No more organic cash?

5 October 2001




No more organic cash?

RURAL Affairs Minister Margaret Beckett appears to have ruled out extra funding for organic farmers, at least for the time being.

Mrs Beckett resisted promising more money to the organic sector when addressing a conference fringe meeting arranged by an environmental group which wants 30% of agricultural land farmed organically by 2020.

Mrs Beckett is herself a member of the group, the Socialist Environment and Resources Association, an independent environment group affiliated to the Labour Party. She said it was right that the government looked at organic farming to see whether money should be redirected away from existing production subsidies. But she said she would not advocate putting money into organic farming if it encouraged surpluses similar to those in the conventional sector.

At a separate fringe meeting hosted by environmental campaigners Friends of the Earth, NFU vice-president, Michael Paske, warned that countries which had introduced a national target for organic production were in some instances finding it a disaster.

"I cannot agree with your suggestion and your support for an organic targets bill. In the countries where this is policy it is already proving a huge disaster simply because it is being over-produced and the market is not there for it. The double whammy is that it is costing more for producers to produce and they are having to sell it at conventional prices."

He later added: "I am truly concerned about this idea that the production comes first and the market comes later," he said.

Mr Paske said in Denmark where targets had been introduced, the country was over-produced in organic milk, eggs and pork. &#42


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