Farmer insists health benefits of organic food production are clear

UK Times Online
Valerie Elliott
Thursday, July 30, 2009

Rob Wallrond, who runs Glebe Farm, a 40-hectare (100-acre) estate in Pitney, near Taunton, Somerset, switched to organic farming eight years ago.

He keeps Saddleworth pigs, Dorset sheep, Black Rock hens and Angus and Hereford-cross cattle, and grows 80 different vegetables, all to organic standards. While he never expected to be creating “a superfood” he is convinced there are benefits for anyone eating organic meat, milk and eggs.

“There are obvious health benefits to our diets if livestock are fed on grass and forage. There are higher levels of omega-3 and beneficial fatty acids in milk, meat and eggs. We don’t use pesticides but I am convinced their use could be storing up trouble for the future. I don’t think we as a society really yet know the long-term effects of pesticide residues.”

Despite his belief in the nutritional benefits of the food he produces, he was not angry about the findings from the Food Standards Agency as the watchdog has never endorsed the health benefits of organic over conventional food. His main worry was that some people might be put off eating organic food.

“I think the timing is insensitive when we have got this recession and it is hard for us to maintain our premiums. But on the plus side for us, people who buy organic don’t just do it for nutritional content. They buy it because of the care in which the food is produced, the stricter welfare rules, the environment and wildlife.

“We’ve noticed an increase in farmland birds here such as skylarks. We have more birds of prey, lots of voles and butterflies and we are even getting orchids on our grassland because we don’t use fertiliser and graze fewer animals. I wish more people did take an interest in food production and what they put in their bodies and maybe we would sell even more, but sadly we are a fast, cheap-food nation. I’m not sure what the FSA says will make a difference.”