organic certification, fair trade and air miles

Here's my take on the debate that's raging at the moment, on air freight and organic, which I've also briefly covered previously (Soil Association and Financial Times links available there). My own opinion of their move only really comes on in the last 2 paragraphs, where I deal with the protectionism or otherwise of the Soil Association's move. In the 2nd week of January, I'll have an article in the Examiner on the topic which gives it a specifically Irish slant: it will feature the opinion of IOFGA and an Irish organic importer and wholesaler.

The UK�s largest organic certification body, the Soil Association, has come up with an innovative but also controversial way to deal with the environmental impact of air-freighted organic food.

In a move being implemented over the next few years, air freighted organic food imported by the Soil Association will have to meet the organisations own ethical trade standards or the Fairtrade Foundation�s standards.

According to the Soil Association, �these standards apply to the whole supply chain, and require fair trading arrangements, ethical employment relationships including fair pay, and concrete social and cultural contributions to the local community or society more widely�.

This policy position comes after a large consultative process on the issues around air-freight and organic food, involving numerous participants: 100 representatives from industry, NGOs, and government were directly consulted; respectively, these organisations made 28 (industry) 24 (NGOs), and 5 (government and international agencies) submissions.

In addition, the International Trade Centre, a joint agency of the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations, commissioned research to look at the social and economic implications of the Soil Association implementing an air freight ban.

The organisation claims that they are �also looking at how we can reliably and fairly assess the full carbon footprint of all organic products and are working closely with the Carbon Trust. We want all organic products to have a minimal or even mitigating contribution to climate change. Aside from air freight, we are reviewing our standards for heated glasshouse production and actively encourage people to eat less meat.�

Air freighting organic food implicates a range of environmental and social justice issues. According to the Soil Association, �Less than 1% of organic imports come by air freight, the vast majority coming by sea, but air freight has the highest global warming potential of any form of transport. Although less than 1% of the total UK food miles, air freight is responsible for 11% of the CO2 emissions from UK food transport.

�Air freight can generate 177 times more greenhouse gas than shipping�, they suggest.

They also point out that the oil supply may have peaked, and is thus too scarce to use importing food in such a wasteful way. Also, the negative effects of climate change are likely to be felt in the poorest countries first and hardest.

Others are not convinced. Some, such as the International Institute for Environment Development (IIED) think that focusing on such a minute cause of carbon emissions is wrong-headed.

It estimates that in the UK, passenger flights account for 90 per cent of emissions from air transport, and international freight for five per cent.

It also claims that air-freighting from sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 0.1 per cent of the UK's total carbon emissions, while around 65 per cent of emissions relating to food are caused by transportation within Britain. Production methods in Africa also involve lower emissions; in the UK, the use of production techniques such as heated glasshouses increases carbon emissions.

Others again have accused the Soil Association of an ugly type of protectionism. Under the amusing title �organic movement hijacked by Greens�, the Financial Times recently suggested that �attempts to impose such conditions on international trade is dressed up as a way of helping subsistence farmers in developing countries. In practice, it will penalise some of the poorest people on earth because they cannot adopt the same employment practices as their wealthy western competitors.�

To be fair to them, the Soil Association do seem to have many of their angles covered: they claim that this step is part of a broader process of investigating the entire carbon footprint of organic food; likewise, the synergy with fair trade isn�t so much a ban of air freight as a reward for air-freight that also carries some socio-environmental benefits. So what could be called protectionism could also be called value-adding through partnership, depending on your perspective.

It is also the case that, while they are the largest UK organic certifier, they are not the only one. This limits economistic fears of a protectionist monopoly: there will still be organic air-freighted food available that involves no guarantees of improved conditions for workers, the environment or the locale from which the food is flown, if that�s what you as a consumer really want.