John Vidal and Walter Schwarz
THE Munich company Hofpfisterei Stocker is baker to the former Bavarian kings. It employs 900 people, has 700 outlets and uses 15 000 tonnes of cereal a year. Two years ago, it sniffed the winds of change, did its sums and converted its whole operation to organically grown. Competitors were forced to follow suit and a third of all the bread eaten in the Munich region is now organic.
Bernward Geier, general secretary of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements reels off facts to suggest that the cosy troika of chemical company, supermarket and farmer is collapsing, and that organic farming in Europe is coming blinking into the mainstream sunshine.
All northern European countries are now experiencing massive increases in demand for organic products. The German company HIPP, the largest processor of organic food, plans to turn all its foods organic (it is 70% organic already). This, says Geier, is forcing Nestl, the world’s number two baby food maker, and Alete, the number three, to follow suit.
Swedish policy is to convert 10 % of all farms within three years. More than 30% of some Swiss cantons have already switched, and the second largest supermarket group almost doubled its turnover when it introduced a strategy of selling local, seasonal organic food. The benefits in better health, lower pollution, more jobs and conservation will result in a 15% increase in some food prices, he says.
Geier is astonished at the sea change in European attitudes. What is new, he says, is not the philosophy – organic food is seen by most politicians to be environmentally and socially advantageous – but the increasing availablity of organic produce in mainstream markets.
In Denmark, 10% of all food sold this year is expected to be organic and the (supportive) government is revising its goal upwards to 20%; ditto Finland, Sweden and many German provinces.
The German equivalent of Friends of the Earth have analysed the feasibility of turning all Germany completely organic. It would not, they conclude, be too hard and the benefits would be enormous.
Organic farming is now defined under EU law and bans chemical fertilisers and pesticides. It uses rotations, mixed cropping and fertility-building by using leguminous crops rather than artificial nitrogen. It is not vegetarian only and many organic farmers farm meat.
Organic farmers argue that animals raised organically, without systematic use of antibiotics, have a strong immune system resistant to diseases and seldom need medication. Organic yields are usually between 15 and 30% lower than in conventional farming, but the risk of disease is much lower.
Nearly half of organic farmers in Europe and the UK are women. Says British farmer Helen Browning, “As soon as the big toys came in, the big tractors, it got to be macho. You’ve got to get women involved because they have a longer-term view; they are concerned about health and sustainability.”
What Browning calls the macho culture in farming contrasts with the situation in developing countries, where most farming is done by women.
Depending on how deeply a farm is geared to industrial agriculture, conversion to organic farming can be expensive and risky. To get an organic certificate, every acre must be managed organically for at least two years.
Browning started with small-scale trials. “After converting a 20-acre site, I became so enthusiastic I started to convert the whole farm. It took seven years and only finished two years ago. We couldn’t have done it in one go without heavy support because you have nothing to sell while converting.”
Once the products get to market, however, the decision to convert is justified by increased profitability – people will pay extra for organic milk and meat, especially since the BSE crisis.
“That was a pretty crucial warning to the world. It produced a rise not just in meat sales but in all organic sales because people have realised that you can’t just forget about where food comes from.”