THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS (ORGANIC WEEK)

A busy National Organic Week has left the organic sector buzzing. Plenty of well attended events, some new research, promising policy developments and upcoming opportunities have all emerged.

Early on in the week, the Picnic in the Park in Portumna (pictured, left (c) Oliver Moore) was a very positive event indeed. This was certainly an event that attracted many people who were simply out and about in the greater Galway North Tipperary and West Offaly region for the day.

And that's what was so interesting about the day; its straightforwardness. It came across as a cross between an agricultural show and a foodie eat in, with nothing especially alternative about the crowd in attendance.

Slow Food the ICSA and IOFGA were the main organisers, while many local food businesses chipped in.

All the traders were certified organic who attended, and all sold out of their food exceptionally early. The location was stunning, while the activities ranged from informative and inspiring forest walks with Andrew St.Ledger of the Woodland League to detailed discussions on the process of converting to organic with Pat Barry, Mary Lynch and a genuinely interested crowd.

In many ways, attending an event like this, one full of positivity and great food, is as useful an introduction to organic farming and food as a farm walk or a course.

The National Organic Awards were also positive, as awards often are. However it was interesting to be in a room full of businesses and agency workers who seemed quite positive about the future.

Minister of State Ciaran Cuffe's speech pointed to a renewed Green public procurement initiative, which would be incorporating organic produce.

The market's message was mixed: According to Cuffe:

�The Irish organic market is estimated to be worth about �95 million this year compared to �66 million in 2006. Admittedly the figure is down from last year, but the decrease is more in value than in volume and the trend is more or less the same as we see in the conventional sector�.

�Despite this some sectors have bucked the trend. For example, Organic Yoghurt has shown a 24% growth in volume and diary is an area that is largely supplied by domestic production.�

Bord Bia's own research, released to coincide with National Organic Week, found that 33 per cent of Irish grocery shoppers purchased an organic product in the past week, up 2% on the 2008 figure.

It also found the volume of sales steady, and that 30 per cent of these consumers are purchasing more organic food than they were last year. Sixty-two per cent were buying the same amount of organic food.

Another possible policy development is the establishment of an organic horticulture advisor. Flagged at the Teagasc National Organic Conference in Birr last Thursday, if this does come to pass it would indeed be a positive and much needed development: there is significant interest in and need for dedicated organic horticulture advisory services.

However, in a possible sign of the wavering economic times, there was much talk of the fact that efforts were being made to make this happen rather than its certainty.

Good news for cattle and sheep farmers emerged from John Purcell of the Good Herdsman, who also spoke at the Teagasc event. He revealed some areas where he felt there would be a need for animals to service organic markets: �the industry needs an extra 6000 organic cattle to make a strong presence on the European Market� he claimed.

Purcell also pointed out that by introducing a branded organic product abroad - the organic steakhouse range - Good Herdsman was able to secure a premium and avoid a commodity race to the bottom, thus avoiding competition with South American Beef.

Winter finishing off green forage offers lamb producers some opportunities too, according to Purcell. He pointed out that if 4-5000 winter lambs were finished, processors would find European markets for them.

All in all, plenty of positivity emanated from Organic week . Here's hoping it is built upon.

Why eat organic in a recession? In Ireland?

Why eat organic in a recession? In Ireland? Have a look at my reasoning, part one, on the Organic Supermarket's website.

(See the current edition of organic matters for a couple of features by me too: one of social media and organic food businesses, the other a farm and food business profile of Clanwood farm in Offaly)

MOSSFIELD CHEESE SCOOPS TOP PRIZE AT NATIONAL ORGANIC AWARDS

Mossfield Organic Farm's mature cheese has won the 2010 National Organic Awards. The cheese, which is now available as a prepack, was chosen from amongst 165 products from dozens of companies.

Ralph Haslam's farms almost 300 acres at the foothills of the Slieve Bloom mountains, where he stocks Rotbunt and Freisen dairy cattle.

No stranger to awards, this mature gouda style cheese has won numerous accolades in Ireland and abroad, including three gold stars and best Irish specialty food product at the Great Taste Awards.

It is certainly a cheese that can hold its own amongst the best in the world, and is fully deserving of its win.

The cheese was also the winner of the Sustainable category of the awards, which were announced on Tuesday. In this category, both Glenisk and Flahavans were highly commended. Both of the latter companies have made great strides to make their operations more sustainable: Glenisk for example use Airtricity in their own plant, have installed their own wind turbine and reed bed systems and have made partnerships with environmental NGOs like Cultivate and the Organic Centre, Leitrim.

However Mossfield's own farm in Offaly is a veritable haven of biodiversity. Their new grass sward has to be seen to be believed, such is the range of plants and thus butterflies, crickets, grasshoppers and various other insects in the fields.

Whilst organic farmers in general use clover to improve fertility, the Haslam sward is becoming very bountiful indeed.

Best New Product always attracts a lot of excitement, and this year its no different. Out of a very impressive new range from Ballybrado, their Organic Junior Muesli scooped the top award.

