OLLIES SANTY WISHLIST

A few days late with this one, but it landed in the Examiner first, so Santy got it in time......

Free free to search for 'santy' on the very useful searchbox over there on the right (scroll down a bit!) - you will find the last few years of wishlists I've sent him......................

Ah santy, me auld segosha - its been a while. So much has changed. Things have moved on, yet, as we hear so often, �we are where we are�.

Well, I'm not sure where that actually is Santy. I'm confused, because 'where we are' seems to be worse than where we think it is. So, really, we are not where we are at all. In fact, we are where we hope we aren't � everytime.

Anyhow, I left it till now to write this note to you because I was waiting for the budget. I was not expecting much there santy, but boy did you deliver on the 9th.

Thanks so much for not getting out the slash hook for the organic sector's budget - I was really worried there. After Trevor Sargent left, I thought it was curtains for the Organic Grant Aid and the Organic Farming Scheme's funding. But no, organic has survived again, with less cuts than a retired, armless butcher with a blunt knife. Or something.

Fair play there Santy, you're a star. You must have been under severe pressure. At least Harvest 2020 kept its commitment to growing the organic sector, which probably helped.

So, for 2011, I think I want...growth in the organic sector. I know I always ask for that one, but we need it now more than ever. Last year, a little more volume was sold, but the value went down a bit too. Can you fix it for me to have the value increase for 2011?

One way might be with the green public procurement Junior Minister Cuffe announced. That's where the state will start to feed the public sector organic food. Sounds yum, though the press release will have to be handled carefully, or else Shane Ross will probably have a canary.

Naturally, a few more organic farmers � plenty did the course this year, so if a few more of them take the plunge in 2011, and join the Organic Farming Scheme, I'd be delighted.

I'm getting very worried about climate change though Mr Claus. It seems everyone has just forgotten about it, with the recession and the cold snap. People who really should know better are joking about global warming and freezing winters, as if climate change and extreme weather aren't compatible! I'm only a nipper and I know they are!

Plus, according to the World Meteorological Association, since records began in 1850, 2010 was the third warmest year globally, the last decade the warmest ever and the parts per million of carbon in the atmosphere was the highest ever, at 386.8. Wow. And all of this is in a year of recession, when we haven't been able to do as much of the climate change causing actions we normally do.

Farming's Green House Gas (GHG) performance has been improving year on year here in Ireland, Santy, but I'm very worried about dairy once the quotas end. Milk production may increase by a full 50%, or 2.75 billion litres. This alone could increase Ireland's' emissions by a 12%. It says so in Harvest 2020.

Unfortunately the solutions are aspirational. Harvest 2020 does talk a lot about how great and grass fed we are with our livestock Santy, but we also use plenty of synthetic fertilizer and compound feeds. They use up loads of fossil fuels in their production elsewhere.

So a dairy GHG solution Santy � I know its a big one, but if anyone can, you can. That way, you could write off some of the massive amount of methane those raindeers must emit with their globe trotting on December 24/25th � phew!

(And you know I was only joking about organic venison last year santy!)

And while we're at it, let's try to get the beef livestock even more grass fed. Let's bring in even more of the kind of animals that can thrive in the outdoors for longer - Galloways, Dexter, Moiled and the like please Santy.

Do your best � you always do! Ollie

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.

What's in a name? Or, is Rachael organic, or just your new best friend Rachael?

In light of the establishment of a new Irish organic milk producers company (IOMP), it is apt to look again at the organic diary sector across Europe.

In the UK and Ireland, there are both similarities and differences between the respective dairy sectors of the two countries. The UK was importing milk at the beginning of 2008, whereas now it exports. While shortage in supply on mainland Europe is part of this, yet again, the sterling differential helps UK farmers over and above their competitors.

Milk sales in the UK in 2008 were up 10%, according to the Soil Association. This has been put down to the clarity of the organic dairy message and the relatively low price premium organic milk and milk products carry.

Still, this was not enough to stop 'Rachael's Organic' from becoming just 'Rachael's'. The company themselves claim to be suprised by the furore, and put it down to a branding move, a mere name simplification.

�We have been astonished by the attention this small change has attracted,� stated group spokesperson Steve Clarke. �In part it is because there is currently a perceived downturn in sales of organic produce elsewhere but this was not the reason for the logo tweak, which has been in the pipeline for several months since the autumn.�

Across Rachel�s packaging, the manufacturer claimed that the term �organic� would still be highly visible and that it was responding to consumer research conducted last summer that found preference for a simpler brand name.

