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October 25th 2001 |
Ritt Bjerregaard
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Danish food
minister launches organic farming site
Most readers of this site will know that
Denmark has a minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries who votes and works for organic
farming and food production. At last year's conference
in Copenhagen Ritt
Bjerregaard led the most of Europe towards a common action plan for just that. Now she
and her ministry is pushing the process further ahead with a new site: Organic Farming. The site
contains a lot of information about Danish as well as European related subjects. |
September 20th
2001 |
Roundup in Danish ground water
A new investigation made by leading
biologists of Denmark shows that the world's most prevailing pesticide Roundup seeps into
ground water, also when rules have been followed strictly - in spite of producer Monsantos guarantee that this cannot happen. The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland,
the Danish Institute of Agricultural
Sciences and the National Environmental
Research Institute of Denmark release the new results - as part of The
Danish Pesticide Leaching Assessment Programme - shortly after the Danish Environmental Protection Agency has given a
new ten year long permission to market Roundup. The new proves will be taken into account
around New Year at a revaluation that may withdraw the permission. Monsanto takes the
Danish investigation seriously, but states that the discovery of the pesticide in ground
water is probably due to this year's heavy rain fall after a dry summer. This seems like
an acknowledgement that Roundup actually can be washed out under certain and not very
unusual climatic conditions. At
"The Eighth Symposium on the Chemistry and Fate of Modern Pesticides" in August,
the Danish Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Ritt Bjerregaard
made a speech,
saying among other things, that Denmark is "not willing to accept pesticides unless
its possible scientifically to guarantee that they are harmless to human health,
nature and environment." |
September 5th
2001 |
New fully organic feedstuff plant in Denmark
In answer to the recent problems of keeping organic fodder free of
genetically modified organisms (GMO), two Danish feedstuff companies yesterday agreed to
establish a common fully organic feedstuff company: Dansk Øko Foder
A/S (Danish Organic Fodder Inc.) From the 1st of October Dansk Øko Foder will deal with
all organic fodder production for Dansk Landbrugs
Grovvareselskab and Carl Rasmussen & Hempler A/S - who together supply about 60
percent of Denmark's total organic fodder today. The aim is to secure that Danish
organic fodder will stay organic.- If we didn't do this, we would have
to leave organic production, says Peter Rasmussen, manager in Carl Rasmussen & Hempler
to EcoWeb Denmark. The two companies already cooperate about certain purchases and
production. For the new joint company each of the two will contribute with one fodder
plant - one for production of poultry fodder, the other for production of cattle fodder.
The two types of fodder must be separated, since fishmeal cannot be produced in the same
place as fodder for cattle, because of the risk of BSE. The new organic feedstuff plant is
a result of the experience that also conventional and organic fodder must be separated
because of the risk of GMO. |
August 27th 2001 |
Knud Erik Sørensen
chairman of LØJ
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Suggestion
of imposing "nature duty" on organic farmers
The chairman of The Danish Association for
Organic Farming (LØJ), Knud Erik Sørensen, suggests that organic farmers should give
nature minimum five percent of their land as a condition to get economical support. The
association also wants to introduce a duty of making "nature plans". The
initiative comes in connection with a just released governmental report from the Danish Forest and Nature Agency: "A rich
nature in a rich society". The report lines out a plan for the future of Danish
nature, including the establishment of six big national parks and 100.000 hectares
of new meadows, besides 300 meter broad buffer zones around vulnerable nature. A good deal of the responsibility that several hundreds of animal and plant
species are now getting close to extermination in Denmark is placed with farming, but the
report also gives credit to organic farming for its contribution to biological diversity,
though much more can be done.
LØJ's initiative is
met with criticism from the organic branch of The Danish
Farmers' Union who says that it lacks support from the organic hinterland and
therefore is likely to cause disunion among organic farmers as a whole. |
August 14th 2001 |
Denmark detects GMO in imported organic fodder
The Danish Plant Directorate has in
a recent spot test detected genetically modified organisms (GMO) in organic fodder by
eight feedstuff dealer companies. 42 percent of the samples contained GMO to some degree,
and only half of the companies were totally free of GMO in their organic products. Eight
of 48 samples proved more than one percent of GMO contents in certain ingredients of the
fodder. Another spot test in March earlier this year indicated no problems with GMO in
organic fodder. The Danish Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Ritt Bjerregaard, regret this development in a short time, and predicts that the police will
be informed about the illegalities. Some of the companies have stopped making contracts
about organic fodder because of these problems, but sent at the same time a letter to the Ministry with a request to set a limit of trifles for GMO
contents also in organic fodder. The feedstuff dealers agree that the limit must be lower
than that of one percent which releases a demand of GMO labelling for conventional
products - but also claim that without a "trifle limit" of more than 0,1 percent
it will be impossible to import fodder from abroad.
