Organic lobby anger as Soil Association backs food by air

The Times
January 27, 2009
Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent

The organic food watchdog has caved in to pressure from supermarkets to allow air-freighted produce to display the organic label.
The Soil Association proposed last year to ban suppliers and retailers from putting its certification label on fruit and vegetables that arrived in Britain by air, arguing that air-freighting produce generated 177 times more greenhouse gas than sending the same produce by sea.
The association has retreated after being lobbied by supermarket chains including Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose and Asda, which want to continue selling air-freighted organic food. The decision to approve air freight, which the association posted discreetly on its website, will provoke uproar in the wider organic movement.
Many supporters of the organic lifestyle believe that it should stand for sustainable consumption, not just organic production.

Sainsbury’s argued that customers should be free to make their own choices. It also said that many African farmers depended on air freight to get their produce to Britain in prime condition.
Waitrose said: “We believe that air freight should only be used when road, rail and sea options have been fully considered and discounted. Research shows that . . . air-freighted produce can have a lower carbon footprint than produce grown in Northern Europe because of the additional heating required when growing crops in a cooler climate.”
Tesco said that it supported air freight because it helped to reduce poverty in developing countries.
Abel & Cole, one of the largest suppliers of organic food, rejected the association ruling and said that it would continue to prohibit any produce transported by aircraft.
Keith Abel, founder of the company, said: “To say we must sustain these livelihoods is like saying we should sustain the livelihoods of easyJet pilots and take £15 flights to Barcelona every Friday.
“Being in the organic movement involves some sacrifices and means eating with the seasons.”
Guy Watson, owner of Riverford, which supplies 45,000 households with organic food, said: “The social benefits of organic growing in Africa have been grossly overestimated. The biggest beneficiaries are the expats who control the trading.”
The Soil Association said: “Requiring a plan to reduce air freight would be costly to implement and unlikely to contribute to a reduction.”
It denied that it had been influenced by supermarkets in reaching its decision. However, it admitted receiving certification fees from suppliers of organic products that carried supermarket brand names.
OUT OF AFRICA
— More than 20,000 African farmers depend on sales to Britain of air-freighted organic food, such as baby sweetcorn from Zambia, asparagus from South Africa and pineapples from Ghana
— British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, which carry food in the holds of passenger aircraft, gave tickets last year to representatives of African farmers to come to London to argue the case for allowing organic food to be air-freighted
— Abel & Cole is one of the largest suppliers of organic food, with 35,000 households receiving weekly deliveries
Source: Times archives