Soil Association Will Strip Organic Label If Standards Are Not Met

"Three-quarters of the organic food flown in to Britain from overseas could be stripped of its valued status, as part of a plan to cut carbon emissions by eliminating air-freighted food from supermarket shelves. Only those farmers or processors which can prove they meet stringent ethical standards would be allowed to keep their organic status, the Soil Association announced today.

The environmental charity's policy director Lord Melchett estimated that currently only about a quarter of all exporters of organic food met high enough ethical standards to keep their all-important organic label. Farmers must start investing in local communities, allow their workers to form unions and fund education schemes by 2009 if they want to keep their status. "Some will find it impossible I suspect," he said.

Sweet potatoes and salad flown in from America would the most likely foods to be stripped of their organic status. The measures follow a public consultation in which scores of respondents called for food transported by air to be banned from carrying the organic logo."

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