How organic does organic have to be?

by Charlie Peverett in At home on 29.07.08

Interesting to read about the so-called ‘compost crisis’ affecting gardeners across the UK.

Fingers are being pointed at aminopyralid, a chemical found in eight forms of herbicide used to kill weeds in fields of grass.

It seems that this particular chemical may persist in the food chain longer than was thought - making its way through horses’ digestive tracts, onto people’s veg beds and into peas, tomatoes, potatoes and other sensitive vegetables.

These have either failed to grow or developed signs of damage such as cup-like or fern-shaped leaves.

Manufacturer Dow AgroSciences has suspended sales of the weedkiller for now, and the Pesticides Safety Directorate is investigating the claims, although it has said that that affected crops are ok to eat.

Another chance, you might think, for the organic lobby to say ‘I told you so’. But it’s not quite as simple as that. I was surprised to see that organic gardeners and commercial organic growers have been affected too.

How could that be? Well, the Soil Association decides the most widely-accepted rules, so I asked them.

The principles I think I understand. Although organic growing is sometimes thought of as ‘pure’, it’s really all about proportions. Organic growing systems allow for small quantities of undesirable matter on the basis that it a) it would be impossible to eliminate everything, given that our world is not divided into hermetically-sealed farms and gardens, and b) the amounts involved do not have a significant effect on the plants.

But in the case of manure, a rather striking exception is made. The Soil Association’s explanation (which we’ve reproduced in full here) is that there just isn’t enough organic manure to go around. Therefore, growers are allowed to use limited amounts of non-organic manure and still be classed as organic.

Usually, the process of rotting and maturing manure gets rid of bugs and allows unwanted compounds to break down. But not in this case. The Soil Association, which has written a letter to Hilary Benn to complain about aminopyralid, argues that the precautionary principle should be better applied by regulators when they approve the use of new chemicals.

But arguably, doesn’t that apply to the SA’s own policy of allowing use of non-organic manure?

Thus far, the Association says it knows of three of its licencees who appear to have been affected by the ‘bad manure’. It was not able to say whether these growers would be allowed to sell their produce as organic. [* see update below]

Hopefully the cause, whatever it turns out to be, will work its way through the system over the coming months. Veg growers (organic and otherwise) will vet their sources of manure a little more carefully in future, and get back to growing normal-shaped vegetables.

But whatever the outcome, it’s certainly made me think a little harder about what ‘organic’ means in the first place.

*UPDATE* 30.07.08 A spokesperson for the Soil Association has now clarified what will happen to affected crops:

The bottom line is that if a licensee suspects that their crops have been affected by contaminated manure or compost they must contact us immediately. Each case will then be considered individually as to whether the status of the crop or land will be lost.

This will depend on a number of factors e.g. whether the actual crop is affected or just the plants, whether the land has been contaminated and at what level residues are found (if any). In the current cases we have had, the crop has been so severely affected that there was no saleable crop anyway.

Advice for gardeners

The Royal Horticultural Society has advice for gardeners on dealing with effects of weedkiller in manure.

IMAGE by Flickr user Ted Percival