People's Deli is Numero Uno!

Read all about it!

Super quick one: I've started contributing to the organic supermarket's site, today, and you can read it here

It's called: in defence of the 16E organic chicken

Converting to Organic: Oliver Davey in the first person

Oliver Davey and his wife Eleanor are in conversion to organic for over a year. Here is the story so far.

My farm is located in the townland of Tubbertelly, south Sligo. The marginal land consists of 44 hectares of owned land, 8 hectares of long term lease land, 12 hectares of shared commonage and 35 hectares of short- term hillside rented land.

From the early 1980�s to 2005 this farm carried a suckler herd- Simmental, Limousin, Shorthorn and Vosgienne. I sold all male weanlings at 8 to 9 months, and heifers for breeding at 15 to 18 months. I would also retain some heifers for replacements, and used A.I. bulls.

A number of factors led me to organic farming. The change in weather conditions over the past 12 years had started to take its toll on my farm. Longer winter housing was required along with more silage and nuts, as well as extra manure and fertiliser to strengthen the land. Profits were suffering due to these added expenses.

I began attending the Teagasc organic farm walks. David Notley�s farm, Aughamore, Carrick-on-Shannon had land much the same as mine. Having had a good look around and after asking numerous questions I knew this was the way I wanted to farm in the future: I came away realising that if I did organic farming I would know exactly what was on my farm and what I would be eating. I visited two more organic farms - Jimmy Barlow�s in Ballymoe, Galway and Danny Kilcullen�s in Enniscrone, Co. Sligo - before I decided to change.

Dan Clavin, an Organic Advisor with Teagasc, helped with the Organic Conversion Plan. It took me about three months to get all the requirements in place - a Soil Analysis report, a Faecal Parasite Examination Report, a detailed Health Plan signed off by a veterinary surgeon, maps, a detailed plan of animal housing, livestock details and anticipated numbers of stock during conversion.

There have been a few ups and downs. Having changed my animal housing to straw bedding in February 2009, my slurry supply dropped by 60% and the bedding took at least 6 months to mature.

I usually cut silage during late June however last year the weather was poor and silage was not cut until the end of July. While the quantity was okay the quality was poor for my standards due to the weather conditions and cutting the silage this late.

I had also reseeded three and a half hectares to provide additional winter feed however this too failed due to the poor weather conditions.

Consequently I had to reduce my stock numbers for my first winter in conversion. I also had to buy my own machinery for cleaning sheds and spreading farm yard manure. The plus side to this is that with my own machinery its me who decides when the work will be done.

Even though my work load has increased - I spend more time with my animals feeding and bedding and straw bedding is rather expensive - I can see a great change in my animals and have noticed a drop in veterinary expenses.

So far I have no regrets. There will always be unforeseen problems in any new venture and a lot of things are new to me but IOFGA and especially other farmers who have already converted have been very helpful.

As well as converting my farm to organic, I have also recently added the Irish rare breed Dexter cows and heifers. Pedigree Dexters, both short and non short, now make up 60% of my herd. They suit my land and are less expensive to manage. Their meat very highly rated.

I have a fixed price two-year contract with a Northern Ireland meat factory, once the Dexters are under 30 months and grass fed.

Once I receive my full symbol as an organic producer I will get a slight increase in the price premium from the meat factory. I also hope to be in a position to sell my beef direct to the customer.

New Organic Column

I'll be starting a new column for the organic supermarket's website next week: I'll be writing more generally about organics, starting with "in defence of the 16E chicken".

Their website is here

Drop over next week if you get a chance

Organic Food Market: latest

Recent UK figures suggest a decline in sales of organic food, though an increase in land area managed organically. See here for more.

What's the story in Ireland? See below.

Volume up, value down. That's the story of organic food sales in Ireland, according to the latest TNS Bord Bia figures.

Volume refers to the amount of food being sold, whereas value refers to the revenue this food brings in.

The research, which covers the period up to December 2009, finds Ireland�s organic sector was valued at �105 million, with the volume increasing by 1.6% to 36,518 tonnes, compared to 2008 figures.

According to Bord Bia �Reflecting general price deflation across the food market during 2009, the value of organic sales declined by 10 percent.�

In value terms, the biggest winners were dairy products, yogurt, hot beverages and dried cereals. The foods that performed least well in value terms were fruits, breakfast cereals, fresh beef, hot beverages and milk.

