphill battle. The area of land managed organically in Scotland is falling, from almost 8 per cent in 2002 to just over 2 per cent in 2014, compared to a 1 per cent drop to just over 3 per cent in the rest of the UK - and a rise from over 4 per cent to about 6 per cent in Europe. On top of that, the number of organic producers and processors dropped from 900 in 2008 to less than 600 in 2014.
Last week saw the launch of Scotland's Organic Action Plan 2016-2020, in which the Scottish Organic Forum (SOF) sets out its vision to make Scotland a world leader in green farming, alongside Denmark, France, Germany and other countries. It states the number one priority should be to increase public awareness about what it says are the economic, environmental and social values of organic produce, which is free of pesticides and antibiotics, is better for the resilience of the soil, produces slower-growing tastier meat and fresh produce, has higher standards of animal welfare, produces less greenhouse gases and protects biodiversity much better than non-organic food production.
Persuading consumers the higher ticket price of organic food compared to cut-price supermarket products will be part of a nationwide consumer campaign to promote organic over conventional. Also in the SOF's sights are procurement and catering teams, businesses, public, private voluntary and third sector organisations, local and national policy makers, the Curriculum For Excellence and community food initiatives.
A feasibility study for a Scottish Organic brand is also planned.
Much depends on getting organic brands into supermarkets and cafes, bars, restaurants and hospitals. Multiple and independent retailers will be asked to secure Scottish organic product listings.
Some of it is already out there. The Finlays, who produce Cream o'Galloway ice-cream at their dairy farm in Gatehouse of Fleet, have cut antibiotic and agro-chemical use by 90 per cent and doubled the productive life of their cows while also reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by more than half. They calculate that if all food were produced like this it would cost the same an industrially produced food.
Takeaway sandwiches are another potential target. According to a 2013 Defra report, 30 per cent of Britain's bread contained the weedkiller glysophate, an ingredient in the Roundup brand often sprayed onto wheat crops pre-harvest to kill the crop, ripen it faster and make harvesting easier. The use of glysophate on British cereal crops has increased by more than 400 per cent in the last 20 years, and the Soil Association reports a recent European study on city dwellers found that in the UK, seven out of 10 people had traces of this weedkiller in their urine.
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