Organic Agriculture (Hansard, 3 July 1996)

§ Mr. Boswell

The generality of farm support, such as arable area payments, livestock premiums and environmental payments, is available to organic and conventional farmers on equal terms. It is not possible to determine how much of this support has been given specifically to organic producers.

	Slaughterings—week commencing
Abattoir	29 April	6 May	13 May	20 May	27 May	3 June	10 June	17 June
Anglo Dutch	¹—	¹—	494	375	322	375	529	682
H G Blake	¹—	¹—	0	0	100	100	101	103
Cheales Meats Ltd.	¹—	¹—	1,316	1,481	1,320	1,139	1,473	1,353
Carlisle Butchers	¹—	¹—	717	0	475	722	631	539
Cleveland Meat Co.	¹—	¹—	768	367	322	323	322	362
E J Duerden	¹—	¹—	0	768	207	131	99	101
Jewitt	¹—	¹—	0	213	91	209	213	211
Northern Counties	¹—	¹—	500	749	298	268	258	308
J Penny and Sons	¹—	¹—	0	202	203	241	221	224
Rose County Foods	¹—	¹—	0	336	331	309	548	546
Woodhead Bros.	¹—	¹—	665	1,154	633	818	465	805
Beesons (Bradley)	¹—	¹—	547	716	330	324	327	308
Ensors Abattoir Ltd.	¹—	¹—	94	100	100	100	102	100
T G Sargeant and Sons	¹—	¹—	0	0	107	53	149	105
F Redfern	¹—	¹—	0	200	169	214	222	290
G and G B Hewitt	¹—	¹—	0	0	0	181	187	182
Snelsons	¹—	¹—	369	242	100	106	105	107
H M Bennett	¹—	¹—	0	0	101	187	202	205
Bridgewater Beef	¹—	¹—	0	0	202	205	95	203
Cobdens	¹—	¹—	1,919	2,162	1,275	1,537	1,110	1,007
Whitley Bay	¹—	¹—	0	80	98	101	103	103
S J Norman and Sons	¹—	¹—	0	0	100	0	99	103
St. Merryn	¹—	¹—	1,786	1,595	872	0	1,072	1,100
Wholesale Meat Traders	¹—	¹—	0	0	100	0	95	95
Dawkins International	¹—	¹—	0	0	250	200	203	102
J and B Fitton	¹—	¹—	0	0	99	100	100	101

474W

The Ministry has introduced an organic aid scheme to give additional payments to farmers who convert to organic methods. To augment this, we have just launched a new organic conversion information service, providing free technical and other advice to would-be organic producers. We are also funding the UK register of organic food standards and a substantial programme of dedicated organic research. Total planned expenditure for these various activities in this financial year is £1.612 million.