In particular, the proliferation of new organic milk-based products is helping drive growth in the organic sector.

This is reflected in the stability of what is called penetration, or the range of households purchasing organic food.

To sum up what is going on in the organic market in Ireland right now: while people are spending less and spending less often, a stable number are buying a larger range of products.

This overall picture may not seem especially positive. However, it is a slightly better performance than the export-orientated food sector in general, which has seen both value and volume declines.

Irish food and drink exports experienced an estimated volume decline of 3 percent. The value of these exports declined by 12 percent last year, or by just under �1 billion, to stand at �7.12 billion.

There are of course many justifiable reasons for both markets to be suffering: global recession and deflation being the primary ones.

For Irish organic beef exports, the strength of Sterling is a constant issue: sales are reported to be recovering somewhat by the Leitrim Organic Farmers' Co-op, which has over 160 farmer members, following a tough time in December.

The organic sector has responded to the challenging market situation in a number of ways.

Reaching out to Continental Europe is one strategy. In general, both the German and French organic markets have remained relatively strong of late.

The seafood industry has been especially successful in accessing these Continental markets.

Up until 2007, the main Irish attendees at BioFach, the world's biggest organic food trade show, were from the Irish seafood sector.

All Irish salmon now has either an ecological or the full organic certification. Irish salmon exports to France rose by over 30% in the first half of 2009. Ireland now exports about 3500 tonnes of salmon to France per annum, to the value of �18million.

Along with seven seafood companies, this year's BioFach saw another seven Irish companies participating.

BioFach is widely regarded as the most important trade event in the international organic food and drink calendar.

However numbers attending and exhibiting were down slightly in 2010 from 2009:

In 2009, the event attracted over 46,000 European and International trade visitors from 130 countries, who saw over 2700 exhibitors. 2010 saw 43500 visitors from 120 countries experience just over 2500 exhibitors.

Nonetheless, in a sign perhaps of a culled though more efficient marketplace, a larger number of exhibitors surveyed expected follow up business from BioFach than in previous years.

The German market is especially strongly represented at BioFach, so Irish companies who exhibited at the show have potential access to Europe's biggest organic market, with an estimated annual sales turnover of �5.8 billion.

Specific Irish companies, many of whom exhibited at BioFach this year, have also begun to step up to the mark. Along with many in the seafood sector, The Good Herdsman, Beechlawn Organic, Solaris Botanical Teas, Just Foods and both Mossfield and St. Tola's Cheeses have all been working to both upscale and to develop export markets.

Undoubtedly, there are more challenges than in previous years. However, organic farmers and food businesses are performing well, considering the circumstances.

The Organic Farming Scheme 2010:who will join, and why will they do it?

Perhaps the most stark thing about the article below is the fact that 2/3 of certified organic sheep meat gets sold as conventional. What a waste!

There is a solution to this, for at least some farmers willing to grasp the nettle: direct selling 100% grass fed extra mature organic lamb (extra mature means about 15-18 months) .

My other blog, here, is all about this (as well as other hill farmed organic products)

See, I don't just write about food, I try to change it too!

For now, here's the state of play for the new crop of organic potentials, 2010........

The May 15th deadline for signing up to the Organic Farming Scheme is fast approaching and the last of the compulsory Teagasc Organic training courses are finishing up.

With these in mind, I spoke to Teagasc organic advisor Pat Barry about this years crop of organic hopefuls.

�I don't think all of the 400 or so who have done the course will sign up for the Organic Farming Scheme this year�, he tell me. �Some will take their time - its a big decision to convert a holding, and those who have done the course this year now see what's involved. They can make a more informed decision for next year, which is probably better for the longer term sustainability of the organic sector�.

In organic tillage, while there has been some interest due to the green manure payment, poor returns in conventional, and the availability of conventional slurry to organic farmers, nonetheless take up of stockless tillage remains weak.

In the main �farmers are bringing balance into their own organic units: tillage is being incorporated into livestock farms�.

Numbers converting are strong for sheep and beef. The diet of organic cattle has to be 60% grass, so the variable price of feeds is not as much an issue fas it is for conventional beef farmers.

That said, �the price of organic concentrates is back significantly, but then again, so is the price of beef� according to Pat Barry.

As has been the case, finding markets for organic lamb remains difficult: �2/3 of raw lamb in organic goes into the conventional sector: For every 20,000 ewes only 8,000 lambs are sold as organic. That's a conservative estimate�.

