The Soil Association

Where are you based?

Bristol, UK

What kind of organisation are you (eg. academic, business, NGO etc)?

The Soil Association is a registered membership charity and the UK's leading campaigning   organisation for organic food and farming. Its wholly owned subsidiary, Soil Association Certification Ltd, is the largest organic certification body in the UK.

What is your broad area of expertise?

Sustainable farming, food (and other) production and supply based on principles of health, fairness, ecology and care for the well being of future generations.

Give a range of the projects you are you currently working on.

• Local food initiatives - promoting and helping establish local food links
• Transition Food and Farming - Looking at adapting food supply, in light of peak oil and climate change. Supporting transition town initiatives that are developing communities independent of fossil fuel.
• Big Lottery funded Food for Life Partnership – Led by the Soil Association, The Food for Life Partnership brings together the Focus on Food Campaign, Garden Organic and the Health Education Trust, all with unique experience of successful practical work in schools, revolutionising school meals and giving children the chance to grow and cook food, and visit organic farms.
• Ongoing development of our own organic standards, including consultation on what we should do about air freighting organic foods along with other areas such as progressing Ethical Trade Standards.

What aspect of your work with relevance to the food-climate change issue would you like to feature?

We would like to feature our consultation asking whether we should tackle the environmental impact of air freight in our organic standards.  

Please describe the work in more detail – how it started, what stage it is at, who has/have been involved and their different roles.

Air freight throws climate change and international development into sharp relief and is particularly poignant for the Soil Association because sustainability, care for the environment and fairness are core principles of organic food.  

We are actively talking to a wide range of organisations to get a clearer idea of people's opinions on this complicated issue. The basis for these discussions is the consultative Green Paper which we published in May 07. The type of organisations involved in the consultation stretch from fresh produce importers, development charities, environmental groups, DfID, Defra, UNCTAD, the International Trade Centre, organic producers in the UK and abroad plus many more. The standards board will make their recommendation for a proposed standard based on these discussions in October 07. If this receives approval from our elected council, then we will initiate another consultation round in the first quarter of 2008, with the aim of making a final decision on a standard next summer.

What do you see as the big questions for the food climate research community at the moment?

Globalised, industrial food supply has put us in a precarious position:

• Food distribution is totally reliant on non-renewable fossil fuels at all stages of the supply chain from production to transport and storage
• People are detached from food production and unaware of the impact their food choices have on their own heath, the welfare of animals and the environment
• Unfair trade rules disadvantage farmers in both developing countries and developed countries
• Farmers are at the bottom of the economic pile and are so stretched financially that their ability to make long term (sustainable) decisions is severely restricted

Climate change has placed a new urgency on radically adapting food supply. The questions for the food climate research community are:

• how do we develop a sustainable, climate friendly, and fair, food supply?   
• which issues do we address as a priority and what is the most appropriate way to address them?

What are the big questions you feel you are seeking to answer at the moment?

Evidence shows that organic food is generally less damaging to the environment and less reliant on fossil fuels. However, there is a lot we can still do to improve the sustainability of organic food production and ensure people are aware of the importance of food choices in mitigating climate change. In the standards department we are considering ways to ensure organic food is less climate intensive and ways we can work with organic farmers and businesses to develop low carbon systems.

Is there any expertise you feel you lack and would you welcome help/collaboration with others?

The air freight debate touches on a huge range of issues to do with climate change, international development, global food supply, supply logistics and trade - we've tried to give an overview of the situation in our Green Paper available on the website. Inevitably, given the breadth of the debate, there will be areas we have either overlooked or not given enough credit too. We would welcome anybody that has extra information or a view to comment.

What are your plans for the immediate future as regards this work?

In October the standards board will decide what the Soil Association should propose based on the consultation responses. We will then outline a specific proposal for further consultation in a paper that will be published at the beginning of 2008.  

What are the milestones might we look out for (e.g. report publication; launch event; conference, etc.)?

The consultation will close on 28 th September 2007. We really want as many people as possible to send us their views by this date. You will find it at www.soilassociation.org/airfreight. Launch of proposed new standard January 2008, consultation in Feb/Mar/April, further standards board meeting May/June, Council meeting July, publication of new standard Oct 08.

What are the insights / skills / data (big or small) you can offer to the rest of the research world on food and climate change?

We have extensive experience of writing standards and applying them through certification. We are just completing a major review of the governance and accountability and accountability of our standards setting. On air freight specifically, this is the first time options and solutions have been consulted on to this degree. We have actively gone out and engaged with a really diverse group of organisations and individuals. When we collate the responses and discussions we will hopefully have a much clearer, comprehensive picture of what people think of air freight and what can realistically be done.  

Contacts and more information

Ken Hayes , Standards researcher
Soil Association
South Plaza, Marlborough Street, Bristol BS1 3NX
e-mail: KHayes@SoilAssociation.org
Tel: 0117 314 5189

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