Organic Steering Group appoint new chairman
John Duggan also served as a member of both Bord Bia and the Irish Dairy Board and is currently a member of the ICOS Dairy Committee.
The establishment of the Organic Steering Group was recommended in the Report of the Organic Development Committee presented earlier this year.
It will act as a driving force for the development of the Organic Sector in Ireland and to oversee the implementation of the recommendations contained in the Report of the Organic Development Committee.
The Group is made up of representatives of most of the bodies which took part in the Organic Development Committee and reflects a wide range of stakeholders.
These include the organic farming groups, the Department of Agriculture and Food, the mainstream farming organisations, the food processing and retail sectors and a number of semi-state bodies, together with the Consumers’ Association and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.
Food Minister Noel Treacy presented his Department’s Action Plan in response to the Report of the Organic Development Committee to the steering group at its inaugural meeting.
He paid tribute to the Committee’s work in producing what he called “a substantial and very important report”. Commenting on the recent Teagasc survey of Farmer Reactions to EU Policy Proposals, Minister Treacy noted that two per cent of farmers said they were considering converting to organic farming.
“To the outsider that is a very small number. But as we know there are just one per cent of farmers in the organic sector as of now, so the Teagasc figure represents a trebling of that.
“It is interesting that the Organic Development Committee estimated that three per cent of land could be in organic production by 2006 - the Teagasc finding would suggest that was not too far off the mark,” he said.
