Organic Food and Farming
Action Plan to Develop Organic Food and Farming in England
The England Organic Action Plan Group
Minutes of meeting held on 8 March 2007
Present
- Brian Harding (Defra, Director, Food Industry & Crops) – Chair
- Nic Lampkin (Organic Centre, Wales)
- Peter Melchett (Soil Association - Charity)
- Peter Hall (National Farmers’ Union)
- Peter Whitehead (Institute Of Grocery Distribution)
- David Barling (Centre for Food Policy)
- Emma Hockridge (Sustain)
- Renee Elliott (Planet Organic)
- Alex Smith (FDF)
- John Dyson (BHA)
- Bronwen Jones (Defra, FCCOD)
- Amanda Renn (Defra, OAPSG Secretariat, Organic Branch)
- Sarah Joshi (Defra, OAPSG Secretariat, Organic Branch)
- Simon Huish (Defra, SFF Delivery Team)
Agenda Item 1: Apologies for absence
1. The Secretariat had been notified before the meeting of the following apologies for absence: Andrew Eldridge (Defra, OAPSG Secretariat), Catherine Fookes (Sustain), Ben Underwood (CLA), Jill Johnstone (NCC), Lawrence Woodward (the Organic Centre – Elm Farm) and Richard Jacobs (O,F&G).
2. The following members were also unable on the day to attend the meeting: Victoria Bakshi (No. 10 Policy Unit), Louise Cavender (RSPB), Andrew Opie (BRC) and Alex Dinsdale (NFU).
Agenda Item 2: Minutes from 12 October 2006 meeting (ORG 234)
3. No amendments were suggested and ORG 234 was approved as circulated before the meeting.
Agenda Item 3: Outstanding Action Points from October and earlier meetings (ORG 237)
4. In order to track action points raised at the OAPSG’s meeting on 12 October (and at previous meetings) and summarise the current state of play on each, a log of outstanding actions (ORG 237) was circulated to the OAPSG before the meeting. No comments or amendments were suggested to the paper and it was agreed that the Secretariat would update this log after each future meeting to capture new actions and record progress on those that are currently outstanding.
Agenda Item 4: Agenda item 4: Further consideration of the role of the Organic Action Plan Stakeholder OAPSG (ORG 236)
5. The Chairman introduced ORG 236 and explained that this paper followed up discussions on the future of the OAPSG and the integration of its work with that of the SFFS implementation OAPSG, at its 12 October and 6 July 2006 meetings, and the meeting of Sir Don Curry and several members of the OAPSG, which took place on 12 January 2007. One of the members’ note of this meeting (attached as an annex to ORG 236) raised a number of issues that the OAPSG now needed to address and it was the Chairs intention to work through these questions to reach conclusions of the role, governance, chairmanship and priorities for the OAPSG.
6. On question one (separation of policy issues from technical issues), the OAPSG confirmed its agreement that these issues should be dealt with separately. As to which was which, it was agreed that anything that was relevant to the wider interests of the SFFS should be regarded as a policy issue. Anything which though important for the development of the organic sector but which was of relevance only to the sector, for example any standards issues falling outside the remit of ACOS, should now be treated as a technical issue.
7. Policy issues, in particular what actions were needed to harness the contribution organics could make to delivering SFFS priorities and the Department’s wider one planet living agenda, will be discussed with Sir Don Curry at twice yearly meetings under his Chairmanship. The first of these meetings is planned for 14 June. Technical issues will be discussed with Defra policy officials as necessary. It was thought that up to two meetings per year on technical issues with Brian Harding in the Chair might be needed and supplemented as necessary by discussion via e mail for urgent matters.
8. However, it was stressed that while organic production had a very important contribution to make in helping Defra deliver its priorities it had to be seen as part of a spectrum of supporting measures. The new working arrangements were aimed at embedding organics in that process.
10. Questions 4 and 5 concerning whether the OAPSG saw any advantage in its support being provided by the SFFS Secretariat, or whether it should be entirely stakeholder driven and supported, were not discussed.
11. While discussing how the OAPSG might contribute to the championing role for delivery of the SFFS (question 6), members once again stressed their wish to have an organic representative co-opted on to the SFFS Delivery OAPSG (or it’s Leadership OAPSG). Members were reminded that this issue had already been discussed and rejected at the October meeting (see paragraph 9 -11 of ORG 234) as membership of both Groups was not up for re-negotiation. The OAPSG were therefore advised to think of their meetings with Sir Don Curry as the means of influencing his and others’ thinking about the development of the sector and the contribution it could make in term of delivering SFFS priorities. It was also noted that the forthcoming meetings with Sir Don were particularly timely, given that all of the mechanisms in place to deliver the SFFS were currently being re-examined and redefined.
12. Under this item, the Chair also took the opportunity to appraise the OAPSG to the process of reorganisation currently underway across the Department under the “Renew Defra” initiative, to create a Department that is more effective and better able to deliver Ministers’ sustainability objectives. As part of this process, Defra was currently revisiting all its priorities and its internal structures. This would inevitably impact on how the Department engaged with stakeholders.
13. In response to question 7, the OAPSG concluded
that the list of priorities which emerged from its meetings on 6 July
and 12 October 2006 was still relevant and should form the basis of initial
high level strategic discussions with Sir Don Curry. Following suggestions
by members it was however agreed that the coverage of two of the proposed
scoping reports, covering the contribution that organic farming makes
in supplying public goods and on how the supply of organic goods from
UK production might be maintained, (and which were still, as yet unwritten),
should be broadened out as follows:
- Scoping report on the contribution that organic farming makes in supplying public goods what impact is Environmental Stewardship (and in particular OELS/OHLS) having on delivering increased environmental goods?; Do these schemes need to be modified/refined to deliver increased environmental benefit and if so how might they be improved?; what role can organic farming play in helping to deliver the Departments one planet living agenda and the SFFS, particularly in the areas of climate change mitigation, carbon sequestration, reducing methane gas emissions, controlling and safeguarding water resources etc; how might OELS and OHLS be modified to help mitigate against the effects of climate change and even greater environmental benefits?
