Organic Food Boom: 10% of European Farms Will Be Organic by 2005

Headline: Going Organic
Wire Service: APn (AP US & World)
Date: Mon, Dec 27, 1999

By PAUL AMES
Associated Press Writer
STAVELOT, Belgium (AP) -- Jean-Pierre Bastin beams with pride as he
shows off his dairy herd grazing on the lush hilltop pastures his family
has farmed for four generations deep in the Ardennes forest.
But a grimace wipes away the organic farmer's smile at the mention of
the health scares staining the reputation of Europe's farm products.
"It's revolting. We're doing our best to produce quality food, and there
are farmers out there who'll do anything for money. It gives us all a bad
name," Bastin says, his breath clouding the chill morning air.
Bastin, 44, is part of a new breed of European farmer bucking the trend
toward intensive, industrialized agriculture, which many people blame for
the mad-cow crisis in Britain, Belgium's dioxin scandal and revelations of
French cattle fattened on sewage sludge.
Feeding on mounting consumer distrust of such chemical-dependent
farming, Europe's organic agriculture is growing faster than a
hormone-injected steer.
The sector once dismissed as the pasttime of crackpots and idealists has
grown into a business worth some $7.3 billion a year in the European Union
and around $15.6 billion worldwide, says Dr. Nicolas Lampkin, an
agriculture specialist at the University of Wales in Aberystwyth.
A report Lampkin prepared for the EU this year said the number of
organic farms in the bloc had soared from just 6,300 in 1985 to more than
100,000 in 1998.
Even with that spectacular growth, organic farmers are struggling to
cope with demand, Lampkin says in a telephone interview.
"The food scares have played a role, but there's a more general
expectation for better food standards, higher quality among consumers ...
they want to avoid genetically modified organisms in particular," he says.
By 2005, Lampkin expects 10 percent of all agricultural land in western
Europe will be organic, farming that uses only animal or vegetable
fertilizers and does without chemical pesticides, growth hormones and the
like. Austria has already passed 10 percent; Switzerland and Sweden are not
far behind.
Bastin made the switch to organic in 1994.
"I'd had enough of chemical fertilizers. I wanted to work more with
nature, closer to the soil," Bastin explains as he feeds armfuls of hay to
his black-and-white Holstein-Friesian calves. "My grandfather did it that
way, why can't I?"
Bastin, who sells his milk to a nearby organic cheese maker, says there
are 15 organic dairy farmers in the Ardennes region of high plateau and
wooded valleys close to the German border in eastern Belgium, and 50 more
are in the process of converting their land to organic production.
Lampkin says the rapid development of organic production was facilitated
by EU legislation in the early 1990s that set common standards across the
15-nation bloc and allowed for government subsidies to help farmers break
their dependence on artificial fertilizers and pesticides.
The Belgian government paid Bastin $308 for each of his 135 acres during
the two-year statutory conversion period before his farm could be licensed
as organic.
Farmers can also get higher prices for organic goods. Although Bastin's
45 cows produce less now that they are on an organic diet, pint-for-pint,
he gets triple the price for his milk now.
In Belgium's Delhaize supermarket chain, six organic eggs sell for the
equivalent of $1.56, double the price of non-organic. Three organic leeks
are $2.09, compared to $1.25 for a bundle of five grown conventionally.
Delhaize is among a burgeoning number of European supermarkets that are
taking organic retailing out of the hands of the small farm stores that
have long pioneered bio-products.
"Organic products are becoming the number one choice for more and more
customers, and we have had to expand our range of lines to over 500," says
Andrew Sellick, organic buyer at Britain's Tesco PLC.
Tesco says organic sales will top $162 million this year, compared to
just $8 million three years ago.
As big business muscles into the organic sector, some people fear the
original farmers' dedication to organic production will be undermined as
the sector expands to take on those motivated more by profits than
ecological ideals.
Europe's organic watchdogs disagree.
"It's very tightly controlled," says Jerome Geels at the Belgium branch
of Ecocert, one of the bodies authorized by governments to certify organic
producers.
Although Ecocert's inspectors are increasingly overworked by the
bio-food boom, Geels says farmers can still expect up to 10 unannounced
inspections a year to ensure standards are respected.
Organic farming pioneers view the expansion with mixed feelings. Concern
about competition from big business is mingled with satisfaction over what
activists see as benefits for the environment, health and rural employment.
"I always said that when organic products took off in the big
supermarkets we would have won," says Henri Paque, who went organic on his
111-acre farm 20 years ago.
Paque, 53, watches his son serve a line of customers from the nearby
city of Liege choosing from an organic range in his farm store that
includes his home-produced cabbage, pumpkins and turnips as well as an
array of organic cheeses, bio-beer and even vegetarian dog food.
"I may not have gotten rich out of this, but I'm rich in my heart,"
Paque says. "You know, there are farmers who have to wear a mask when they
go to their fields, when they should be breathing the good, clean air."
End Adv for Monday, Dec. 27