Features
Organic Reports
The report of the Organic Development Committee was the latest in a long line of reports on the organic food sector. Launched last April, its findings were similar to those of the various reports that proceeded it. Like the report of the Western Development commission, the Bord Bia report, Bord Glas surveys and reports undertaken by various Leader groups around the country over the last decade, it found that the demand for organic food is increasing, that this demand is increasingly being met by imports, that individual farmers and processors need more support and that intending organic producers need more technical advice and backup. Top of the list of this committee's recommendations is the setting up of more committees. It recommends that a Steering Group should be set up as the driving force for the development of the organic sector, a Partnership Expert Working Group to co-ordinate, facilitate and monitor the provision of training, education, advice and research and an Organic Market
Development Group to develop an national marketing strategy for organic food. It also recommends carrying out a census of organic farming. Recommendations by organic committees for the setting up of further committees and reports are a traditional feature of organic reports. The report of the Western Development Committee published last year also recommended the setting up of a Steering Committee, an Advisory Committee and a Feasibility study into the development of distribution channels for medium and small producers. The ODC report also recommends the setting up of organic demonstration farms, that Teagasc should have an organic adviser in every county, that there should be more research into organic methods of production and that producer groups should be encouraged and funded. It calls for more organic publications and courses for producers and more promotion of the benefits of organic food amongst consumers. In fact this latest report suggests most of initiatives that organic growers and farmers and the organic bodies have been suggesting for the last ten years.
Could it be that now, as the numbers of organic farmers are actually falling, the time has finally come for action?
Well known organic goat’s cheese makers, Inagh Farmhouse, have launched two new products in the St. Tola range. Named ‘Divine’ and...
