Report comment

Simon Wright says the meteoric growth of organic foods over the past decade has set the agenda for the food industry as a whole . True, a rise from 3% of the total grocery market to 4% is a 33% meteoric improvement, but currently more than 95% of UK groceries are produced by conventional farming, with much of that food coming via GM commodity crops and most of the UK’s animals fed on diets that increasingly incorporate high proportions of GM soya and maize.
Surely it’s not unreasonable to ask how much longer The Grocer’s readers have to wait for the Soil Association and its members like Simon Wright to tell us just when organic farming is to deliver sufficient food for the world’s hungry (and growing) population, supplied at prices people are prepared or able to pay, and without using any of the accepted technologies that most of the world’s farmers rely upon?
Or is it perhaps the reality that organic systems remain too costly and unproductive, and that they will never deliver more than the few percent of global production they already deliver today?
When the yield from GM crops continues to exceed that of even conventional equivalents, is it not time for organic supporters to accept they will always be a welcome choice as a niche market – and enjoy whatever price premium they can achieve?
Tony Combes, via email
[First published on letters page of The Grocer, 02 May 2009]