INSTITUTIONAL ORGANISATIONS

In the same way that gardening and food production are all-encompassing in the type of people who practice them, institutions of every kind, public and private, could benefit from participating in and supporting efforts to develop local organic food growing projects. Rather than further marginalising the organic food lobby by creating seperate departments devoted to these ends, it would be more desirable for mainstream organisations to put an organic perspective and practice at the core of their operations.

Many professions and occupations are currently concerned with powers to help or hinder the organic food sector. Elements of an overall strategy for improving the prospects for this sector would be best managed by the delegation of suitable tasks to those who have existing relevant responsibilities and expertise.

Direct and ongoing practical experience of working on organic food projects would inform bureaucrats and decision makers who are in a position to help develop the organic sector. Training, arranged by and paid for by employers for those without their own facilities, would help by providing more concrete concepts of what is involved and could also function as a means of enhancing the common-sense capacities of their employees in much the same way as team-building activities do at present.

Current reform of organisations such as local councils is aimed at achieving a more co-operative ethos both between departments and in their dealings with local communities. There is increasing understanding of the savings achievable by consideration of long-term strategies, which encompass the whole lifetime of undertakings, rather than the limiting economic myopia based on the accounting year. This is especially so in the case of food growing projects, which are indefinite commitments only justifying the investment required over a period of several years.

Without the support of agencies and infrastructure to provide authoritative support to local organic food growers, there will continue to be vast underachievement, disappointment and wasted effort, compared to what the time and energy current practitioners dedicate could produce.

Extract From SOFI – its Formation 1998