This ticks a lot of the right boxes indeed as a retail product. Very impressive and attractive packaging, coupled with a realistic blend of sweetness and health will make this a winner amongst conscious parents.

Anther exceptional new organic product, this one highly commended in the awards, is the Oliver Carthy Dry Cure Organic Rack of Bacon.

This marks a great new departure for Irish organic pork, as previously organic pork from Ireland was very difficult to come by. Oliver Carthy's other organic pork offerings, all very high quality products in their own right, were made with Danish bacon. This one is made with Irish meat instead. And many is the fine meal it will make in the months ahead.

In the export category, there was just one award and no commendations: Murphy�s Whole Fresh Irish Organic Salmon.

In the best retail product, three stalwarts of organic and indeed other awards scored best: Burren Smokehouse and Mossfield mature cheese were highly commended, while St. Tola's organic goat's cheese was the category winner.

The latter's award was in part because of the significant improvement in its packaging: previously St Tola's packaging was very basic indeed.

And while many products use images of the Burren to sell themselves abroad the difference here is that St Tola's is made in Inagh in the county Clare, on the fringes of the Burren itself.

Best Local Product went to Beechlawn organic farm. This year's awards included horticultural entrants for the first time. Beal Cheese and Moonshine organic dairies were also commended in this category.

What was most impressive about the local element of Beechlawn was how distinct it was from the otherwise more generic local claims made by others in the category.

They sell 85% of their produce in Co. Galway or Westmeath � all within one and a half hours drive from their Ballinasloe farm. They provided seeds, compost, manure, plants and gardening expertise to the school garden in Scoil U� Cheithearnaigh, Ballinasloe ( primary school) throughout Spring and early Summer 2009 and 2010.

Una Ni Broin of Beechlawn also has delivered extensive organic horticultural teaching days, many of them in Irish, from single events to 20 hour courses across the region. Each year, the farm hosts 6-8 farm walks.

SO what are you waiting for? get munchin!

Box of delights: a new venture in an organic oasis

Usually, the posts here are about organic farming and food issues. Well, today, its a little different. Myself and my partner Vicki started a stall at a farmers' market for the first time.

In fact, I've established, with Joe Condon (of Omega Beef direct and the Organics with Altitude project I also coordinate) an organic only farmers' market!

At this market, in Clonmel every Friday from 11-6 (at the Showgrounds Shopping centre) all the stalls are organic. And all (except mine!) is staffed by the actual farmer too.

We have Siobhan La Touche and Eamon Wallace, (fresh fruits, veg, salad leaves and eggs) , Joe Condon, Denis Maher and John Collins doing various meats (beef, lamb and pork) Diarmuid Foley doing fish (wild is acceptable alongside organic!) and then myself and Vicki.

Our stall is called Box of Delights, and we're really filling in the gaps with pure delectables.

The market was short bread and cheese, as well as hot tea and coffee, so we've gone for it.

Myself and Vicki do:

Coolfin bakery's breads, Mossfield cheese, Solaris tea, Natura Equa coffee and Valrhona chocolate. All are organic (or in the case of the chocolate, its the organic line the company offers) and all are in my own opinion, the best in their respective fields.

I now live in north Tipperary, so can easily grab a delivery of Coolfin's breads in the AM. I'm also just across from Mossfield cheese.

Its been a real learning curve, as both our box of delights stall and the market itself are applying for organic certification.

We have our official launch on Friday, as part of Organic week. Hopefully see you there!

Not Crying over Spilt Soymilk

from The �Cornucopia� Institute:http://www.cornucopia.org

CORNUCOPIA, WI � It�s not often that family-scale farmers can go toe-to-toe with a $12 billion agribusiness and come out victors. But organic soybean producers, and a modestly scaled but powerful ally, The Cornucopia Institute, are claiming victory over Dean Foods in the organic marketplace.

Dean Foods, the manufacturer of Silk, the top-selling soymilk drink, was first �outed� in Cornucopia�s May 2009 report, Behind the Bean: The Heroes and Charlatans of the Natural and Organic Soy Foods Industry, for switching its soybean sourcing from American farms to cheaper organic beans from China. Later in 2009, Cornucopia revealed that Dean Foods had then largely abandoned organic soybeans altogether, stealthily changing the soybeans in their core Silk product line from organic to less expensive conventionally grown soybeans that the company was calling �natural.�

The shift away from organic outraged many loyal consumers and alienated retailers across the country that were not informed of the change and continued to inaccurately merchandise Silk products as �organic.�

�Dean Foods has been roundly criticized for taking the organic out of Silk, and now the marketplace and consumers are passing their judgment,� said Mark Kastel, Cornucopia�s senior farm policy analyst. �They took what once was a pioneering 100% organic brand, before they acquired the company in 2003, and cheapened the product at the expense of American farmers and consumers.�

Dean�s purchase of Silk initially excited American farmers who had been selling organic soybeans for use in Silk soymilk. Many thought that Dean would use its marketing prowess to further grow the Silk brand and expand demand for domestic organic soybeans. Instead, the company turned the screws on its farmer-suppliers and demanded that they compete on pricing with Chinese imports � something they were unable to do.

