organic food is good for you: EU commission

I was at a meeting recently where values were being discussed. This part of the meeting was about the values a particular close knit community should hold. Honest was mentioned as one.

At first, no one seemed to bat an eyelid. Surely honesty is a worthwhile value for any community trying to work together? Then someone who turned out to have a background in law piped up. �Honesty implies dishonesty� he pontificated.

People were somewhat taken aback. How on earth can honesty imply dishonesty> He suggested that honesty should just be presumed, it should be integral to how the group interacts. If the group has to state it, then the group is implying that it is striving towards it, or trying to maintain it. Communication within the group should always be honest, otherwise the group could even be lying about claiming to be honest.

So honestly implies dishonesty, much like those pubs in the far flung corners of the world with the signs up saying �no guns, no knives, no hard drugs� are probably best avoided. Why put up those signs if there is no issue?

It is for a similar reason that the phrase �Organic farming: good for nature, good for you� has gotten the EU Commission into such hot water. As part of a 21 point Action Plan, the Commission has just launched a campaign to promote organic farming and food amongst the EU�s consumers with that very slogan.

The Commission has a very informative website with an unfortunately long url: here

That slogan �Organic farming: good for nature, good for you� is in fact the first thing to greet the visitor. The Commission is in a bit of pickle, because they have to promote all farming, and making any specifically positive statements about organic farming could be taken as an implication that other farming does not carry these positive attributes.

"We are not favouring organic as an alternative to conventional," according to Michael Mann, agriculture spokesman for the European Commission.

"Merely we are providing the marketing tools to aid progress in the organic industry while helping consumers make their own choices on which products to buy."

The Commission has developed a list of slogans and key messages, which can be used by professionals. These include "Organic farming. The natural choice"; "Organic farming. In nature we trust"; "Organic farming. In goodness we trust"; and "Organic products meet consumer demand for authentic, high quality and tasty food".

Natural, trust, tasty, high quality, authentic, goodness, and even a play on the phrase �in god we trust�. That could certainly be taken as a lot of implications.

The Commission is also introducing a new logo from January 1^st, which will become mandatory, though national logos will still be allowable. This is also the date for the new EU organic regulations take over from the one currently in operation, Council Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 as amended.

Until recently, the Commission was all set to introduce a logo with the word �bio� in the centre of the image, as that word is more commonly used in the EU than organic is, for the certified products in accordance with the regulation 2092/91.

However, this logo was deemed to be too similar to the Aldi logo, and dropped. Needless to say, it would have confused UK and Irish consumers no end. What�s a �bio�? A cheeky rural lad? A shortened version of biotech? Some peculiar implications there, to be sure.

In Ireland, back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, we had our own logo wars. The organic movement had a few rip-roaring and in the end contentious debates over logos and their possible meanings. Logos came and went, as did personnel from IOFGA to form the Organic Trust.

Now, if you are so inclined, you can enter a competition to design the new EU organic logo. Just be careful of what your design might imply.