Soil Association news

This week, Boris Johnson is expected to give more details on the UK Government’s ten-point green recovery plan. Ahead of this, we are launching our “Grow Back Better” manifesto, a ten-point plan for a post-Covid-19 recovery.

Our Grow Back Better manifesto is a new route-map setting out how recovery efforts post Covid-19 must invest in areas

The Soil Association is hosting Taking Stock, a programme of free online workshops for beef and lamb producers in the South West to help prepare for the coming changes and opportunities as we leave the Common Agricultural Policy.

The first part of the programme, which is funded by Defra, is a 90 minute webinar that will cover:

1. Is it all about the money? How the proposed changes to payments to farmers and land managers are being implemented by D

This year’s Soil Association Organic Fortnight (5-20 September 2009) will focus on why organic products offer great value for both your wallet and for the planet. [1]

As thrifty shoppers look to make every pound go further, the benefits of going organic on a budget stretch far beyond great-tasting, additive-free food and drink.

Organic is first choice for consumers who want products which don`t just taste, look or feel good, but which are environmentally-friendly, ethical, healthy

EU proposals which will potentially ban the use of carcinogenic, mutagenic, neurotoxic and reprotoxic substances will be voted on by members of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee on Wednesday 5 November.

As neurotoxins, the group of substances known as neonicotinoids [1] could be banned in the EU. These substances have been shown to have a devastating impact on honey bees across the world, and a number of European countries have subsequently banned their use [2]. We are urging

For its annual World Food Day (Thurs 16 Oct), the UN Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) rightly focuses on the 923 million people suffering from malnutrition in the South - highlighting climate change as the key factor threatening their long-term food security. In the short-term, rising oil prices have led to increasing food costs and scarcities, provoking riots in over a dozen countries from Burkina Faso, Haiti, to Mexico. The diversion of land for biofuel crops has also been a factor -

Peter Melchett, Soil Association Policy Director, responds to David King`s attack on organic farming in his inaugural speech as President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science

`To blame the Soil Association or UK consumers of organic food for the decades of hunger and starvation in Africa, including the current terrible suffering of people in a country like Zimbabwe, as Sir David King appears to do, is unscientific and irrational. David King and a shrinking number of Brit

The Prince of Wales’s views not only reflect the views of 85% of the British public who opposed the commercial growing of GM crops in the UK, but also of an increasing body of independent scientists who question GM company PR claims that GM crops are the answer to world hunger. [1]

Robin Maynard, Soil Association Campaigns Director said: “As so often, The Prince of Wales’s views are in tune with public opinion. In questioning the value of GM crops for poor, small-scale farmers in devel

The Soil Association has announced the appointment of Rob Haward, operations director at Riverford Organic Vegetables, as grower representative on its standards board, following an open recruitment process. This appointment completes the Soil Association’s new, independent standards board.

Rob Haward, operations director of Riverford Organic Vegetables, said: “I am delighted to have been appointed. I hope my input will be of value to the Soil Association in enabling them to continue to

In response to a Defra discussion paper titled, “Ensuring the UK’s food security in a changing world”, Patrick Holden, Soil Association director, said:

“Credit to Hilary Benn for joining the debate that has been live amongst far-sighted individuals and food and farming groups for years. But the dead-hand of the Treasury is still visible on the document – with its outdated economic mantra of the UK being a developed country, ‘able to access the food we need on the global mark

Organic agriculture can contribute to delivering global food security, help tackle climate change, protect soils and conserve wildlife. So recognises a four year study involving 400 scientists from around the world as well as 30 governments and the same number of NGOs.

The International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) report criticises industrial agriculture for being “too narrowly focused” and calls instead for a more holistic systems-orientate