In others words, like Maria (Carey) Whitney (Houston) Lenny (Kravitz) and of course Bertie (Ahern), when consumers get to know a product well, they know it on a first name basis.

�Rachel�s organic yogurts have in fact seen an 18.3 per cent - year on year - increase in sales for the first quarter of 2009 so we are seeing fantastic growth,� stated Clarke.

Further afield, scientists in Germany, where organic milk is a whopping 11% of the market, claim to have invented an organic milk test.

One of the issues with organic is that the validation process is done through checking on actions, rather than on the products themselves. So paper trials, inspections are used to decide if someone is organic.

Researchers at the Federal Institute of Nutrition and Food Research, Kiel, developed a test based on an analysis of milk fat for the ratio of stable isotopes of carbon.

They used it to identify milk samples from cows raised on feed containing a higher ration of maize, more of which is used in conventional feed than organic rations in Germany.

Organically raised cows are fed less maize but more grass. However, the transferability of this test to other regions is questionable, as the feeding regimes differ from country to country.

This research also discovered higher levels of alpha-linolenic acid, or Omega 3 fatty acids. This is now proving to be typical for organic milk over conventional, and may be part of organic milk's appeal.

Likewise research presented in Ireland by Dr. Carlo Leifert (Quality Low Input Food project in Newcastle University) at the Bord Bia Organic conference last September did much the same. This research consistently pointed to organic as superior nutritionally, especially with regard to Omega 3 and the vital 3 to 6 ratio.
However again, the issue may partly be the grass levels fed. Low input farming (ie low on concentrates high on grass) also scored well nutritionally in Leifert's research.

The make up of the ration has proven to be important too: Researchers (again from Newcastle) found that by adding a mix of soya beans, rapeseed and linseed to the daily food rations for each cow kept indoors, milk quality improved and was comparable to the milk from an outdoor cow eating a fresh grass diet.

In Ireland, both organic and conventional cows eat a higher proportion of grass than elsewhere in Europe, due to the amount it rains here.

Whatever about the rain, across Europe, organic milk and milk products continue to sell well and to carry a strong message.

With a pool of up to 4 million litres of milk, it is likely that the IOMP will have a bright future.

The Organic Action Plan: what's in it?

Good news for organic dairy farmers, or those considered the option. According to the new Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food�s Organic Farming Action plan, the Department will, within three years, �facilitate the expansion of organic production by the allocation of additional milk quota�.

This stands out amongst the 64 actions in the plan as one of the mostlikely to have a positive effect. This is especially the case as recently this diary carried interviews with dairy farmers who specifically made the point that quota expansion was much needed.

The DAFF plan has four objectives � to increase production, increase the knowledge base, develop the market at home and abroad and to encourage public procurement.

The plan overlaps with the Teagasc organic production plan, though there are also some suprising differences. An obvious glaring example is horticulture. The DAFF plan asks for horticulture to be included, while ,as we pointed out last week, the Teagasc plan avoids it. The DAFF plan�s horticulture references include unusual phrases like �circulate possibilities�, �should be invited� and �explore possibilities�� hardly compelling language.

Indeed, the following phrase sits alone, below a sequence of 12 targets, as a plea to whomsoever is listening: �there is clearly a need for appropriate research into horticulture and this should be examined as a matter of urgency�. A specific, timeframed target here would have been apt.

On the whole however, it is a positive document, which gives its 64 specific actions a somewhat loose timeframe: actions are either short term of medium term, ranging from one year to three years.

A notable opportunity in this plan is the UK�s importation of 4,000 tonnes of organic beef a year. Specifically, the plan states: �on a rough estimate, to supply both the home and UK market, we need 3 times the amount of beef currently produced�. This of course presumed that the UK wants to keep importing, and will do so indefinitely. It has gone through phases of importing and then �buying British� before, which has hindered the longer term growth and sustainability of the organic beef sector in Ireland.

Interestingly, the plan suggests that Organic farming has an image problem �among the farming sector�. It is suggested that junior minister Sargent will invite stakeholders together, including some of Ireland�s top class organic farmers and growers. These latter producers will explain to the other stakeholders what organic production actually is, �to allay any misconceptions they may have�.

Some targeting of the farming press with information on the demonstration farmers and individual farming sectors is also proposed. Provided this will be done properly, it will be most welcome.

