Pesticides. The birds & the bees.

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Pesticides. The birds & the bees.
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Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Mon Aug 31, 15 12:39 pm Post subject:

I've been in conversation with the OF&G certification body, the one associated with the NFU, most recently. They were quite open to certification of longer term leases, but they weren't keen on anything without a long term commitment, which would mean that I'd have to get other people to convert grazing areas 2 or 3 years before I could use them, as an established organic farm.

Given that the vast majority of my sales are direct and people know how we farm through direct contact, it wouldn't add anything in financial terms, so it would be entirely an added cost. We wouldn't be able to sell anything as organic unless we transported it the extra 56 miles to slaughter, which I'm not prepared to do, as that would be a retrograde step, IMO. I could, perhaps, persuade the local abattoir to convert to organic, but that would place an extra cost burden onto them which, as the only organic producer, would mean they'd be forced to pass the cost onto me.

It is extremely difficult to balance the books as it is, without the added costs of registration plus the inflexibility of being able to make the best decisions for the land and animals. As it would only, really, be for my own satisfaction, it doesn't add up for me to pay someone else to tell me what I already know. I'd rather spend the money on some owl boxes, or cattle housing improvements.

I might well look it again if we come into some money and can afford a larger home base that would make it viable in it's own right & feasible to help the abattoir to convert. However, as the Soil Association admits, the conventional/organic premium is narrowing, so it might not make financial sense, even then.

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Mon Aug 31, 15 12:44 pm Post subject:
In short, it makes more sense to build up a business and then convert than to tie the organic noose around your neck from the start and have the added hurdle of sourcing organic stock & land to build it up with.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15598

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 15 5:57 am Post subject:
I think this is the problem with most certification systems Rob; they are not flexible. As things stand it doesn't seem worth your while to go for organic certification. What is the difference between an organic certified abattoir and non-organic?

Ty Gwyn

Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 4563
Location: Lampeter

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 15 7:58 am Post subject:
One is certified to slaughter and process organic animals and the other is`nt,its as simple as that, Or put it another way,it pay`s one to furnish the certification fee and not another.

Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 15 8:31 am Post subject:

& there's the rub.
If there aren't enough subscribers then the abattoir wont register.
& if consumers don't demand, likewise.
I still say taxing the polluters & subsidising the organic sector has to be the way forward.
Look at green energy & see how that has (until this government stuck a knife in it) blossomed with government help.
The green energy subsidies where a fraction of the breaks big fossil gets but look at how they brought that industry forward.
We should be doing the same for 'green' food.

Ty Gwyn

Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 4563
Location: Lampeter

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 15 9:44 am Post subject:

But its also down to the cost of the organic certification,
If i remember on Thursday i will ask at Tregaron of this cost,as i have no idea of the fee.

Farm registration used to be £330 a number of year`s back when i inquired,a friend of mine who also retailed through farmers markets through their own cutting plant on farm had to pay an additional £1,000,then the SA wanted a further 5% of their takings,

So it was all knocked on the head,priced out in other words.

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 15 11:35 am Post subject:

Tavascarow wrote:

& there's the rub.
If there aren't enough subscribers then the abattoir wont register.
& if consumers don't demand, likewise.

Exactly why I say people should be eating more, not less, meat, providing it is from ethical sources. It's all very well saying that everyone should cut down and buy local, but unless everyone does, simultaneously, then the viability of those that do offer it suffers because of lack of resources such as local abattoirs.

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