Reading the above you would think that a small community of 4.5 million
people isolated off western Europe and with a $4.00+ gas tax would be able
to offer lots of advice to North East Ohio. My local supermarket not only
carries strawberries from Spain but beans and snap peas from Kenya, mangoes
from Chile and oranges from South Africa. What's more the strawberries,
french beans and snap peas were all cheaper than local produce during the
summer local growing season. In addition our local organic wholesaler was
carrying apples from Washington State when local organic apples were also
available. Few areas in Ireland have any dietary problems built into the
soil. We can grow a big range of produce all round the year with the aid of
protected cropping, but the imports continue to be lower price despite the
high price of hydrocarbons throughout Europe. The modern consumer has just
got used to wanting it now and getting it now.
On the debate about national standards - we have had European Union wide
standards since 1992 and quite a wide variety of different systems manage
to live with them, including bio-dynamic farmers. We license at all levels
excepts individual retail shops (so the biggest supermarket chain is
licensed) but we have honestly had no problems at all with the small shops.
(It is a crime for them to describe as organic any produce which doesn't
carry an approved symbol but no one has been charged with it yet and this
country is a gossip shop where someone would talk if it was happening!) I
have to say that I would also be surprised if any of the individual
shopkeepers I have bought from in the US were
using misleading labelling - the ones I dealt with all seemed pretty
legal, decent, honest and truthful to me - that was why they were in the
whole food business to start off with - maybe Oklahoma is better than other
states about this.
What did worry me in the US was how unorganic to my european mind some sets
of standards were. Continuous cropping seemed to be accepted all over the
place and various other practices were also slipping through which would
certainly prevent export to Europe if consumers were prepared to pay the
shipping costs.
I can see that growers would feel that they had a justified grievance if
they paid one levy to a local licensing organisation and another to the
federal one. What happens here is that the Irish Dept Ag approves
individual inspection schemes and licenses them to carry out inspection on
its behalf - there are three organisation approved, Organic Trust, Irish
Organic Farmers and Growers Association and Demeter Ireland (the
bio-dynamic symbol) All have slightly different standards but all meet the
EU standard. The system seems to work well enough and ought to work in the
US. The essential point is that the local scheme should meet federal
standards as a minimum, how much higher it wants to take its own standards
is up to that individual inspectorate.
Meanwhile the consumer is going to go on buying produce from the far side
of the world whatever it costs.
Kathryn Marsh
Director, Organic Trust
Editor, Irish Organic News
Tobersool
Balbriggan
Co Dubliln
Ireland
Tel: 01 841 3681
e-mail: kmarsh@iol.ie