In the face of a real economic downturn and a barrage of simplistic media pronouncements, you could be forgiven for thinking that organic farming is facing death by a thousand daggers.
The objective fact is there � the downturn. The simplistic notion is everywhere � in a downturn, people will stop thinking about how their food is produced. Food will become a basic, fairly meaningless thing again.
In reality, as I�ve suggested over the last two weeks, things are a little more complex. For example, some direct sellers are not only surviving but thriving.
The multiples have less faith in organic, but then, it is not their job to have faith in anything in particular, other than the profit motive.
A farmer who supplies the Christmas market for a particular high end multiple retailer told me that they are taking 25% less of that product from him recently. My local Tesco fruit and veg manager suggested to me that organic sales there are down too.
However, as we saw last week, many direct retailers are experiencing something altogether different.
Is it because they offer something altogether different too? People are perennially surprised to find that organic meat is so affordable at farmers� markets. Declan McCarthy sells organic meat at a range of farmers� markets across the north west at the following prices:
Mince and sausages both 12e per kilo; chicken 1.8-2.5 kg at 16e per bird; roast beef and lamb cutlets both 15e per kilo.
Similar prices are found wherever organic meat is found at farmers� markets. Organic chickens tend to be 5e cheaper than in the supermarkets.
Bulk direct sellers of organic meat, such as Drumeen farm, offer better prices again.
But direct sellers offer more than price. They offer good value, and value is about price and quality. And quality can be complex.
Talk Stella Coffey and Richard Auler, who sell, amongst other things, eggs at farmers� markets in Tipperary.
Seeing stalled organic egg sales last February, they sourced a great egg poacher, brought it to the market, brought the poached eggs to the market for people to sample, and offered a free egg poacher with every 3 boxes of eggs. Necessity bred innovation, sales went up again.
Like their customer service, their eggs are quality: hens fed sprouted grains, hens kept in natural flock sizes.
While taste is an essential part of the whole thing, it is also important to find ways to inform the customer. Farmers� markets are one way to do this.
More generally, quality is about aiming for higher markets � higher than pizza topping and powdered milk, higher than prison food.
We have, after all, the best grass growing conditions in Europe.
In the race towards the LIDLisation of organic, organic may have to add more meanings into its repertoire to survive.
When I worked in ecotourism, we developed a set of mandatory and optional criteria for tourism product providers.
Crucially, businesses needed to draw from both pools to achieve accreditation. For accommodation providers, mandatory was waste, water and energy. Optional included things like providing local or organic food or providing bicycles.
Already, the Soil Association in the UK are trying to adapt to ever changing times. They are developing a self-assessed organic-like standard for small producers. They have introduced fair trade into air freighted organic. They are looking at organic conservation grade with lower stocking rates.
In tight economic times, farmers and food businesses with a lot of good stories will fare far better than those with just one. Organic beef farmers whose animals are 100% grass fed, or who stock specific breeds have stories to tell. Stall holders with decent, up-to-date seasonal recipes each week do too.
Farmers� markets that provide a drop off service for regulars who couldn�t make it into the market that day have a great story.
Imagine a farmers� market where a different stallholder each week took their turn to do the following: on their way home, text regulars who didn�t make it in to the market that day. Tell them about the still available and affordable bounty in the van.
Necessity also breeds ingenuity. As credit crunches and recession bites, occasionally those crunchy bites will be tasty too.
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