- We can't get a guarantee from any
supplier of less than 0,1 percent GMO contents. And when genetically modified wheat will
be imported to Denmark, not even a fully organic feedstuff plant can be kept pure. The
wind will bring the dust from the fields to the plant, says Søren Nilausen from DLG Økologi. |
July 24th 2001 |
Bart Jan Krouwel
Triodos Bank
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Dutch bank
buys fifth of Danish organic company
The Dutch Triodos Bank has bought shares equivalent to a fifth
part of Aarstiderne ("The Seasons"),
the most successful subscription sales company in Denmark, now delivering about 15.000
boxes of organic products every week to customers spread over the country. Including a
considerable loan, Aarstiderne will thus have an extra 20 million DKK for developing the
company in the next couple of years.
The founder of
Triodos Bank, Bart Jan Krouwel, regretted in his presentation at the Danish foodminister Ritt Bjerregaards Copenhagen conference in May the lack
of European harmonization for investments in organic farming - which constitutes 15
percent of Triodos' own bank activity. Triodos aims solely at sustainable projects. |
July 13th 2001 |
Danish organic stand in New York
11 Danish companies in cooperation set up
the only fully organic stand at the big food fair Fancy Food in New York at the
beginning of this week. Two organic dairies Naturmælk and ØkoMælk impressed American importers with
their cheese, Urtekram especially with its vegetarian
patés, Futura Foods selling dairy products
believes now in a soon contract with the big american organic food chain Whole Foods, and also the other participants
Tholstrup Cheese, Naturfrisk, Dragsbæk
Margarinefabrik, Cerealia Danmark, Svansø, Friland Food and - represented by Futura Foods - Søvind
and Thise made good contacts at the fair. |
July 9th 2001 |
Boom in sales of Danish organic pork
The sale of Danish organic pork has boomed
in the first half year of 2001. The organic abattoir Hanegal has sold 44 percent extra and Friland Food more than doubled its sales in the past six
months. Friland Food benefits from export channels, well established by its mother company
Danish Crown, and this
spring there has been a strong demand for organic pork especially from Germany, as a
consequence of the foot&mouth disease. Hanegal is accelerating on the home market,
thanks to a special team of organic sales promoters making direct contact to consumers in
supermarkets. |
June 25th 2001 |
Denmark hit by a new case of grain fraud
Now the fraud case of non-organic grain
from Euro Bio Korn
has been officially ended, another one of German origin hits Denmark. The company is
Gothaer Gartenbauzentrum from Türingen in Eastgermany. German control authorities have
notified the Danish Task Force on
Animal Feeding, as well as the Danish Veterinary
Administration, since also bread grain is included in the maybe 5.000 tons that has
been exported to Denmark, who seems to be the main victim of the fraud. Gothaer
Gartenbauzentrum - a company mixed with agriculture - lost its organic authorization when
the fraud was detected about half a year ago. All Danish wholesalers have been informed,
but the consequences for them are not known until it will be clear which export parties
were not organic. |
June 22nd 2001 |
Chicken farmers will get points for animal welfare
The Task Force on
Animal Feeding and Danish experts in animal welfare will late summer release a system
of giving points for the quality of life for organic chicken. The Animal Ethical Council published in the beginning
of this week a report, showing that the mortality of organic chicken in Denmark is
three-four times higher than that of conventional chicken. On that basis the council
proposed for example to cage the chicken to prevent them from pecking eachother. The trade organization
of organic chicken farmers (Brancheforeningen for Økologiske Æg- og Fjerkræproducenter)
refuses such ideas completely, emphasizing that organic chicken welfare is a matter of
taking right precautions and also choosing the breeds best capable of a natural life. On
the other hand the trade organization warmly welcomes a quality control system, ensuring
that farmers will be fined or eventually even deprived of their authorization, if they
don't show will to change, after having problems in their poultry keeping pointed out.
