- Green claims are everywhere, can you trust them? Mostly no.
- What does organic actually mean? It's a legally defined term.
- Is organic always better for the environment? Sometimes. It's complicated.
- What are the pros and cons of organic production? Clear standards, but less productive and involves ploughing soil.
- How can they be addressed? More research funding mainly.
- Is organic the way forward? In part. Probably best of both worlds needed.
In a world awash with green claims, it can be hard to know whether to believe anything that you read on the side of food packaging. For food, there is no legal definition of "sustainable", "eco" or another other term. This makes it hard as a consumer to take any of these labels seriously, even if you want to support sustainable farming.
The exception to this rule is "organic". Unlike other labels, organic is a legally defined term, codified in law, with a series of strict standards that have to be adhered to. Without going into too much detail, organic farming is more than just not using chemicals and artificial fertiliser (although this is a large part of it)*. In order for food ingredients to be classed as organic, the farm and processing facilities need to be certified by a certification body**. For a consumer product to be called organic, all*** the ingredients therefore need to be certified organic too. Calling a product "organic" when it is not, is illegal.
This is very different to when products labelled as "sustainable" or "regenerative", or any other term linked to environmental impact. Here there is no legal definition and in most cases, no certification. Using these terms freely, can allow food companies and retailers to make misleading environmental claims about their ingredients, without making any notable changes to how they're produced. In fairness, I'm sometimes guilty of this at Oliver's Muesli, although I do have a very good idea of how any of my non-organic ingredients are produced too****.
In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority and the Advertising Standards Authority are clamping down on the misuses of words like "sustainable" and "eco", but there is still a long way to go. Therefore, a big advantage of the organic standard is that it's legally defined, meaning that you know exactly how your food has been produced.
So, does this mean that organic farming is better for the environment? Well, studies consistently show that organic farms tend to support higher levels of biodiversity and provide more wildlife habitats. However, from a carbon footprint perspective, it's slightly more complex.
On average, organic farms produce considerably lower yields for most crops (although not all), meaning that more land is required to produce the same amount of food, than for a conventional farm. There's an argument here that actually, it's best to produce as much from as small an area as possible and then devote the rest of the land to wildlife habitats or carbon storage*****. Likewise, in order to control weeds without chemicals, organic farmers have to plough fields, which releases carbon stored in soils and uses more tractor fuel (so more emissions).
On the other hand, for a non-organic farm, the biggest part of their carbon footprint are the emissions associated with applying and producing artificial fertiliser. This is because artificial fertiliser (particularly nitrogen) uses huge amounts of energy to produce. When it's applied to crops, it oxidises to form nitrous oxide which is a greenhouse gas, that is 298 times more potent than carbon dioxide. So, more yield, but also more emissions too.
Whilst organic farmers do still have nitrous oxide emissions associated with using organic fertilisers like muck and manure, these are generally lower. Organic fertilisers also act as a source of organic matter to help feed soil microbes and some of this will be taken up and stored as soil carbon. If farmers are going to get to net zero, it's hard to see how this can happen while still using artificial fertiliser. In this respect, organic farming offers a clear solution.
Having worked as a researcher in this area, the amount of money directed to research into organic farming is pitiful, compared to more conventional, chemical-based systems. For example when new crop varieties are bred, in most cases these are intended for high-input systems using artificial fertiliser, not organic systems.
Sadly, with cutbacks in public funding, a lot of agricultural research is now still driven by corporate agrichemical companies and input suppliers, who understandably have little interest in non-chemical farming. Therefore, even with a small increase in funding into organic farming techniques and crop breeding, the gap in yields between organic and non-organic farms can be narrowed.
Personally, I'm cautious about saying that one farming system is automatically more sustainable than another. I know some incredible organic farmers and I also know some incredible non-organic farmers, both of whom farm with the environment at the heart of any decision that they make. With the price of fertiliser currently at record levels, more and more farmers are looking to the organic sector for alternative ways of supplying the nutrients that their crops need. For me, this is very exciting.
No farming system is perfect and I do think organic farming offers a number of clear solutions to the environmental challenges facing the farming sector. There are a clear set of rules and regulations, that are enforceable and transparent. Organic farming is often dismissed as being an inefficient way of producing food, but with sufficient research and development, this can surely be overcome. For consumers to support sustainable farming, having a clear set of rules and regulations is vital too. In reality, there's probably a good middle ground to be found.
What is certain, is that current, conventional farming systems cannot continue in their current form. The aim of Oliver's Muesli is to allow consumers to directly support these alternative forms of production, whether they are organic or not. All the oats, wheat, rye and barley in the muesli is organic and my aim is to always to buy organic where available. Therefore, every time you purchase a bag, you are helping a farmer move away from these damaging forms of production.
*if you really want to, have a read of the organic standards here.
** Worth noting, that there's a cost involved here. Therefore, some people decide to follow organic standards and not be certified, but just explain how they're farming to consumers. Obviously you can't use the word organic though.
*** Well actually it's at least 95% of the agricultural ingredients. More info here.
**** I talk about "Regenerative agriculture", where soil isn't ploughed and chemical use is done very, very sparingly.
***** Land sparing vs land sharing. Personally I'm in favour of sharing food production with the environment where possible.