Merely 3.5 per cent of the food sold in Belgium is organic according to figures from the Flemish Centre for Agro and Fisheries Marking, the VLAM, released to mark ‘Bioweek’ or ‘Organic Week’. Vegetables, fruit, meat and fish are particularly popular. You can recognise organic food by the organic label on the packaging. To use that label, producers have to comply with a lot of rules and that puts up the price.
Organic food is food produced without chemical or synthetic fertilisers or pesticides. However, there is such a thing as ‘biopesticides’ based on natural substances. These pesticides are allowed in organic farming.
Organic farms also pay extra attention to animal welfare. For instance, organic eggs not only come from free-range hens, but the animals are also fed organic feed and get more space or sunlight than other hens. No genetically modified organisms may be used either.
VLAM is organising the ‘Bioweek’ (Organic Week) from 1 to 9 June, to raise consumer awareness of organic food and highlight the benefits.
What do the organic labels mean?
In shops, you can recognise organic products by the organic label on the packaging. The most well-known is the European organic label, with a white leaf (made up of stars) on a light green background. ‘There is a legal regulation attached to these labels,’ explains Professor Liesbet Vranken, professor of agricultural economy at Leuven University. ‘An official body checks whether the products meet all the conditions. The terms ‘bio’ or ‘organic’ are protected by law.’
You have 'pure' products like vegetables, fruit, dairy and eggs, but there are also a lot of processed products with an organic label. Just think of wine, beer, bread or meat substitutes. It is simple for the first category of ‘pure’ products: an apple or a leek is organic or it is not. For processed products, the situation is slightly different. The European organic label may be used for products consisting of at least 95% organic ingredients.
Why are organic products often so much more expensive?
Professor Vranken sees a number of reasons why organic food is usually more expensive than regular food. "First of all, for a farmer the yield per hectare is smaller because you lose a larger part of your harvest. It also requires more labour because you can only use a few products for weed or pest control. Pests sometimes have to be removed manually, and that costs time and money."
But there are also other additional costs. "Take the chocolate or coffee industries. In the factory organically grown cocoa or coffee beans should never come into contact with regular beans. To separate these flows, companies have to invest in infrastructure. Manufacturers pass these costs on to their customers."
Almost 98 per cent of all Belgians buy organic products from time to time. A fifth of buyers account for 81 per cent of total organic sales in Belgium. In Brussels and Wallonia, organic is more popular than in Flanders, but that gap is narrowing year by year, says the VLAM. Consumers mainly get their organic food from conventional supermarkets. In addition, specialised shops such as bakeries and butchers are also an important sales channel.
Is organic food healthier?
According to Professor Vranken, there are no reasons to believe that organic products are healthier than similar foods that are not grown organically.
"Organic food is not automatically healthier because it does not use chemicals or synthetic substances. There is not necessarily any scientific evidence for that. The food industry has strict rules and safety margins anyway, to avoid overuse of pesticides, for example. Health risks are closely monitored throughout the agricultural sector."
Should everyone eat organic in the interest of the environment?
"Organic farming certainly has its place, but it is not desirable for everyone to eat organic," Professor Vranken argues. "At the moment, the yield per hectare on farmland is lower than in traditional agriculture. So we would need more farmland, but there is hardly any unused land in Belgium. If you want to produce more, you will have to give up some nature areas, by, for example, cutting down forests, and we would rather not do that."
Professor Vranken sees other ways - besides organic – to make agriculture more sustainable. "Just because you don't have an organic label, doesn't mean it is not sustainable agriculture. Using precision agriculture, for example, you can start applying fertiliser or pesticides in a very targeted and dosed way. That way you avoid overuse.’