Home »  Browse News Briefs »  Organic farmers face ruin as rich nations agonise over food miles

As she proudly surveys a plantation of avocado trees and bananas, surrounded by pools of fresh cow manure, Jane Kimani cuts an unlikely figure as an ecological villain.

Like other farmers in this village, about 15 miles (25km) outside Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, she lives in a modest dwelling of brick walls and a corrugated-iron roof only yards from cow sheds, a new apiary and vegetable plots. She does not own a car and uses little electricity.

She farms organically without knowing it, simply because, like many people in a country where two thirds of the population live on less than 50p a day, she could not afford fertilisers and chemical sprays. Her carbon footprint is insignificant.

Yet Mrs Kimani and her husband, Charles, face economic ruin because of the alleged environmental impact of their modest farm. The Soil Association, which certifies about 80 per cent of organic produce in the United Kingdom, has threatened to take away the organic certification from farms in East Africa because their produce is transported to Europe by air, contributing to global warming.

The Kimanis moved into organic farming formally only four years ago. They joined 32 other farmers, each with just over an acre (half a hectare) of land, to form the Wangige Organic Farmers’ Group. They learnt new techniques and eradicated the few nonorganic practices they had.

Their products received the Soil Association’s treasured “Organic” stamp and they began exporting cauliflowers, avocados, tomatoes and cucumbers, mainly to Britain and Saudi Arabia. Prices were higher than in conventional farming, and life improved suddenly for all — a near-perfect example of the “trade, not aid” policies so often touted to end Africa’s poverty.

“It was difficult at first as there are so many things you cannot do and we had to have training,” Mrs Kimani said. “But since then, life has improved for us . . . Prices are better than for conventional farming.”

Now the farmers — it is estimated that there are 150,000 people dependent on organic farming in Kenya for their livelihoods — fear that they could be the victims of the latest Western obsession: food miles. If the Soil Association, which is debating the issue, recommends a partial or total ban on air-freighted organic exports, the industry will most likely collapse.

“If organic farming fails, it will cause many problems here. Local buyers will know we have nowhere else to sell and give us very bad prices again. We will have to abandon much of this,” Elijah Koinange, the secretary of the Organic Farmers’ Group, said. “They say our products are polluted but the consumers take jets and create much more pollution than we do.”

“You know, we only ever stopped organic farming because of chemicals and other fertilisers which came from your countries, and you told us they were good,” he added.

Kenyan producers emphasise that carbon emissions for all air-freighted food to Britain represent about 1 per cent of total emissions, and organic food a tiny percentage of that. They point out that, according to World Bank figures, a Briton emits an average 9.4 tonnes of CO2 compared with an African’s 0.3 tonnes.

They suspect that the real motive is an attempt by much-wealthier British producers, well represented within the Soil Association, to block cheaper goods. “The Soil Association proposal is just another non-tariff barrier to trade among the many that already exist,” said Eustace Kiari, of the Kenya Organic Agriculture Network, a grouping of small-scale organic farmers.

Announcing the association’s review of the impact of air freight, Anna Bradley, chairman of its standards board, said: “When reducing our impact on the world’s climate, we must carefully consider the social and economic benefits of air freight for international development and growth of the organic market as a whole.”

Critics say that the debate risks turning consumers off imported products from the developing world and fails to take into account the emissions created by European farmers who would fill the market gap.

“UK farmers use tractors, heat up greenhouses, drive to work in cars or on motorbikes . . . All these things need to be considered in the debate over carbon emissions associated with food production, organic and non-organic,” said Isaiah Esipisu, a campaigning Kenyan journalist, who has written extensively on the issue.

Calculations show that it takes 4kg of carbon emissions to fly 1kg of green beans or cucumbers from Nairobi to London. “This figure is utterly irrele-vant when you work out how much carbon Britons use going to the supermarket in their cars or driving to a friend’s house or restaurant for dinner,” he added.

Su Kahumbu, 43, who pioneered the organic-food industry in Kenya, fears that a collapse in the export market could kill off the domestic market as producers move back to conventional farming. She says that it flies in the face of Gordon Brown’s renewed pledge to eliminate poverty in Africa. “It could signal a return to aid when we have fought to set up this business and want simply the right to trade,” she said.

Outlets such as Tesco, where the bulk of East Africa’s output goes, say that they are more interested in “fair miles” not “air miles”, but they would then find it much more difficult to sell the produce if the organic label were withdrawn. “We recognise we have a responsibility to farms in developing countries,” Trevor Datson, a Tesco spokesman, said. “While we are trying to limit the amount of air miles in food sales, we will also be protecting farmers in Africa.”

Food and fuel

£1.6 billion value of retail sales of organic products in Britain in 2005, up 30 per cent on 2004

10.5% the increase in the area of land under organic cultivation — up from 7,711 hectares in 2005 to 8,522 hectares in 2006

50% of organic produce sold in Britain is imported

140% increase in the carbon footprint of air freighted food to Britain since 1992

9.4 tonnes is average amount of CO2 emitted by each Briton a year — 30 times more than the average Kenyan

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