12 July 2000

NOAH welcomes Advertising StandardsAuthority ruling on Soil Association

The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld fourout of five complaints made by the National Office of Animal Health about aSoil Association promotional leaflet on organic foods, 5 Reasons to EatOrganic.

The ASA rejected Soil Association claims aboutorganic farming, saying they had not provided evidence to back them up. The claims stated You can taste thedifference, Its healthy, Its better for the environment and Organicmeans healthy happy animals. The Authority has asked the Soil Association toremove the claims and not to use them again unless they can be substantiated.

Commenting on the decision, NOAH said: Making thiscomplaint was not intended as an attack on organic farming itself. We have no objection to any farmer choosingto farm in a particular way, laws and standards permitting, but we are mostconcerned that some proponents of organic farming tend to promote themselves byattacking the 97% of British farmers who farm conventionally.

It is often forgotten that conventional farmingmethods were developed as a way to solve the problems of earlier farminggenerations who farmed in ways that would now be termed organic, said NOAHsdirector Roger Cook.

The claims the ASA rejected have been at the coreof the promotion of organic farming for many years. They have undoubtedlyplayed a major part in the growing commercial success of organic produce.

The conclusion must be that public health andwelfare is paramount whether the produce is organically or conventionallyproduced, he added.

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Notes foreditors

1. Forfurther information contact Roger Cook on 020 8367 3131, or e-mail noah@noah.co.uk or visit the NOAHwebsite www.noah.co.uk.

2. TheNational Office of Animal Health was formed on 1 January 1986 to represent theUK companies that research, develop, manufacture and market licensed animalhealth products. The associationrepresents 34 corporate members and 12 associate members companies which in1999 accounted for around 95% of the 371 million UK animal health market.

3. Acopy of the 29 November 1999 NOAH letter of complaint to the ASA, withreferences, and the NOAH submission of 13 June 2000 on organic farming to theHouse of Commons Agriculture Committee is on the NOAH website www.noah.co.uk or isavailable on request. A copy of the ASAruling is attached.

4. NOAHssubmission to the House of Commons points out that special support for organicfarming from one part of MAFF is contrary to the concept of joined-upgovernment while this method continues denigrate, by statement andimplication, the work of other parts of MAFF which scientifically licence assafe, effective and of high quality animal medicines, crop protectionproducts and other farm inputs.

5. TheASA accepted the Soil Associations claim about organic food Its GMO free.