Ethics Newsline®

LONDON
The agency that awards the Britain’s coveted “organic” status to food says it will strip that label from products flown into the United Kingdom unless producers meet stricter ethical standards.

The BBC and ITN report that the Soil Association, which certifies most of the $3.8 billion organic food sector, says importing firms must show that the trade brings tangible benefits to farmers in the developing world.

Last week’s announcement represents a compromise between conflicting ethical standards because some environmental organizations had complained that shipping food in by air freight harmed the environment because of carbon emissions from airplanes. Others countered that withholding certification from companies using air freight could harm farmers in poor countries and slow economic development, according to the Reuters news agency.

In order to receive the organic label, firms flying food into the United Kingdom must begin, by 2009, to invest in local communities, allow their workers to unionize, and fund local education efforts, according to the London Daily Telegraph.