Out of season lamb production is one way to try to access an organic price premium, according to Barry.

One of the most significant changes in organic horticulture and tillage will be the effect of an Grainan, the operation run by Donegal Creameries.

They will be providing �80 acres of carrots and spuds, and a couple of hundred of wheat.�

320 acres of this massive holding, called an Grainan, went fully organic on 1st March. Currently, it produces arable crops, beef, beetroot, cabbage, carrots, potatoes and milk.

In diary, he points out that five are coming on stream this year, and another 3 to 4 next year. This represents a significant increase: �there will be a 20% increase in cow numbers: it will be important for the sector and the market to be fully in tune�.

However, Donegal Creameries again will exert major influence on dairy dynamics.

According to Ian Ireland, Managing Director, Donegal Creameries, they recently invested a significant amount of money in the building of an organic yogurt production plant at their Killygordon site where the company has been processing milk for over a century.

This has allowed the company to supply ALDI's 74 stores nationwide with an organic yogurt range.

The new Liskeel organic yogurt range in ALDI is made by Donegal Creameries. The 500ml pots retail at E1.39 � considerably cheaper than many competitors.

As LIDL and ALDI try to tempt different shoppers in with more diverse products, consumers are shopping around more than just a few short years ago.

Recent research in Ireland suggests that the number of retail outlets people visit regularly has gone from 2.2 to 2.8.

The race to the bottom in price terms is, in many ways, the conventionalisation of the organic sector.

Barry, like many others, suggests �cutting out the middle man� i.e. direct selling, primarily at farmers' markets, as a way to add to, or at least maintain, a price premium.

Along with this, many producers are finding that organic alone is no longer enough. Adding extra meanings - such as health, taste, locale, breed/variety, environment, production methods - to your product, along with organic, is a way forward.

Soon, we will feature here a beef farmer in conversion to organic who has secured an interesting route to market with an interesting breed of animal.

ORGANICS IN CHINA: from 4000 hectares to 2 million in 10 years

Despite being a tiny fraction of both the market and the farming, the scale of the organic sector in China is both massive and growing at a rapid rate.

This presents threats and opportunities to everyone else..

At present, there is hardly any organic processed food or meat in China � the latter must surely be of interest to the Irish organic sector, which is dominated by meat and by meat exporting.

China has up to 50 million middle class consumers, 200,000 foreigners who live there, and 65 million visitors annually. These are the people to whom organic food is being marketed at present.

Trade Shows like BioFach China and the Green Food and Organic Food Expo attract increasing numbers of exhibitors.

BioFach China 2009 was attended by 10,400 trade visitors, a 13% increase on 2008.

The bigger Green Food and Organic Food show was attended by 1200 enterprises from 37 different countries, as well as about 50,000 trade visitors.

China's official Organic Food Development Center estimates domestic sales of organic products at about 500 million US dollars every year.

And more growth is predicted: organic certification organizations estimate that production will increase by 30 � 50 % in the coming years and that exports of organic products could rise to a volume of 5 % of total food exports by 2020, as well as 1-2% of its domestic turnover.

However, China could easily start to swamp the world with some organic foods, as it has done with conventional garlic, which now accounts for over 2/3 of the global supply.

In 2000, only 4000 ha of China�s arable land was certified organic. By 2005, the figure was almost 1 million hectares; by 2007, it had reached 1.5 million hectares. Most recent figures suggest that very soon, close to 2 million hectares of Chinese land will be under organic certification. China now has more land under organic horticulture than any other country, mostly for frozen vegetable exports.

All of this in a country that wholeheartedly committed itself to the industrialisation of farming with gusto for the last 60 years. China is the major global user of pesticides and chemical fertilizers in the world.

On less than 1/10 of the world�s arable land Chinese farmers apply about one third of the worldwide production of nitrogen fertilizers.

Indeed, while all of this growth in organic farmland was occurring, from 2002-2007, China's usage of synthetic fertilizers went from 43 to 51 million tonnes.

With recent severe food scandals such as the melamine milk scandal with killed 6 and poisoned 300,000, and a history of chronic pollution, China has an significant image problem in exports and domestic consumption. It is not, for example, on the EU's approved 3rd Country list, which increases the costs and bureaucracy of its exports to the EU.

