FSA report on organic food - our response

In 2009 the Food Standards Agency (FSA) published a report on organic food, which claims that there are no significant benefits to be gained from eating organic. This is a serious piece of research, and the Soil Association will examine its conclusion seriously - however at first glance the research appears to be a fairly limited piece of analysis. For example, the review only looked at research papers with abstracts written in English, it excluded the results of more than half the papers it found, and it ignored more up-to-date research from the European Union, completed in April of 2009 (despite knowing this research was due to be published).

Wider benefits

That all said, it’s a popular myth that people who buy organic food only do so because they think it will make them healthier. Recent EU research has found that regular buyers of organic food (who buy about 80% of all organic products) have a much more sophisticated understanding of the range of benefits that organic farming and food deliver. 

For example, the review failed to address the issue of the long-term effects of pesticides, herbicides and insecticides on human health. The European Commission, in 2006, reported links between certain cancers, male infertility and nervous system disorders and exposure to pesticides. The average industrially-produced apple may have been sprayed up to 16 times with 30 different chemicals. 

Buying organic food also promotes a healthy environment. Organic farms have on average 30% more species and 50% more wildlife like birds, butterflies and bees. Compassion in World Farming, the recognised experts, say organic farming has the potential for the highest animal welfare standards. Other environmental benefits are self evident – there’s less dangerous waste on organic farms. Artificial nitrogen fertiliser is banned in organic farming, so there’s less run-off of nutrients that cause algae blooms in coastal waters.

There are more women and younger people involved in organic farming and organic farmers are more optimistic about the future. That future will be dominated by climate change. Here organic farming is leading the way, insisting on using solar powered fertility through crops like red clover that fix nitrogen into the soil for subsequent crops. For our own health and the health of the planet, organic food and farming will play a big part in our future. 

Further information

• Soil Association response to the Food Standards Agency's Organic Review