Otherwise such farmers will damage the image of the whole branch. |
June 21st 2001 |
Black out Bush with Organic.dk
By way of chain emails The Green House Network proposes that the world
tonight makes a stand and protest against US president George Bush for his rejection of the Kyoto
agreement. With everybody turning off the light between 7 and 10 pm, a voluntary blackout
will roll across the planet - and hopefully reach the
White House, as well. But the American based network has probably not taken into
account that the North of Europe is located as Northern as Alaska, and that the sun on
this the longest day of the year therefore is still high up in the sky during the
happening. So it will be difficult for us Northerners to black out the Earth.But wanting to back up the
good cause, the "scientific department" of Organic.dk has developed a
technical solution of the activist problem. Danes and other North Europeans who wish to
support the blackout action can push
here at 7 pm. |
June 19th 2001 |
Sales drive for Danish organic food in Sweden, USA - and at home
Based on a promising report about the
outlet at the Swedish market, The Centre for
Organic Agriculture in Denmark and The
Agricultural Council of Denmark last week put Danish organic producers in contact with
Swedish retailers. Among other things the companies were cleared about their stand in
relation to KRAV certification - which
the most interesting Swedish partners demand. The same two organizers also cooperate about
a sales drive for Danish organic food products at the Fancy Food fair in New York July
8-10th.There hasn't been much
marketing for organic products at the Danish home market through the past many years of
steady growth, but recently the sales in the retail trade seem to have stagnated.
Therefore organic meat and milk producers will campaign through the Autumn to increase
sales in selected supermarkets, such as Kvickly and Superbrugsen
from Coop
Denmark FDB, ISO and Irma.
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June 6th 2001 |
Nonfood and pet food included in organic rules
Next Christmas will be the
first time that Christmas trees can legally be marked with the red organic logo of
Denmark. And already now the pets of the family can have their titbits certified organic,
bearing the same logo. The Task
Force on Animal Feeding under the Ministry of Food,
Agriculture and Fisheries has with a new order made it possible to use the popular
logo on nonfood products, produced according to the organic rules. At the same time The Danish Veterinary and
Food Administration has included dog and cat food in the rules for organic food - so
that it can be marked by the red logo. |
June 1st 2001 |
The Danish organic logo
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Danish organic
rules may shift to private hands
The responsibility of working out and
administering the Danish organic rules may shift from the hands of the state to a private
agency in Denmark. Advantages and disadvantages are now being examinated by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries. The aim with
such a shift is mainly to make it possible to have the Danish organic control system
accredited by IFOAM to ease the export of Danish
organic products to the expanding markets of not least Great Britain, Sweden, Germany and
Holland. |
May 30th 2001 |
Ritt Bjerregaard has
lost patience with EU
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Pesticides not
allowed across the Danish border
The Danish Foodminister Ritt Bjerregaard now puts a ban on import
of fruit and vegetables with residues of pesticides not approved in Denmark, since The European Commission will
evidently not attain its objective of evaluating the 850 pesticides on market before 2003.
