Why organic food may not be as pure as farmers claim

BRITISH farmers are bypassing strict laws on organic food production, leading to questions about the integrity of the multibillion-pound business.

An EU audit shows they are regularly adding non-organic animals and birds into their herds and flocks.

More than 400 exemptions to production laws were granted in a single year, with claims that most organic egg farmers will have bought in non- organic chickens to supplement their flock.

Ordinary cows can also be brought into organic dairy flocks, and their milk sold as organic after the cow has spent several months living like the other animals.

In their report, inspectors from the European Commission’s Food and Veterinary Office said the ease with which exemptions were being granted in the UK risked ‘weakening of the integrity of organic production’.

The revelation will alarm the millions of Britons who pay a premium for organic meat and eggs. Shoppers spend almost £2 billion a year on organic products.

Organic eggs cost roughly twice as much as those laid on battery farms, while the price of a roast chicken almost trebles. Even a pint of milk rises by about 20p if it is classed as organic.

Organic animal products should come from livestock that has lived on organic holdings ‘ since birth or hatching and throughout their life’.

But the EU audit has shown that UK farmers are frequently granted exemptions to the law. All but one of the 408 exemptions sought i n 2012 was approved. Some 201 were given to farmers who wanted to bulk up their herds with female cattle, pigs and sheep that had been reared nonorganically. Another 153 allowed poultry farmers to bring in non-organic birds.

The inspectors concluded that while the control of organic production was effective overall, there were concerns about the way exemptions were granted. These included whether they were being considered carefully enough by control bodies – the nine organisations given power by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) to certify organic food.

The Soil Association said exemptions were necessary to sustain what was still a rela- tively young industry. In some cases, there was a shortage of animals bred organically from birth. In others, non- organic animals were brought in because the farmer wanted to try a new breed or increase a herd’s genetic diversity.

Cows, pigs and sheep brought in cannot be sold as meat but can be used for breeding after a set period. The sourcing of organic chicks is difficult, with years of intensive farming making it hard to breed birds that thrive under natural conditions. Because of this, the law allows for non- organic laying hens to be brought into flocks until they are 18 weeks old.

These birds have to have had food and veterinary care that meets organic standards up to that point, but do not have access to the outdoors.

Meat cannot be sold as organic from any animal partially bred in non-organic conditions. But milk from such cows can be labelled organic once the animal has spent nine months in organic conditions.

A Defra spokesman said: ‘Strict rules requiring a minimum amount of time that must pass before any introduced animal can be classed as organic protect the integrity of the whole organic system.’

A spokesman for the Scottish Tories said: ‘If a product is described as organic then we need to have confidence that that’s what it is.’