Some of the actions under the increasing the knowledge base objective are very worthy. Most were covered in this diary last week. The reactivation of the full DAFF organic cereal variety testing programme and composting research stand out. However, target 33, which states �consideration should be given to the development of a degree level course� in the medium term, should have the first five words dropped.

Less space is devoted to the market development and public procurement options. Developing the market includes a section on consumer information, laments the fact that national organic week is only for one week, suggests that ongoing PR work is needed �to explain the principles of organic farming to consumers�, and that �this information needs to be disseminated widely�. However, none of this actually makes it into the actions listed. This is hopefully an oversight, as a robust standalone proud promotion of organic farming and food without fear or favour would make the consumer sit up and take notice.

A fundamental issue is the fact that those charged with promoting organic also promote conventional so differentiation between the two is always understated. The use of independent PR, the food media, celebrity chefs and so on for this ongoing job would make eminent sense.

Public procurement gets almost no space, and yet it is perhaps the easiest to do: DAFF is a public body. Already, it is my understanding that Agricultural House is occasionally getting organic food, and events and plans are underway to move this objective on, through organic stakeholder engagement with DAFF.

Here�s to more organic stakeholder involvement.

farming's future sustainability

Here's an interview I did with Richard Douthwaite (right) of FEASTA. It appeared in last week's Farming Examiner as the front page and centre page spread.

Oliver Moore: Can you outline the overall situation with regard to the sustainability of farming, as you see it Richard?

Richard Douthwaite: Modern industrialised farming, particularly tillage, has been described as a way of converting fossil energy into food energy. There�s a lot of energy used in the application of fertilizer, in tractors, in sprays, then in packing and getting the food to the customer. The whole process is not sustainable. In traditional forms of farming, it took 4 units of energy to produce each unit of energy in food. Most of that energy was directly from the sun, and all from renewable sources. Now there are 40 units of energy going into the production of food in the Europe, and perhaps up to 90 in the US. Most of that is from fossil fuels. That can�t continue.

OM: Within this broad picture, what is the key problem?

RD: The problem is that we�re not recycling the nutrients. Quite a lot of the nitrogenous fertilizer breaks down in the soil and becomes nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas (GHG), and one of the main sources of GHGs in farming. A lot of energy is used in the production of those nitrogenous fertilizers and most of it is wasted because the nitrogen is not taken up by the plants. There's more waste when the crops leave the farm because the nutrients they contain aren�t recycled: There�s nitrogen in the proteins that go off, and there�s phospates going off too. They are consumed by whoever eats the food and go into the sewage system, and don�t get back onto the land. As a consequence of this, we need to apply more artificial fertilizers. There is a growing problem with phosphorous. There�s a finite supply: rock phosphate is getting scarcer and scarcer, and that then means that more and more energy is needed to make it available to us and to transport it from places like Morocco.

So we need to think of how fertilizer can be better retained in the soil, so that if you are putting nitrogen on, it stays there. We need to minimise the use of artificial nitrogen, and to start replacing it with organic sources, such as legumes which fix nitrogen. Then, we need to make sure that any that escapes is recycled.

OM: What are the future implications for farming?

RD: Agriculture is likely to become more labour intensive again. The trend towards the larger farms will be reversed as the cost of food and fuel rises in real terms and takes a higher proportion of non-farmers' incomes. Farmers won't just be growing food. They will be producing fuel, chemicals, fibres and building materials as well. A whole new category of multi-purpose crops will emerge.

OM: How do you envision these multi purpose crops being utilized most efficiently?

RD: It may emerge in a way similar to the co-op creamery structure of a century ago, where the co-op would take the milk and the farmer would take back the whey. I envisage a co-op bio-refinery in each community to which farmers would deliver crops like miscanthus, which would be refined to give protein powder, biogas, diesel fuel, plastics like nylon, pesticides and soil improvers. The farmers would take the improvers back to their farms to recycle the nutrients that were in the crop they delivered to the refinery. Because transport will become more expensive, the plants' bulk will be reduced in rural areas and there will be centralised refineries regionally that take the valuable bits and process them further. At the bioenergy show in Tullamore this year, miscanthus was being sold in compressed blocks for people's fires, just like the wood blocks made from compressed sawdust. But 20% of dried grass is plant protein � that�s too valuable to burn. Quite simply, we should be taking out the valuable bits before burning any biomass.

OM: So the biorefineries would produce biofuels like biodiesel?