- We need some clear rules. EU is
making slow progress, so it is only reasonable that we ourselves secure that imported
products don't contain things we do not want or know about, says Ritt Bjerregaard today. The Danish Veterinary and Food
Administration made a report
in 1999 showing that two thirds of the imported fruit and one fifth of the imported
vegetables contained residues of pesticides. Ritt Bjerregaards present initiative is
received positively by all parts in Denmark. |
May 14th 2001 |
From left: The agricultural ministers
Renate Künast (Germany),
Ritt Bjerregaard (Denmark) and Margareta Winberg (Sweden)
at the presentation of the Copenhagen Declaration
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First
step to a European Action Plan
The Copenhagen Declaration has just
been made as an important step towards the foundation of an Action Plan for the
development of organic food and farming in all of Europe. It was signed Friday 12th of May
by representatives of 12 European governments at the European Conference - Organic
Food and Farming. The promoter of the declaration, the Danish Minister of Food,
Agriculture and Fisheries, Ritt Bjerregaard,
is first and foremost supported by her two strong "sisters" in European
agriculture: German minister of agriculture Renate Künast, representing the biggest
country in Europe, and Swedish minister of agriculture Margareta Winberg, representing the
present chairmanship of EU. Winberg stated that she will put the topic of the Action Plan
at the table of the next EU Council
meeting in Göteborg in June, and Bjerregaard urged Künast to make Germany the host of a
follow up conference in the near future. Ritt Bjerregaard's opening speech is published -
as well as others - on the official webpage. |
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May 7th 2001 |
Fully organic
milk ready for Thursday
As mentioned March
20th two Danish dairies have
decided to make their organic milk from cows fed with 100 percent organic fodder. Now
they compete to be first to make the change. ØkoMælk
started out with the 1st of June, and recently Arla
Foods set the same date in stead of - as first decided - 1st of October. Then today
ØkoMælk has sent out a press
release to inform that already Thursday this week the small pioneer dairy will be
ready with the new "100 percent" organic milk. As member of the Danish Organic
Trade Association Ø-gruppen,
ØkoMælk sponsors milk products at the European Conference, Organic Food and Farming,
starting the same day. As proof of Denmarks leading position within organic foods
ØkoMælk will attend as the first dairy to produce milk from cattle fed 100% organically.
|
May 3rd 2001 |
New low fat organic milk boosts Danish market
Since two kinds of new
lowfat milk was introduced in February - first by the small all organic Thise Dairy, then by the giant dairy Arla Foods in an homogenized version - it has become
the most popular kind of milk on the Danish market. The Minimælk
from Arla is now the bestselling milk of the company and represents 29 percent of their
sales of organic fresh milk. Thise's Jersey-milk sells so well that the dairy cannot
fulfill the demand - and looks forward to getting more producers in autumn. Thise sells
more than ever in general, and especially the lowfat products, included cheese, are
popular with the customers. |
May 1st 2001 |
Danish patent for testing organic products
The Danish scientist Vagn
Gundersen from Risø National Laboratory is trying to
take out a patent for a method to prove whether something has been grown organically or
not. The method investigates the content of elements in the products. By investigating the
content of 60 different elements in onions, Risø scientists found big differences in the
amount, depending on how the onions - all of the same sort - were grown. Mr. Gundersen
explains in a press
release that he built his work hypothesis on the fact that there is a big difference
in the microbiological activity in organically and conventionally grown soil - and that it
would be strange if it did not have an effect on the products. He believes that it will be
possible in a couple of years to prove whether an egg comes from a cage chicken or from
organic production. |
April 17th 2001 |
European ministers swarm to conference in Denmark
The program of the big European
Conference "Organic Food and Farming" in Copenhagen 10th-11th of May (mentioned February 21st) is now available on a new website.
The list of speakers, only, indicate that quite a few European politicians have accepted
the invitation of the Danish minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Ritt Bjerregaard, to come. Four agriculture
ministers - from Sweden, Austria, Germany and Norway - will speak, as well as the Danish
prime minister Poul Nyrup
Rasmussen. Other speakers are: IFOAM president
Gunnar Rundgren, IFOAM executive director Bernward Geier, and Soil Association president Jonathan Dimbleby. |
March 20th 2001 |
Danish dairies plan for 100 percent organic feeding
The organic Danish dairy ØkoMælk decided a few days ago that all
its milk suppliers in two and a half months will feed their cows with only organic fodder.
