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Back to Social/Economic/Political Homepage 14 March 2003SEERAD Announces Awards for Organic Aid Scheme - but why do they do it?www.land-care.org.uk(filed 14/3/03)On 13th March 2003 the Minister for Environment and Rural Affairs, Mr Ross Finnie, announced the first awards under the revised system of competitive allocation of conversion aid (1).
Yet it has to be asked why does SEERAD support Organic Farming, when there is still no valid scientific evidence to date that food from organic farming has any nutritional benefit over that from conventional farming (2)? Furthermore, there is increasing concern over the animal welfare aspects of organic farming, especially in relation to the attitude of at least some factions of the organic movement towards the use of proven prophylactic medications (3, 4). For example, calls have been made that sheep farmed organically should not be granted quality assurance status unless procedures acceptable to the State Veterinary Service to prevent sheep scab (that is now endemic in the UK) have been used (5), which is also the stated view of the National Farmers Union Scotland (NFUS). Again, in the event of another outbreak of FMD in the UK, it would be intolerable for a section of the livestock farming community to hold everyone else to random, because they did not believe in vaccination or they did not think the risk was high enough for them to be involved according to their principles (6). We are told repeatedly by the government that they are to be guided by the best science available, and that animal welfare is of paramount importance. Were the recent awards following these principles?. The single Green MSP in the Scottish Parliament, Robin Harper, has been trying to promote that 20 percent of farming in Scotland should be organic within the next 10 years (7) . Fortunately, a substantial majority of MSP’s were not buying this, as evidenced by the following:
It is also necessary to seriously question the Scottish Executive’s "Organic Action Plan" (8) which appears to be based mainly on the views of somewhat unifocused pressure groups both in Brussels and in the UK. © www.land-care.org.uk
References1. Scottish
Executive Press Release. Funding of organic aid scheme applications.
13 March 2003. 2. Food Standards
Agency does not Provide Support for Organic Farming. 3. “Organic
Farmers will have to get real” says Professor McKellar. 4. Watkins,
Ruth (2002). Compassion for Health of Farm Animals 2003. 5. Control of
Sheep Scab: Open letter to Chief Executive Quality Meat Scotland. 6. United Kingdom Register of Organic Food Standards (UKROFS). February 2001, Amended November 2001. (Download PDF). 7. Organic Farming Targets (Scotland) Bill [AS INTRODUCED]. Introduced by Robin Harper on 30 September 2002. (Download PDF). 8. Scottish
executive (2003). Organic Action Plan. |