1st August - Organic food; The Penicillin Story; Johnnie Walker

<<< Back

You must have heard about the recent report into organic food. This was funded by the FSA (Food Standards Agency) and has really raised some hackles. The conclusion which was a review of the scientific evidence was that organic food does not offer any nutritional advantage over “conventional” food.
As it happens, Burns has one organic food in our range but I have never claimed that it offers superior nutritional or health benefits to our other foods, only that it offers environmental benefits. The arguments seem to be as much about the politics of food. I am broadly in favour of organic but I do have reservations.
My original intention was that our farm would be organic. Now I am not so sure. If we were, I would not be able to let Dafydd, our son-in-law winter his sheep on our land as they are not certified organic. Yet they live on the mountains which is as natural as you can get. We would not be able to bring in dung from outside if it was not certified organic. It seems ridiculous to me that dung is not organic. In short, being organic is very much about what you cannot do.
On the other hand, I know of certified organic egg-producing farms which are a long way from what I imagine the consumer expects. Large numbers of chicken kept in huge, artificially lit sheds where the vast majority of the birds never go outside. Very little grazing if they do. Yet the consumer is paying a hefty price premium for the eggs.
I know of an “organic” pet food which appears to have less than 50% organic ingredients when you take into account the water in the “organic” ingredients versus the dried non-organic ingredients.
If you want a balanced account of food and farming I can recommend “So Shall We Reap” by Colin Tudge (Penguin). Some of it is a bit waffly but still an interesting read.

Did you see this week’s BBC4 film about the story of penicillin?
As you may know, I come from Darvel and worked on the farm next door to where Sir Alexander Fleming was born.
The theme of the film was that the credit for penicillin should have gone to Florey and Chain who developed the antibiotic from the mould rather than Fleming who only made the discovery. Fleming was portrayed as an introverted buffer who got lucky. The record is that Fleming was modest about his contribution but all three got the Nobel Prize.
The programme mentioned lysozymes which are anti-bacterial enzymes in saliva, tears and egg-white but didn’t say that Fleming discovered them too. As Bobby McBride, a Darvel resident once said to me, that alone could have got Fleming the Nobel Prize.

Still in Scotland, the New Statesman reported a march in Kilmarnock which was protesting against the planned closure of the Johnnie Walker whisky factory. . Marlene from our Scottish office and her husband Ian were in the throng of 20,000 people in a town of 50,000. I doubt if the owners Diageo will respond to such feeling but I have a better idea. If Marlene threatens to boycott Johnnie Walker they’ll realise it could be ruinous and they’ll think again!

That’s it. I’m off for a wee holiday.

info@burnspet.co.uk