RD: Yes, but I should emphasise that these would be second-generation biofuels, produced by breaking down the cellulose found in all plants. Feasta is very much against the production of most first-generation biofuels, such as ethanol from maize and wheat and biodiesel from oilseed rape. These make no sense from an energy or a climate point of view. Their production is entirely driven by tax-breaks and the net result has been to increase hunger around the world. The only first generation biofuel that is acceptable is ethanol from sugar cane in Brazil.

OM: If farmers go in this direction in the near future, what�s in it for them?

RD: If farmers can increase the carbon content of their soils, or the semi-permanent biomass that�s growing on them, they need to be rewarded in some way for doing this because they would be helping prevent climate change. Part of their reward would be that they made their soil much better. It is however, very difficult to measure the carbon content of soils to pay farmers a set amount per tonne for the carbon that they have taken in. Feasta is therefore setting up a working party to develop a new concept of best practice - to develop a better understanding of the types of farming that involve sequestering more and more carbon in the soil or in the plants growing on the soil. It needs to become financially beneficial to follow best practice. There could be payments through REPS, or the price of the crops could be subsidised in some sort of way. We�re going to need people in the working party with expertise in this area, and we�re getting very good co-operation from the universities and from Teagasc on this.

OM: Are there any new developments that might help with soil performance and quality?

RD: Feasta has become particularly interested in the inclusion of charcoal in the soil. It has recently been discovered that the pre Columbian Indians put charcoal into the soil because it held the nutrients there. Also, there was an increase in microbial and fungal activity which made the soil more fertile. These soils still exist in the Amazon basin where they are called terra preta, which means dark earth. What happens, it seems, is that the fungi feed on sugars sent down by the plants, and they in turn send up nutrients to the plants. So the plant sequesters carbon too. Terra Preta promises to do three things: 1 sequester more carbon in the soil; 2 hold nutrients there more efficiently; 3 give bigger crops.

OM: Where does Feasta stand on the cows vs cars debate?

RD: We don't think there should be a debate at all. Some civil servants seem to think that because cows' digestive systems give off methane, a GHG, Ireland should reduce its greenhouse emissions by cutting the number of either cars or cows. This is, we think, a total misconception. We've tried to get the IFA to make the case that cows are very different because the methane they release is not adding fossil carbon to the air but it just doesn�t seem to be bothered. It seems to hope that its political muscle will shield its members from any herd-reduction measures the government might introduce. The ICMSA has a very much better attitude.

OM: But isn�t methane a serious GHG?

RD: Methane is a very serious GHG. It�s probably 60 times worse than CO2. Official figures suggest that it is 23 times more, but that�s over a 100 year period. However, all its heating effect is concentrated in the first few years before it is broken down. But - and this is crucial - the carbon in the methane released by cows comes from natural sources. It is not adding continuously to the carbon in the air, because the plants that the cows grazed on picked up the carbon from the air. So the cows are part of the natural carbon cycle. They are not leading to a net increase in the warming effect. If you increase the size of the national herd, you get a once off increase in methane; you don�t get a continuous increase in CO2 levels, as you do if you are burning fossil fuels in a car. So there is no comparison at all between cars and cows.

OM: I presume you are talking about grass-fed animals, where the grass gets its nitrogen from legumes? And surely processing, distribution and so on need to be taken into account before you can presume diary and beef will be acceptable in sustainability terms?

RD: If meat and milk is to be produced anywhere in the world, Ireland should be one of the places producing them because the fossil fuel emissions from producing them here are lower than they would be almost anywhere else. You've also got to consider the carbon emissions if forest is cleared for beef production in places like Brazil. And, because Ireland is close to a lot of people who need meat and milk products, it should not take a lot of energy to get the food to them, although more of it will go by sea in future rather than by truck.

OM: So, in certain relatively easy to attain circumstances, we can keep our beef and dairy industries.

RD: Yes, I think so. But many more cattle will be kept indoors so that the slurry can be turned into biogas. This will be used for heating, for electricity and compressed to run vehicles. Farmers have been very slow to realise that the energy content of a bullock's dung is worth more than its meat.

OM: What's the biggest challenge facing Irish farmers?

RD: They, in common with farmers around the world, have got to find ways of turning their sector from being a source of greenhouse emissions into a sink which removes them. At present, about a quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture and changes in land use, such as forest clearance. Those emissions not only have to stop but, because the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is already above the safe limit, CO2 needs to be removed from the air quickly, before it has set off a disastrous uncontrollable global warming process. We might have thirty years to do this. There's no high-tech solution. Only the world's farmers can respond in time.