Over the last two decades, the Soil Association had managed to build itself a credible image as the gold standard for certifying organic food. By sticking to tight, rigorous standards, it had managed to distinguish itself from ‘Rent-A-Cert’ organisations less committed to deep green organic principles which operate a much less demanding, weaker set of organic standards. The Soil Association stood for integrity.

Recently, fearful of being left behind in the rush to get organic food on the shelf, the Soil Association seems to have lost its nerve and has made the mistake of relaxing some of its standards. The drift away from the Soil Association’s once core principles is exemplified by its decision to certify farmed fish as organic. All it has done here is to lend its name to a slightly less malign version of intensive aquaculture. This is the sort of muddled, compromised, pragmatic approach one expects from bodies like the RSPCA’s Freedom Foods, not the Soil Association.

Why is this ? Perhaps the Soil Association has become unhealthy flattered by its growing influence. It seems to measure this in terms of volumes of organic food sold and is pleased to see organic food being accepted into the mainstream. But the pursuit of mass distribution means getting into bed with the supermarkets. Their interest in organic lines is purely commercial. It makes them money and it greens their corporate image. They want organic food because it sells, but they want it on the cheap. Dealing with the traditional, high-minded organic grower with smallish quantities of product is a pain in the backside for them. So they put pressure on their conventional producers to diversify into organic lines. Then these opportunist producers, who share few or none of the organic movement’s founding values, simply shop around for the most dilute set of organic standards they can find. Make no mistake that when Tesco boss, Sir Terry Leahy says that the organic movement has got to become more ‘professional’, that is shorthand for dropping standards.

Worldwide, the industrialisation of organic food is speeding up. Organic food production is gradually being moved away from principled people who believed that organics was an all-round radical alternative to a globalized food system predicated on pesticides, environmental damage and animal suffering, to Johnny-Cum-Latelys who want to get in on the organic act.

This is why the Soil Association should stick to its cherished, fundamental principles. Consumers need the Soil Association to stand by its founding ideals and operate irreproachable, clear-cut standards that differentiate it from the organic stampede. If it doesn’t, it throws away all the goodwill and trust that it has so carefully nurtured in the organic brand. Already, that old Groundhog Day chorus, ‘Can we REALLY trust organic food?’, has started up again, a chorus that the Soil Association will now find harder to answer than ever before.