The Soil Association is the marketing organisation behind so-called Organic Farming. It’s stated aims are to campaign for “healthy, humane and sustainable food, farming and land use.” However, it is routinely criticised for embracing pseudoscientific and dogmatic ideas about farming and animal welfare.

Matters have now come to a head as four Trustees resigned from the Soil Association earlier in the month. In a blog post, one of them (Joanna Blythman – a food writer, campaigner against GM and ‘investigative journalist’), writes,

[T]he questionable presence on Management Committee (with an attendant reputational risk) of a non-organic farmer and a doctor who publicly attacks an important tool of organic animal husbandry (homoeopathy) seems not to concern a Council that purports to be committed to good governance.

Blythman appears to think that using superstitious forms of medicine can help animal husbandry. She says that “We think that the organic approach to food and farming is ecologically coherent, humane, scientifically responsible and potent”. Homeopathy is none of those things. Others around her may also have doubts. On another blog, one of the other Trustees and baker, Andrew Whitley, shows there are wider concerns about watering down the hardcore messages of the Organic movement.

The Soil Association was co-founded on ideas by Lady Eve Balfour, who in turn had been heavily influenced by the clairvoyant and occultist Rudolf Steiner. Indeed, Steiner’s own Biodynamic movement can be thought of as Organic Farming on Steroids, but without the steroids, obviously. Like Steiner’s own background, the movement had its own shameful racist and far-right underpinnings with initial support from another co-founder, Jorian Jenks who was the agricultural advisor to the British Union of Fascists. The movement is still underpinned by an anti-scientific agenda and people wedded to pseudoscientific and superstitious thinking.

The Soil Association is full of staunch defenders of homeopathy for use in animal husbadry. Somerset farmer, Oliver Dowding, sits on the Soil Association Council and I had the pleasure of hearing him address David Tredinnick MP at the Glastonbury Festival last Summer on the issue of using homeopathy on his cows.

However, at least one member of Council has very different views. Dr Gabriel Scally, a Professor of Public Health in Bristol, tweeted earlier this month on the subject of homeopathy and ebola,

Ebola Warning! Apparently homeopaths are on the case. Such delusions are downright dangerous. pic.twitter.com/zkxgoSbTDg — Gabriel Scally (@GabrielScally) November 2, 2014

Could this have been the tweet that split the Organic movement and caused massed resginations from the Board of Trustees? Maybe. Or something like it. His twitter exchange with Totnes MP, Dr Sarah Wollaston, shows he is quite clear that homeopathy is dangerous garbage. Ironically, Totnes is a town where it is near impossible to buy food on the High Street that is not grown according to astrological charts and labelled as organic.

Ideas that homeopathy can treat ebola are indeed downright dangerous. And ideas that homeopaty can treat illnesses such as Mastitis in cows are just downright cruel.

Let’s hope this shake-up can make a change for real progressive farming within the Soil Association where animal welfare does not take second place to pseudoscientific dogma. When industrial organic farmers like Yeo Valley stop treating their cows with homeopathy then perhaps we can start to take what the movement says a little more seriously. If indeed the Soil Association is not wanting to be seen to be promoting nonsense like homeopathy then it needs to come out and explicitly say so. Animals will suffer while they remain silent.

Updates

2nd December 2014

As reported on theis storify, one of the resigned Trustees gave this rather bizarre response to this story.

1) Silly virtual group masturbation on homeopathy by Twitter trolls entirely misses seriousness of Soil Association trustee resignations… — Ecoreflections (@ecoreflections) November 30, 2014

2) But it firmly clarifies a suspicion about a remaining trustee & the company this person keeps. Trolls & sceptics now running the SA? — Ecoreflections (@ecoreflections) November 30, 2014

So, critcising an organisation for using superstitious medicine on animals in lieu of real medical treatment is seen as ‘group masturbation’.

A serious debate needs to be had about the guidelines the Soil Association issue to their members in this area. Some within obviously want that debate. The hardline quack-supporters are best out of the organisation.