To promote this fascist yet fashionable idea, the wealthy white westerners who run the Soil Association (Britain's organic PR agency in chief) invents statistics to pretend "organic" food is more popular than it really is.
Lord Melchett, Policy Director of the Soil Association, claims that sales of organic food were £1.937 billion in 2006 (the latest year available). When that figure first appeared – in a September 2007 Soil Association press release – it was reported without question in the “quality press” and has now become an official Defra (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) statistic.
Defra always relies on imaginary numbers but good journalists question “facts” that are suspiciously precise. No such luck, in media circles the Soil Association’s word is law and no self-respecting correspondent would be seen dead with a non-organic ciabatta.
What some eagle-eyed hack should have noticed was that the Soil Association claimed organic sales of £260 million in 1996. Add exactly 25% annual compound interest for 10 years and the result is £1.937 billion. Either the organic-food consuming public has been extremely predictable for a decade, or the Soil Association makes up its statistics on the back of an envelope.
Melchett continued to put his mouth where his money is and complained that organic farming does not get enough research funding – although his country estate in Norfolk received £287,427 in EU farm subsidies and grants during 2002-2005 and undisclosed amounts in the last three years.
(An interesting side note: despite press reports that he “farms organically” in 2000 and being employed by the Soil Association since 2002, financial statements reveal that Melchett had still not fully converted his estates to organic standards by 2006 – a process that should only take three years.)
Perhaps Lord Melchett could pool “research resources” with other citizen farmers. When wealthy hacks or media types need a hobby, tax deduction and EU handout all in one, they buy a farm and go organic. Celebrity “organic farmers” include Jonathan Dimbleby, John Humphrys, Rosie Boycott, Monty Don, Zac Goldsmith, Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall, Alex James (of popular beat combo ‘Blur’) and of course Prince Charles – whose Duchy enterprises rake-in millions of pounds in subsidies every year.
The courting of celebrities has been very profitable. In 2005 the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) forbade the Soil Association from repeating claims that organic food and farming is healthier or more humane to animals than conventional food and farming. But “celebrities” do not have to stick to ASA rules; they can (and do) make outrageous statements about the benefits of organic food – from curing asthma and hyperactivity in children to reducing the risk of cancer to being kind to cuddly animals to saving the planet.
As well as individual “organic” celebs, BBC Radio 4 is practically the Voice of the Soil Association. Unfortunate listeners to The Archers, the Food Programme, Farming Today and “consumer” programmes are regularly subject to barrages of hectoring about the dangers of “conventional” farming, the eco-benefits of organic farming and the wholesome tastiness of organic food.
Illustrative of the BBC’s infiltration by organic nuts was the response to the Countryfile programme which conducted a blind taste test of four differently-reared chickens. All eight participants (nutritionists and veterinary students) chose the cheapest, intensively reared, chicken over organic, free-range and corn-fed. When Farming Today discussed the results, it was very sour about the fact that cheap chicken tasted best; instead of welcoming the benefits to consumers, the presenter suggested that the population need to be “re-educated.”
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