Organic recognised
Finally, we learnt from the Organic Federation of Australia that the Primary Industries Council has issued a statement in support of organic agriculture. Now that may not seem like much, but it wasn’t so long ago that the true blue Aussie farmer was dismissing organic agriculture as “hippy bullshit”. Now they recognise the importance of organic agriculture for not only health and the economy but also the environment. About time.
And just before this, we received a visit from Patrick Holden, the director of the world’s oldest organic association, the English-based Soil Association (www.soilassociation.org) founded in 1946 by, according to their website, “a group of farmers, scientists and nutritionists who observed a direct connection between farming practice and plant, animal, human and environmental health”.
Patrick, who has a large organic farm in west Wales, spoke to us about the challenges faced by the organic movement, but his main message was that we should, as individuals, take charge of the sustainability of our own lives. Not a bad idea. It seems to me that government isn’t going to move fast enough — too busy squabbling and point scoring.
