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BRUSSELS - The organic revolution is sweeping across Europe, and the area of land dedicated to environmentally-friendly, pesticide-free food production has more than doubled over 10 years.
Organic farming now accounts for more than 4 per cent of agricultural land in the EU, more than double its 1998
share, says the statistics agency Eurostat.
And the amount of organic land is likely to increase, as the consumer appetite shows no sign of slowing.
"Organic almost certainly will continue to grow and we think it's a good thing," said EU agriculture spokesman Michael Mann.
For many farmers, organic foods are becoming a way of boosting incomes hit by cheap produce imported from countries such as Brazil.
"Farmers are coming under growing pressure from low-cost producers abroad," Mann said. "They have to be smart and think of increasing profit margins and organic is one way of doing that."
Agriculture ministers from the 27 EU nations agreed this week on a compulsory logo, to be introduced from 2009, to reassure consumers that they are getting the genuine article.
The logo guarantees that at least 95 per cent of ingredients are free of chemicals. Imports will be subject to the same rule.
But it also permits up to 0.9 per cent of content from genetically-modified organisms, a level that has angered green campaigners.
"It is a total cop-out by the European Union," said Greenpeace spokesman Ben Ayliffe.
"Setting a level of 0.9 per cent could result in the creeping GM contamination of organic food. It should be 0.1 per cent."
In recent years, Europeans have been willing to pay more for organic produce, reflecting an aversion to chemicals and a growing preference for natural farming techniques over the high-intensity production that has been blamed for crises such as BSE and foot-and-mouth disease.
Recognising this fact, Brussels will now provide higher subsidies for organic farming than those given to conventionally-grown fruit and vegetables.
Britain has been a leader in organic farming. In 2005, more than 600,000ha of its farmland were cultivated organically, putting it ahead of France, a country more than twice its size. Yet only 3.8 per cent of British farmland was devoted to organic production, compared with 11 per cent in Austria, which has a reputation as a strong opponent of intensive and biotech farming.
- INDEPENDENT