The relatively small dairy would have started full organic feeding already two years ago,
had it not been for the pressure from other organic milk producers in Denmark not to do so
exclusively. Now the pressure is on the rest of the trade to follow ØkoMælks initative. Arla
Foods - the world's largest supplier of organic dairy products - promises now its 630
organic suppliers an extra payment of ten øre - one penny - per kilo milk for the coming
year, provided they agree to feed their livestock 100 percent organic fodder from October
2001.- This is what we want as
organic farmers, and this is what consumers expect from us, so there's no reason to wait
for EU, says Carsten Sørensen, chairman of the Danish association of organic and
biodynamic milk producers. EU allows one tenth of non-organic fodder in organic milk
production until August 2005. |
February 27th 2001 |
Danish organic food exhibition in Berlin
The extensive agricultural reforms on the way in Germany are likely to benefit organic
production beyond national borders - not least to the neighbouring Denmark. Danish organic
food producers will therefore exhibit their goods at the Royal Danish Embassy in Berlin
Wednesday 21st of March 2001. The special exhibition will be organized in cooperation with
the Danish Organic Trade Association who is now
inviting potential German interested parties. |
February 22nd 2001 |
More research about quality of organic food
needed
The Research Department of Human
Nutrition - of the Royal Veterinary and
Agricultural University of Denmark - will tomorrow publish an extensive report about "Organic
food and human health". The report's conclusions summarizes that though no
scientific examination proofs a difference of health quality between organic and
conventional food, there are many things we don't know. Therefore the report recommends
new research on different areas.Among
other subjects the report mentions scientific indications that organic food benefits the
ability of having healthy babies, that by virtue of less additives organic food probably
contributes to a lower degree of food intolerance, and that the very special visual
investigation method indicates a real and systematic quality difference between
conventional and organic/biodynamic vegetable food. The research team is more rejective
about variable contents of C-vitamin, protein and dry matter being uniquely in favour of
organic food. A quite interesting point is a comment of the report that large-scale
organic food consumers in general eat less animal and more vegetable food - which is
definitely more healthy!
The report can be obtained at The Danish Research Center for Organic
Farming by sending an order to foejo@agrsci.dk -
but for the time being only in Danish. |
February 21st 2001 |
Invitation for the EU organic conference in
Copenhagen
The first announcement for the European
Conference "Organic Food and Farming" is now available on the website of the
Danish Ministry
of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries. The conference will take place in Copenhagen 10-11 May 2001 - two years after the
predecessor in Vienna
(see November 27th) - and applies to the organic farming community, businesses involved in processing, trade and
certification of organic food products, as well as to environmental and consumer
organisations, research institutes, governments and the European Union. It will be in
English, whereas simultaneous translation in German and French will be provided during
plenary sessions. The ultimative objective of the conference - with the subtitle
"Towards Partnership and Action in Europe" - is to launch the process towards an
Action Plan for the development of organic food and farming in Europe. The overall management of the conference lies in
the hands of the Danish Directorate for
Food, Fisheries and Agro Business which recommends all interested to make a
preliminary registration to DIS Congress Service
already now, since participation is limited to approximately 350 persons. The final
registration forms will be sent out in March with a detailed programme. |
February 8th 2001 |
Danish companies exhibiting at BIO FACH
Six Danish companies
exhibit their organic food products at BIO FACH
15th-18th of February in Nuremberg:
Cofradex, Naturmælk,
Rømer Natur Produkt, Svane Trading,
Urtekram and Økomælk. With 1.457 exhibitors from 56
countries and 17.841 customers, BIO FACH last year emphasized its position as the world's
biggest market for organic food products. BIO FACH was established by ÖkoWelt GmbH, they have now sold it to the Nuremberg Trade Fair who for the
first time arrange it by themselves. The Danish BIO FACH agent Dan Trading thinks that
this transaction may have caused some organisational problems which could be the reason
that the number of Danish exhibitors has fallen from ten
last year. |
February 6th 2001 |
Stricter Danish rules for cattle breeding
The Danish
Organisation for Organic Farming has decided to tighten up the rules for cattle
breeding: Meat from cattle that in spite of later conversion to organic breeding has
started life in a conventional herd, can from the 15th of March this year no longer be
sold with the Danish red logo for organic food products. The decision comes as a
consequence of the European BSE-crisis. The ban will include all Danish dairy cattle,
since the Danish Dairy Board will follow the
same rules. Among 180.000 British BSE-stricken cows some have been organically bred,
though all conventionally born. There are no known cases of cows born in an organic herd
being stricken with BSE - the mad cow disease. |
January 5th 2001 |
Fewer new organic farmers in Denmark this year
276 Danish farmers sent an
application to the Plant Directorate for
authorization and subsidies for organic agriculture for 2001, before the deadline at the
turn of the year. That is almost a halfing of last year, when 513 applied for it.
Still it's an eight percent's increase compared to the 3471 already authorized farms, and
means that additional approximately 4.000 - 6.000 Danish acres will be cultivated without
pesticides. The precise size of the new organic farms is not yet informed. |
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