- Scoping report on how the supply of organic goods from UK production might be maintained: what mechanisms and structures are needed to build on the growth in demand for organic produce?, how might the sector develop with regard to regionalised food and through its connection with tourism, how should the commercial viability and the role and structure of the market, especially with regard to multiple retailers be addressed?; what impact has OFS/OELS/OHLS and other measures under the ERDP had on growth and expansion of the organic supply chain and in supplying more UK organic products and how might OELS/OHLS and the other measures available in the forthcoming England ERDP be used to encourage an even greater growth/expansion of the supply chain/market?
14. The Group also agreed that both of these papers needed to be discussed as priorities at the 14 June 2007 strategic level meeting with Sir Don Curry.
15. It was also agreed that the scoping paper which had been written concerning the promotion of and the provision of information about organic food and farming, for various target groups, should be turned into a strategic paper and that a supplementary paper to it, reflecting the potential role that the Levy Boards and EU promotional funding could play in the consumer promotion of organic products, building the market for organic producers and informing consumers of the benefits of organic farming, should be prepared by that member, so that both of these issues could also be discussed at the 14 June meeting. It was noted that the Levy Boards obtain approx. 5% of their funding from organic farmers but at present carry out almost no promotion of the sector. This issue therefore needed to be addressed at a strategic level, possibly by addressing all of the Levy Boards as a group, through engagement with Sir Don Curry and other organisations such as the NFU and CLA.
16. In order to meet the 14 June deadline, the Secretariat encouraged paper authors to collaborate with other OAPSG members by email where ever possible. The Secretariat also offered to facilitate a number of informal meetings between authors and collaborators, at our London Offices where necessary, in order to help finalise these reports by 17 May 2007. Once the strategic reports had been finalised, it was agreed that the authors in conjunction with the Secretariat would prepare a short one page executive summary to accompany each report, setting out the OAPSG’s strategic advice to Sir Don and Defra (i.e. these reports were not Defra strategy documents but Action Plan Group reports) on the issue in hand and stating what the sector could contribute to delivering the SFFS priorities associated with each paper. It would then be for Sir Don and others to reflect on and take note of the OAPSG’s recommendations while championing the SFFS process across Government.
17. For the other scoping reports identified at the 12 October and 6 July meeting, the OAPSG agreed the following
i) that the Secretariat should re-circulate the scoping reports received so far (covering public procurement and the information needs of organic sector businesses) to OAPSG members, asking members to submit any further comments they might have on them generally, and in light of the agreed split between strategic policy issues and technical issues, direct to authors so the papers can be revised in light of the new working arrangements agreed for the Group;
ii) that the authors should revise these scoping papers in the light of OAPSG members comments and so that they focus on the strategic policy issues rather than detailed technical issues.
iii) that the report on contribution that organic farming could make to tackling social exclusion, health and the environment was still required and should be prepared so that it focuses on the strategic policy issues arising.
17. Finally the OAPSG also agreed that, at the first meeting with him in June, it would ask Sir Don Curry to provide a clear steer on what issues he would like to discuss with them at subsequent meetings so that reports could be prepared in good time.
18. Neither the eighth or ninth questions set out in ORG 236 were discussed by the OAPSG.
Agenda item 5: Any other business
UK Action Plan Forum 2007
19. The Chairman updated members on the arrangements that had been put in place for this year’s meeting of the UK Action Plan Forum, which will be held at Greenmount College, Antrim, Northern Ireland on 27th April 2007, (immediately after this year’s ACOS out of town meeting which will be held in Belfast on 25 – 26 April) and reminded members of the need to register their interest in attending this meeting with the Secretariat by 21 March at the latest.
20. Four English OAPSG members and two Defra policy officials have been invited to participate in this meeting. As with last year’s meeting, the final delegate list will be drawn up by the Chair, particularly where interest exceeds the number of places available. Members were also advised that they would have to organise their own travel and accommodation arrangements (i.e. they will have to book and pay for this themselves) but Defra would reimburse delegates’ travel and accommodation expenses after the meeting had taken place.
21. Members were also advised that the Secretariat has taken the decision not to send anyone from OAPSG Secretariat along to this meeting. Members asked the Secretariat to rethink this decision stressing the need for active participation across all of the Action Plan Groups and policy officials in order to build a stable and secure future for the organic sector in the UK. The Secretariat agreed to review this decision in light of members’ comments and advise DARDNI and members of their deliberations accordingly.
Public Information and consumer promotion campaign
22. One member raised concerns over the continued lack of a pan UK public information and consumer promotion campaign in the UK and questioned the composition of the working group that had been established, following last years UK Forum meeting, to investigate the feasibility of developing and submitting a draft programme to the Commission during 2006. It was suggested that the composition of the working group as presently comprised (it consists of government and potential promoter group representatives) was too narrow and needed to be reviewed in order to include a much wider range of organic interests/sector representatives.
Agenda item 6 – Date of next meeting
23. Thursday 14 June 2007. Time and venue to be announced nearer the time. Sir Don Curry will chair this meeting with Brian Harding.
Page last
modified: 19 June 2007
Page published: 19 June 2007