The Soil Association has defended its decision to extend organic standards to aquaculture following criticism levelled by a BBC television programme.

On Wednesday night, the BBC’s Newsnight claimed that it had evidence that the Soil Association’s organic standards and principles were slipping under pressure from major retailers and the growth of the organic market. The application of Soil Association organic standards to aquaculture was described as an absolute betrayal of organic principles.

In a statement issued today, the Soil Association said it recognises that, for some people, no form of salmon farming can ever be acceptable. However, it said that the unanimous view of the Soil Association Council Trustees - following an eight year period when fish-farming was not granted full Soil Association organic status, as well as a detailed three year research project looking at all concerns - was that the organic principles and practices should be brought to bear on one of the fastest-growing food sectors.

Soil Association, Director, Patrick Holden said: “We take any criticisms of our practices and standards extremely seriously. Public support and trust has been critical to the growth of organic food and farming and we are determined to maintain it. We recognise that there are areas for improvement and our standards committees are set-up for the very purpose of marrying our principles with actual practice.

“Accusing us of selling out to market pressures is simply not true – particularly when you consider that by sticking to our principles we lost the majority of the poultry market to other organic certifiers with lower standards. As for fish-farming, I respect the views of those who believe it is beyond their pale – but with nearly half of all fish consumed world-wide coming from farming and with the world’s wild fisheries seriously over-exploited, it would be a dereliction of duty not to engage with and improve the environmental and welfare record of this sector. Our aquaculture standards can rightly be claimed to be the highest in the world.

“We welcome constructive criticism, but our critics’ energies would be better directed at more real and immediate threats, such as the EU bowing to lobbying by the GM companies to raise the threshold for GM contamination of organic food by ten-fold.”

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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