Soil Association roadmap to focus on next 8 years

- Published: 29 September, 2011

The Soil Association is launching a new roadmap which outlines its priorities for the coming decade.

‘The Road to 2020 - towards healthy, humane and sustainable food, farming and land use’ says it will focus on the twin aims of meeting the needs of consumers and businesses for healthy food, while protecting the natural environment and farm animals.

The roadmap’s agenda aims to influence farming and food research agendas — in particular on farming’s impact on climate change, and advocate opportunities for policy-makers to put incentives in place to encourage and support organic and agro-ecological farming and land-use. It said it will continue to campaign on industrial livestock units and the over-use of antibiotics. and ensure farm practices deliver a good life for farm animals through the AssureWel animal welfare outcomes project.

Chief executive Helen Browning said: “Across the organisation there will be a new emphasis on innovation. There is also a strong focus on reaching out to people as citizens, consumers, growers and businesspeople, to show the relevance of our work, even for those who are not eating or producing organically. We will continue to bring all perspectives around our table, to find the best way of meeting our aspirations for healthy, humane and sustainable food, farming and production systems.”

The Soil Association will reveal the policy in greater detail later in the year.

The NFU welcomed the roadmap's intention to share knowledge between organic and conventional sector, but expressed some concerns over the Soil Association's committment to promoting small-scale production.

Food chain advisor Ruth Mason said that while it did play a part in the production of food, it should not be considered as the only method of production for either organic or conventional.

The Soil Association has recently backed a campaign against Midland Pig Producer's plans for a 'mega-pig farm' in Foston Derbyshire, on the grounds that the animals should not live their entire lives indoors.

Soil Association figures, released in April, showed that sales of organic beef had rocketed by 18% during 2010, while the remainder of organic products fell 5.9% to £1.7bn. Figures released by Defra in August also showed that while organic cattle and sheep numbers had increased by 6% and 11% respectively during 2010, organic pig and poultry numbers had continued to fall during the year.

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