The Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, expressed disappointment yesterday at the reaction of some associations promoting organic food to the adoption of EU regulations on organic produce. The organisations claimed the EU regulations, which come into operation today, will effectively allow conventional producers to become "organic" with minimal alteration to their systems and will completely damage the image of organic food here.
At a press conference in Dublin the three main organic producers organisations, Demeter, the Irish Organic Farmers and Growers' Association and Organic Trust Ltd, said the removal of their inspection and certification role will make them redundant and will remove their only source of income.
"However, it is the body blow which the Government has given to the whole sector by accepting low standards that concerns us most. If organic food can be produced under EU conditions, then the word organic means nothing at all," said Ms Margaret Leahy, chairwoman of the IOFGA.
"The Department asked us to draw up the regulations covering livestock production here and now they have rejected them and opted for the EU ones. They have effectively mutilated the momentum and vibrant life of the Irish organic community," she said.
She and the two other organic leaders, Mr David Couper and Mr Ernest Mackey, said that under EU regulations the maximum number of poultry per unit was 4,800 broilers, 3,000 laying hens.
The Irish standards agreed by the groups limited these numbers to 2,000 broilers, 1,000 laying hens to keep the stock healthy and prevent the spread of salmonella. The EU regulations ignored this.
They said that EU standards allow lambs to be sold as organic after only two months organic management. Irish standards require organic lambs to be conceived and born on an organic farm which had undergone a two-year registered period.
One of Ireland's longest established commercial organic farmers, Mr Joseph Finke of Ballybrado Farm, Tipperary, said that effectively the adoption of the EU rules would mean that virtually every sheep farmer in Ireland could declare himself organic.
Ms Leahy said the impact of the Department's stance would be to close export markets to producers when consumers realised that low-standard Irish organic meat was competing with their standard organic meat from outside Ireland and the price to Irish organic farmers would collapse.
"Organic premiums, needed to maintain an organic farming system, will be reduced to a nonviable level and producers will be forced to leave the organic sector for good," she said.
A Department of Agriculture spokesman said most other EU countries had accepted the standards laid down by EU regulation, including Germany, Portugal, Finland and Greece and in some cases had negotiated less stringent standards.
The Minister's statement said it would be open to the three organic organisations to apply either singly or as a group to act as the single inspection body on the Department's behalf to ensure that Irish produce met the EU regulation standards.
"In an effort to avoid unnecessary restrictions and over-regulation on organic producers, the Department has opted initially not to impose standards higher than those in the new Livestock Regulation," he said.
He said Irish organic produce which meets the EU standards was guaranteed free movement in all EU markets and a national organic food label would be introduced and promoted so that consumers, both here and abroad, could readily recognise Irish organic produce.
He said his commitment and that of his Department to the organic sector was without question and he felt that many farmers entering the Rural Environment Protection Scheme would look at the organic route.
He said that in addition to the £1.6 billion available for the REPS scheme up to 2006, there was a provision of £6 million to support improved handling and distribution of organic products and the setting up of group marketing schemes.