Farmers may lose organic tag

Published on Monday 22 December 2008 21:02

FARMERS will have to give up the right to brand their produce as "organic" in return for a relaxation of rules to help them through the economic downturn.

With organic food sales dropping recently, producers are discussing a range of measures to help them cope.

One move could be to allow farmers to use conventional feed instead of the more expensive organic food concentrate for a period.

It would mean they would not be able to label food as organic during that time. However, they would still have to stick to other principles to ensure they keep their organic certification, such as low stocking densities, minimum use of antibiotic treatments on animals and not using fertilisers.

Julian Wade, director of the Organic Food Federation, said: "If such a scheme was accepted – and it's a big if – the produce will not be accepted as organic. There is no doubt there has been a slight dip in demand, but that is similar to what everyone else is facing at the moment.

"This is designed to ease the situation for farmers who want to keep their land organic (in the long term]."

A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said although it has not yet been asked to relax the rules, it would consider any requests from the industry sympathetically.