�White Wave (the operating division of Dean Foods that markets Silk and Horizon organic milk) had the opportunity to push organic and sustainable agriculture to incredible heights of production by working with North American farmers and traders to get more land in organic production, but what they did was pit cheap foreign soybeans against the U.S. organic farmer, taking away any attraction for conventional farmers to make the move into sustainable agriculture,� said Merle Kramer, a marketer for the Midwestern Organic Farmers Cooperative.

Dean spokesperson Molly Keveney told the Denver Post that staying with organic beans would have resulted in price increases. This statement stands at odds with the reality of falling farmgate prices for organic soybeans in recent years.

The shift away from organics by Dean in its Silk soymilk products also produced additional embarrassment for and anger at the company when Cornucopia discovered in 2009 that it had failed to change the soymilk product�s packaging to overtly reflect that it was being made with �natural� soybeans. Cornucopia filed a formal complaint with the USDA�s National Organic Program over the matter. The company ultimately corrected its misrepresentation.

�Consumers and retailers repeatedly reported to us that they were deceived and ended up unknowingly buying Silk products with conventional soybeans,� said Kastel. �We know of numerous retailers that ultimately pulled Silk products from their store shelves over the gross misrepresentation of the soymilk product,� Kastel added.

The Cornucopia Institute maintains a soy foods scorecard on its website (www.cornucopia.org), which provides information and ratings of soymilk and various soy foods and rates them on the integrity of their production (including whether brands buy from American family farmers or from China). The scorecard can be used by consumers and wholesale buyers to make purchasing decisions that support their values.

Meet Monte

Introducing to the world . . .
Monte Alexander Raven born to proud parents Jennifer and Desirae Raven on August 16, 2010. Mr. Raven was born at home in a birth tub and weighed in at a wonderful 7 pounds and 12 ounces with a length of 21 inches. Monte enjoys warm baths, snuggling with his moms, hats, listening to wind chimes and his grandfathers flute music.

Glenmore Farm: made in Waterford

�We started with a Kerry Cow in 1995�. That's according to Christine Hyland, who, together with husband Seamus Hyland, runs the Glenmore farm and food business in west Waterford.

Things are different now for the 80 acre holding just above the Blackwater valley between Lismore and Ballyduff, next to the woodlands and river which gives the farm its name.

(Image: Waterford castle)

Now, the couple run a mixed enterprise, consisting of 60 suckler cows, 10 ewes, one ram, one bull and a thriving new egg business.

The process of converting to organic began in 1996, with farm visits to regional organic pioneers like Michael Hickey.

They re seeded over the years to help with fertility, growing arable silage and undersowing with a grass clover mixture. The mix they have planted is a vibrant organic ley mixture, full of different grasses and herbs:

�The fields were white with clover with the weather this year� Christine tells me, while also making reference to the dandelions in the spring, the timothy and chicory, and the wild grasses that come through in fields without synthetic fertilizers and herbicides.

Their Hereford Angus crosses are sold direct from the farm gate. Before converting to organic, they found the Friesians they stocked very expensive to feed with rations:

�I studied rural planning in college � that was an influence in converting over to organic. We were always rearing Friesians to finish and it was very costly, I preferred the notion of low input and less fertilizers. We feel its just the right way to go.�

In both changing over to organic and in developing their egg business, there were other considerations too: �It was a part time farm, my husband was in construction at the time, and feeding winter rations and the like was very time consuming as a part time operation. The Hereford-Angus' don't need as much rations, mostly they just need them at weaning time�

In January 2009, they initiated their bird business � against all official advice. �At the start we were told it was very difficult for small farms to get involved in the egg business, as the rules and regulations are the same for small and big operators�. This inevitably costs the small operators more as a proportion of overall time and income..

�Friends in Galway encouraged us along, as did Richard and Stella from Ladybird organics. We also did a free range egg production course with Teagasc� she tells me.

They started with 100 hens in a hen house � 100 is the optimum level under organic regulations, as it is considered the natural flocking size for hens.

� Now we have 4 houses and packing station. The birds love it as they can go out all the time�.

Apart from feed and housing differences, another difference under organic regulations is that the birds cannot be debeaked.

�I buy organic stock in Monaghan - day olds - and rear my own chicks. We have both Lowman Browns and Gold Lines�

Their eggs are sold in shops and at markets across the west Waterford and east Cork region, including in Fermoy, Cappoquin, Ballyduff and Dungarvan.

As with the beef and lamb sales, they have found that direct selling opens up new opportunities:

�We started at a new farmers' market in Youghal. There we get to sell mixed sizes. You can't pack an egg of less than 53 grammes for shops. At the market, our boxes are mixed size�

�It is always great when I do the delivery rounds and the eggs are cleaned out and I put in the new batch that were laid in the previous couple of days.

According to Christine, �most shops that I supply didn't stock organic eggs previously so I think that it is the great taste of the eggs, their freshness and the fact that people do like to support local producers that has allowed us to expand the business�.

Glenmore farm will have a stall at the market in Waterford city on the 12th September at the Waterford Harvest Festival, which runs from 10th-19th September. For more, see here