Dr. Charles Benbrook, chief researcher with The Organic Center, Rhodale (US): "China is a country that has emphasized industrial-driven economic growth and has invested very sparsely in pollution controls and cleaning up air and water," Benbrook says. "As a result, a lot of toxic materials have fallen on the land or are in water resources used for irrigation."

More pertinently for the Irish organic sector is how to supply China. One simple and innovative way to reach high end far flung professionals in catering and hotels is through services like Marketboomer.

Marketboomer links thousands of professionals who want produce with thousands more who seek it, through a website that involves a small commission � certainly compared to using a wholesaler/distributor.

According to Conor Lawlor of Marketboomer's Dublin Office. �We are an on line procurement system for the catering and hospitality industries. Really, its the hotels that dictate the products in terms of both the quality and the lists of items.�

�We have the medium and clients here and overesas, including Starwood Hotels, Intercontinental, Emirates airlines.�

Along with these sorts of innovations, the hard slog of attending the trade shows, and adding organic food businesses to the trade delegations would start the process of opening up this growing 500 million dollar market to the Irish organic sector.

FARMSCAPING

Farmscaping: old, new, everywhere?

Getting animals to do the work for you. It might sound lazy, it might sound slightly mad, but this approach to farming and growing makes eminent sense.

Farmscaping is the latest attempt to get nature itself farming.

(image from WSU here)

�Farmscaping is a whole-farm, ecological approach to increase and manage biodiversity with the goal of increasing the presence of beneficial organisms� according to Professor Geoff Zehnder of Clemson University.

�Many pest populations can be managed by enhancing the efficacy and local abundance of the existing community of natural enemies through modification of the environment.�

He continues: �Farmscaping methods include the use of insectary plants, hedgerows, cover crops, and water reservoirs to attract and support populations of beneficial organisms such as insects, spiders, amphibians, reptiles, bats, and birds that parasitize or prey upon insect pests.

Insectary plants like mustards interplanted with market crops provide pollen and nectar to attract and maintain beneficial insects in the crop landscape.�

He also refers to trap crops as an example of extended farmscaping: �host plants that are more attractive to the pest than the cash crop that are planted near the cash crop to trap pests, thus reducing pressure and damage to the cash crop.�

In farmscaping, beneficial organisms are considered � and managed - as �mini-livestock�. They need �adequate supplies of nectar, pollen and plant-feeding insects and other arthropods as food to sustain and increase their populations. Flowering plants provide many of the food resources natural enemies need�.

However, this should not be done in an ad hoc way: �creating a farmscape of flowering plants picked at random may favor pest populations over beneficial organisms.�

Thus, he recommends being especially methodological about it: �use a range of selection criteria to determine appropriate botanical composition.�

Amongst the benefits are: reduced need for pesticides and savings in pest management costs; increased habitat and wildlife diversity on the farm; adaptability of farmscaping to farm plans; erosion control/soil building; value adding.

The latter comes from the fact that �farmscape plants like cut flowers and medicinal plants can be sold at market to generate added income for the farm� he suggests.

Examples of this approach are many. In Texas, a trap crop of black-eyed peas were grown for a Pecan crop, to hinder stink bugs. The growers determined for every dollar they spent establishing and maintaining the trap crops, they prevented $9.01 in kernel damage from stink bugs.

In Israel, birds of prey are now being being used instead of pesticides - kestrels for the daytime and owls at night.

A research project in the University of Georgia has just begun, which uses floral farmscaping with a 21,000 plant organic broccoli crop.

The experiment involves planting two sets of broccoli plants using organic methods. One set has flowers � such as yarrow and dill � in the middle, and the other set does not.

The flowers are intended to attract predatory insects like lady beetles that feed on harmful insects such as caterpillars and other pests that destroy crops.

The flowers also provide food and shelter for the insects that would naturally use broccoli for these resources and, in the process, ruin the crop.

In research quite directly applicable to the Irish situation, hedgerows are also useful for natural pest management.

Steve D Wratten (University of Southampton) and colleagues published research in 2004 in the journal Biomedical and Life Sciences. His research suggested that, along with various other benefits, hedgerows and can also impede crop damaging flying insects.

This research assessed the relative presence of types of pollen in hover flies, to assess how certain barriers performed, namely poplar trees and fencing. They found that �the poplar boundary restricted the movement of the flies, but the fence had no effect�.

With resources like fossil fuels and phosphate running out, farming will have to start to get creative with plants and animal biodiversity to keep feeding people profitably.

It is only a matter of time.