Organic agriculture is nothing new. Many farmers, especially in the developing world practice organic techniques and have no access to modern agricultural technology and chemicals.

In the developed world, awareness grew in the 1950’s with certification schemes emerging in 1970’s. Rising consumer awareness of organic methods began in the 1950s with the promotion of organic gardening. In the 1990s, formal organic certification began to be legislated in various countries, a trend that continues today.

The Soil Association was founded in 1946 by a group of farmers, scientists and nutritionists who observed a direct connection between farming practice and plant, animal, human and environmental health. The catalyst was the publication of The Living Soil by Lady Eve Balfour in 1943. The Soil Association now licenses 85% of Britain’s organic produce. Organic food is grown without use of conventional pesticides, artificial fertilizers and animals are reared without the routine use of antibiotics and growth hormones.

Join the debate by emailing Allegra at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The panel

Robin Maynard - Director of Communications, Soil Association

Robin worked as senior Countryside and Agriculture Campaigner at Friends of the Earth in addition to spending a short spell hosting BBC Radio’s Farming Today programme. He set up FARM, a campaign group fighting for a sustainable future for farming in the United Kingdom.

Josiah Meldrum - Community Projects Manager, Eostre Organics

Josh has worked in the organic sector for almost ten years, initially stacking shelves at Out of This World, a consumer co-op and perhaps the first ethical one-stop shop. Josiah went on to run shops, establish his own box scheme and work on local food initiatives. His role now is to work with community groups to establish income generating projects, raise awareness of sustainable agriculture and create direct links between producers and consumers. Eostre is an East Anglian co-operative of organic fruit and vegetable growers founded four years ago from a conviction that there had to be a better, more sustainable and equitable way to get produce to market.

Sean Rickard - Senior Lecturer in Business Economics, Cranfield University

Prior to joining the Economics Group at Cranfield in 1994 Sean worked as a business economist and from 1987 was Chief Economist with the National Farmers Union. As Chief Economist and Head of the NFU’s European and Economics Department, Sean directed research into - and commented publicly on - a wide range of issues relating to the agricultural and food industries in the UK and the European Union. Key areas of expertise are agricultural policy, (food) supply chain relationships, world trade relationship and the European Union. Since joining Cranfield he has been a member of the Minister of Agriculture’s Think Tank on future agricultural and rural policy and an employer’s representative on the Agricultural Wages Board. Sean wrote the present government’s agricultural manifesto and is currently an academic.

The Host

Allegra McEvedy – chef, restaurateur, writer and broadcaster

Allegra worked at notable London restaurants Green's, The Belvedere, The Groucho Club and The River Café before gaining a special visa to the US as 'an alien with extraordinary ability in the culinary arts' where she worked at Robert de Niro's New York restaurant Tribeca Grill. She is a founding partner of Leon a healthy fast-food restaurant concept that won Best New Restaurant in the 2005 Observer food awards. She has a weekly column in the Evening Standard's ES Magazine and monthly columns in Elle, Living etc and Image. She has contributed to GQ, Tesco Magazine, The Guardian and Good Housekeeping.

Ten Totally Organic Facts

1. Growers, processors and importers selling organic food must be registered with one of ten organic-certification bodies (the Soil Association is by far the largest), which in turn are regulated in the UK by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

2. Food must be made from at least 95 per cent organic ingredients to carry an organic label.

3. More than half of the certified organic farmland in the UK is in Scotland.

4. This year's growth in sales of organic produce is 9.3 per cent, compared with 17 per cent the previous year, according to retail magazine The Grocer. It blames "severe supply shortages" in a range of produce including dairy, meat and vegetables.

5. More than 20 million British households bought organic products last year, with around 1.6 million doing so for the first time.

6. The area of land in Europe dedicated to organic food has more than doubled in the last decade.

7. Around 30% of all organic food sold in the UK is imported.

8. Since June 2006, Tesco have launched over 250 new organic products.

9. In 2007, sales of organic milk rose by 19 per cent, while the market for organic meat, fish and poultry grew by 11.5 per cent.

10. Organics account for 4% of all produce farmed in Britain.

Resources

Organic.org

Organic at wikipedia.org

Soil Association

Eostre Organics

Organic Consumers Association (U.S.)

Further Reading

The Observer: Organic food under threat

The Economist: Voting with your trolley

How Organic Food Works

The BBC on Organic Food