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In the beginning, the organic movement struggled to shed
its image of wonky carrots sold by hippies with dirty cuffs
and sandals.
Now it has the opposite problem - associated with high-priced
jars of chutney and biscuits sold by slick marketing men to
the dinner party classes.
Now, the UK's biggest organic body - the Soil
Association - confronted its posh image problem with
a special session at its annual
conference recently devoted to debating 'organic
elitism'.
'Organic is now seen as expensive and elitist' - said
the programme. 'Have we been complicit in this positioning
and how can it be challenged?'
It is easy to see why charges of elitism have been thrown
at an association that was co-founded by Lady Balfour (niece
of the former prime minister, Arthur Balfour), has the Prince
of Wales as a long-standing current patron and celebrity gardener
and Cambridge graduate Monty Don as its new president.
Such a background is also inherently likely in an organisation
founded on new ideas, says Patrick Holden, the Soil Association's
director. "The early adopters of any new approach to something
tend to be people who are not only better educated, but better
off - because they can afford to try something that many not
be economically viable," said Holden in an interview with
the Guardian.
Holden rejects the idea that organic farming and food should
be elitist, however. "Right from the outset we challenged
the orthodoxy of agricultural practices. It [the association]
was founded on the belief everything is connected - soil and
food and plants and animals and people and the environment.
"The paradox is there's this view that organic is elitist,
it's expensive, it's a lifestyle choice for people who can
afford it. As far as I'm concerned it's not elitist to believe
everyone should have the right to high-quality, nutritious
food from sustainable farming systems. What's elitist is that
a handful of corporations have got a vice-like grip on the
farming systems and food."
Holden, however, admits that, at times, organic campaigners
have come across as "hair shirt and preachy", "ghettoised"
and even "aggressive". "We were, perhaps, so used to being
marginalised, we forgot our first responsibility was to engage
with the public, with the media," said Holden. "There must
have been occasions in the past years where we have gone over
the line and we must apologise for it."
After a surge in popularity in the 1990s, organic food has
become a common feature of almost all supermarkets and food
retailers in Britain. Organic shops and cafés have
thrived and it is now possible to buy organic snacks at even
the most unlikely venues, like motor racing tracks.
However, although one survey found that half of shoppers
in a major supermarket chain put at least one organic product
in their basket, total organic sales have remained only a
stubbornly small niche of Britain's gargantuan annual
shopping bill.
Doubts about claims that organic products were tastier and
healthier have also increased in recent years. In 2007, David
Miliband upset the organic food industry while he was environment
secretary by saying that there was no "conclusive evidence"
about the health benefits of organic food and that buying
it was "a lifestyle choice". Also, last year, the recession
made consumers more wary of paying higher prices, leading
to a 14% drop in sales.
Holden believes there are several issues underpinning the
image of elitism and distrust - organic produce is more expensive
to produce because farmers cannot rely on chemicals to fertilise
their land and kill pests and the Soil Association's founding
mission to improve the sustainability of the environment has
become confused with their day-to-day business of certifying
80% of the UK's organic produce.
Last year, a Food Standards Agency study
reported that there were 'no important differences in the
nutrition content - or any additional health benefits - of
organic food when compared with conventionally produced food'.
Although the Soil Association never actively promoted such
claims, the organisation's own polling showed an "overwhelming
majority" of organic shoppers were first motivated by health.
As evidence that their approach is justified, Holden cites
the example of the association rejecting the use of animals
in feed for cattle and sheep long before the outcry against
such practices during the BSE and 'mad cow disease'
disaster.
"A lot of the decisions we have made over the years have
been based on observation, intuition and hypothesis," he said.
"Later, the science has come along to show our intuition or
whatever have been validated by the science."
The conference event was just one of several moves to counter
the elitist image of organic ideals - the association is also
expanding a scheme to bring freshly prepared, local and organic
produce into school dinners, has set up organic skills courses
on farms across the country and is working with communities
- including Swindon, Bristol and all of Wales - to develop
'food plans' to make their food supply more 'self-sufficient'.
Holden also recognises that public support is the only way
to convince politicians to take the organic movement seriously
as part of the current national debate about food security
in the face of rising demands for food and water, diminishing
oil reserves and climate change.
"We're standing in the face of the biggest question that's
ever concerned humanity," added Holden - "and we have common
cause with every other industry and human."
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