Organic Foods Ignored, European Consumers Fume

BRUSSELS, Belgium, July 22, 2002 (ENS) - The Association of European Consumers wants more organic food on the government's plate, but apparently the European Commission is not hearing the call to dinner.

The market for organic foods is growing, but the European Commission responds with a deafening silence, says Bengt Ingerstam, president of the Association of European Consumers (AEC).

Field of oil seed rape, also called canola. (Photos by Ian Britton courtesy Freefoto.com)

The European Union's Common Agriculture Policy has just received its mid-term review, but it gave little support to organic farming, the AEC charges.

On July 10, the European Commission tabled a mid-term review of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that focused more on economics than organics.

"Public expenditure for the farm sector must be better justified," said the commission, which is the executive branch of the EU government. "Besides supporting farming incomes, it must yield more in return regarding food quality, the preservation of the environment and animal welfare, landscapes, cultural heritage, or enhancing social balance and equity."

The Commission proposes to cut the subsidy link between production and direct payments to farmers. Instead it would make those payments conditional to environmental, food safety, animal welfare and occupational safety standards.

Ploughing an English field

"For European consumers and taxpayers," the commission said, the review will ensure better value for money."

The AEC "appreciates" the Commission’s willingness to propose extensive changes of the Common Agriculture Policy, the organization said, "especially the recognition of the importance to better follow the consumers´ demand than the former quantity stimulated system."

These consumers are demanding organically grown foods as a matter of personal and public health. "Organic farming," they say, "which eliminates pesticides, avoids GMOs [genetically modified organisms], hormones, improves soil quality and fosters biodiversity, is one of the most effective ways of reducing pollution and integrating environmental considerations into agriculture and corresponds therefore better to the market signals from the consumers."

English Sunday lunch

The current focus on reforming conventional agriculture could backfire, he warned, "if local production and small farms are not better cared for."

"The Commission should respond to market signals from consumers, otherwise critics of the CAP will continue to bash it and call for it to be scrapped," said the AEC. "European agriculture should supply the European consumers with fresh and clean, healthy and more locally grown food."

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Over the past decade, the reputation of European agricultural products has suffered through mad cow disease, hoof and mouth disease, dioxins in animal feeds, and a recent policy paper from the European Commission that endorses development of controversial genetically modified crops.