The Soil Association should consider abandoning the use of the term “organic” because it risks putting too many people off, Monty Don, the organic certifying body’s new president has said. Instead, the term “sustainable” should be used.
In his first newspaper interview since officially taking up the post, the former Gardeners World presenter has called for the association, the UK’s biggest organics organisation, to tackle the common perception that it is “for wealthy, middle class people indulging in their penchant for peasant food”.
“Organic is loaded with a sense of rightness, with a set of rules. We’ve got to move away from making people feel lesser because they’re not [eating] organic,” he said. “There is no doubt about it that sustainable is a better expression for the same sorts of ideas than organic.”
Don, who has spent the summer recuperating at his home in Herefordshire from a minor stroke, is keen to see the association move beyond its current role as a certifying body for organic food by expanding its campaigning duties and helping the UK’s 11 million gardeners to grow more of their own food. Don believes the association risks being hindered in this task if it cannot shed its public perception of catering for the wealthy few. Yesterday, the Guardian reported that sales of organic food have fallen by a fifth since February, as the economy stutters.
[Source: The Guardian]
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