Features
Barriers to conversion
The numbers of farmers joining the Organic Farming Scheme has been rising since 2005, having been stagnant from 2000 to 2005. Nonetheless, the rate of increase has been slow. Why is this?
Emotional Barriers
According to John Brennan of the Leitrim Organic Farmers Co-op, “the main barrier I see is one which is not often talked about – psychological barriers”. In other words, “having to step away from the familiar arena of conventional agriculture and join one with undertones of mysterious hippydom about it. There is no doubt that in all social groupings, peer approval in important and this is often the biggest obstacle to surmount.”
This barrier has been noted elsewhere. Research from Poland has outlined “socio cultural differences in values and attitudes. Farmers can have anxiety of being labelled outsider or “green” crackpot in the village and they can feel that everybody is only waiting [for] their mistake.”
This also has a family dimension: “Also they can have scepticism or rejection within their own family or conflicts between the generations (father-son conflict).” Parentchild differences can be important in Ireland too: the younger generation can see years of farming ahead of them, whereas parents can be settled in their ways.
The Polish research also suggests that farmers can be emotionally against being seen as returning to the old ways: farming has been under the spell of science, technology and more generally modernisation. Thus, to 'reject' science and technology is to regress a la Ned Ludd.
Regionalised and sectoral producer groups, and geographical clusters of farmers converting to organic, are two ways to help overcome the problems here.
Structural and Institutional Barriers
Another generic barrier is related to the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme, REPS. Angela Clarke, IOFGA certification manager: “Currently the barrier most farmers are finding in relation to joining the Organic Farming Scheme is the fact that, if they are in REPS and have a few years left to do, they cannot join until the full five years of the REPS plan are completed.”
This is a very unfortunate bureaucratic glitch. Were a way found to allow farmers in REPS to transfer to the Organic Farming Scheme, significant numbers could quite soon convert. However at present thousands of farmers are prevented from even considering the option.
Another area brought up in the literature abroad, this time from Canada, but relevant here in Ireland, is the issue of facilities beyond the farm gate. The need for separate lines in factories and packing units puts many businesses in this area off making the effort, certainly without a proven positive outcome. Some progress has been made on this level: the Crowe's organic pork slaughter and processing unit in Tipperary will help develop this sector to a level not previously available in Ireland. Most organic pork in Ireland comes from Denmark at present.
Related to some extent to the previous emotional barriers point, it is also the case that organisations like the IFA have little, if any, expressed interest in organic farming. This adds to isolation of the organic farmer.
There have been tentative signs that this is changing, with certified organic farmer Richard Moeran's chairing of the Cavan branch of the IFA, and a proposal emerging from the Tipperary branch of the IFA for an organic section. There are also signs that the ICSA is more amenable to organic, with Gillian Westbrook, a research officer with ICSA, becoming a board member of IOFGA.
Market Barriers
Most economic activities are suffering with the recession and the lack of capital flow. Organic farming and consumption of organic food is no different. Farmers can't get the cash they need to invest in changes (distribution, upscaling, buildings, diversification etc), and potential organic farmers are worried that the organic market will suffer as the recession deepens.
Consumers have less money than before, and also fear that they may have wages cut or be made unemployed. All of this impacts on the development of the organic sector. That said, the organic market is holding up reasonably well – the most recent figures suggest that there has been a slight (3%) volume increase in sales (September 2009), and a value decrease in line with deflation, at about 10%. This is better performance than that of the conventional food sector.
Higher value export markets, especially in continental Europe need to be further accessed, and consumers need to be better informed of the benefits of organic farming. As there is a government target of 5% organic utilisable land area by 2012, then surely Bord Bia and Teagasc should be spending 5% of their budgets on organic food and farming respectively?
Laggard Sectors: Dairy, Tillage and Horticulture
Dairy, tillage and horticulture have been weak in terms of numbers converting. The slow rate of change in these areas is somewhat anomalous, as there are numerous supports in place to facilitate conversion. There are grants, obvious market gaps and there have even been rule changes to facilitate partial conversion: this was done mainly to facilitate the tillage sector.
While companies talk about wanting Irish organic produce, they often go abroad rather than paying a little more to Irish producers. With the exception of Donegal Creameries, they rarely innovate with land ownership structures. The latter has, and is certainly making waves in organics.
In the case of dairy, the price paid to conventional farmers has literally halved in recent years. While, the investments needed for necessary modifications on-farm are significant for dairy, it is heartening to hear that there will be a 20% increase in the number of organic dairy cows in the next two years.
