Organic Success a Doubled-edged Sword

CBC editorial by farm journalist Norman Dunn in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

The popularity of organic food continues to soar in Europe, but experts are warning that success is a double-edged sword and that the organic movement is facing its greatest-ever challenge.

The so-called bio-farmers are now facing the choice of staying small-time within the traditional family-farm based countryside idyll of organic output or of aiming for large-scale production and thereby reaping many of the problems already affecting the conventional sector.

More demand for bio-products has led to a dependence on sales edging away from traditional farm store and specialised downtown organic food outlets towards supermarkets and, especially now in Germany, the giant discount chains. Bigger outlets mean more product is needed. Veterinarians report that this is leading to a stocking density and veterinary health situation on some organic farms similar to conventional “intensive” livestock units.

One result is that a third of the organic dairy herd in Germany is affected by chronic mastitis, according to vets, who add that around 18 percent of cows on organic farms also suffer from hoof and leg problems. Rejection of organically raised hogs at slaughterhouses because of worm damage to livers is another problem.

Supermarket dominance in organic produce trading will also decrease farm income in the end, it is feared. The pattern is well known to conventional farmers. Discounters capture substantial market shares for food products and then reduce retail prices to attract more consumers. The producers, having become dependent on such outlets, then have their prices forced down. Aldi, a leading discounter in Germany, already sells more organic potatoes than all specialised organic food outlets in the country.

Many organic farmers are happy about the fast-expanding sales and, so far, acceptable prices. The more realistic warn that this situation won’t last long and point out that retailer price wars have often pushed the retail price for conventional products, such as drinking milk, below the cost of production on European farms.

This article is reproduced here with permission from FARMCENTRE.com