Organic tillage, it seems, will primarily be integrated into farms as part of more diverse farm plans, with few new animal-free holdings emerging in the near future.
Horticulture is perhaps the most bizarre of all laggard areas, with ample efforts being made to develop the sector, and many people trained in growing fruits and vegetables. According to Jason Horner of the Organic Growers of Ireland “access to suitable land” is a barrier for horticulture. To help develop the sector, larger estates converting part of their holding to organic and renting it out to trained growers could help, as could the development of distributional hubs and public procurement.
Beef and Lamb
Traditionally, the largest numbers of those signing up to the organic farming scheme are drystock farmers. With sheep, farmers find the lack of a market for organic lamb to be a major barrier. Understandably so, as most lamb farmed organically is sold into the conventional market at present. While this does not happen in beef, there is severe downward price pressure, and fear of price volatility with the Euro /Sterling differential.
According to John Brennan, having to buy in expensive fodder, including forage where land is unsuitable to produce your own, is an issue. He expands upon the market issue, revealing that “markets for light lambs and linkages with store lamb finishers have not yet been established.”
There are other areas in drystock too: “Many farmers have spent significant sums on sheds that are not suitable for organic production as they are too small - more area required for animals - and are also 100% slatted in nature.”
He also points out that “all-sheep systems are difficult to manage organically due to the difficulty with parasite control” and that “rushes in the north west are also cited as a barrier where poor land quality makes clover establishment difficult and often makes it difficult to get farmers away from using chemical sprays on rushes.”
Some farmers operating to a Commonage Framework Plan (CFP) stocking rate find it difficult to step up to the minimum Organic Farming Scheme stocking rate to maximise their payments. Farmers with large mountainous holdings can find that they are being asked to carry enormous numbers of sheep under the Organic Farming Scheme, while there is no premium market for most certified organic lamb. For some, being allowed to keep their CFP stocking rates, in the case of farmers with at least a baseline number of animals (e.g. 500 sheep), would help with conversion numbers.
Suitable Breeds
More generally, having a well worked out stock plan makes eminent sense for beef and sheep farmers, and this holds for both before and after the farmers conversion date. For those on uplands, finding ways to bring the correct numbers of suitable upland breeds of cattle into organic certification from other environmental schemes (e.g. conservation grazing in Northern Ireland) would no doubt help.
These animals are able to cope and indeed thrive in the terrain, both in terms of their size and the effect of their grazing on the biodiversity balance in upland areas, when carried at an apt stocking rate. In feed terms, they can be more affordable as they can often consume more of a grass based than concentrates diet. They are also more attractive to market, especially directly. These breeds include Moiled, Kerry, Dexter and Galloway. However, there is certainly not an abundance of them in the organic system.
So for some, finding novel and alternative routes to market for their specific breed certified organic meat is a solution.
Restaurants are one, but seller beware: many restaurants are struggling and finding it very difficult to pay their suppliers. Nevertheless, websites that cut out the middle man in producer consumer relations, charging small commissions, direct farmer to consumer web sales, and farmers markets offer hope here. Off peak production of lamb has also been cited as a possible way to maximise profits.
Slower maturing sheep fed on, or primarily on grass, slaughtered at 15-18 months and direct sold is one cost effective way to try to maximise profit. Even direct selling a portion of your extra mature grass fed animals can help with cash flow and profitability.
Finally, using the available supports makes sense: in the case of hill sheep and beef farmers, an initiative I myself work on, Organics with Altitude, can help farmers adapt.
Pork and Poultry
It is difficult to see significant growth in these two areas within organic production, though the aforementioned Crowe's slaughter and processing units will no doubt help. The competition from operators from other EU countries, especially Denmark and Poland, is very intense, as the operations there are on a very large and intensive scale.
It is ironic that, thanks to EU Directives, millions of euros are being put aside to help the conventional pork and poultry sectors to adapt their housing regimes to become more spacious, whilst those with higher standards all along, namely organic producers, struggle. Better supports for organic pork and poultry farmers who already operate more animal-friendly housing arrangements, is surely at least as valid as helping those who don't have such arrangements to adapt.
It is heartening that many of these blockages have been dealt with imaginatively in the Department's Organic Action Plan. Here's hoping that the motivation to continue to roll this plan out, and to come up with novel ways to break through many of these barriers, will be there with the new Minister with responsibility for the Organic Sector, Ciaran Cuffe.
Gillian Westbrook has been appointed to the new position of
General Manager with IOFGA. Coming from a background in the regulatory area...
