Organic targets: What we did and why

In only three years, the Organic Targets Campaign:

• Succeeded in persuading Government to establish an Organic Action Plan in 2002 to increase the market share of British organic produce from 30% to 70% of the market, by 2010.
• Created a supporting coalition of over 100 national organisations, plus hundreds more local groups and individuals.
• Produced Myth and Reality: Organic vs non-organic - the facts, a thorough analysis of the benefits of organic food and farming, and why these are sometimes challenged.
  Link to press release: https://www.sustainweb.org/pdf/myth_bust.pdf
  Link to downloadable report: https://www.sustainweb.org/publications/info/84/

You can find out exactly what we did by looking at our Campaign Documents section but our main tactics included:

• Writing policy documents showing examples of other European countries that already had action plans and targets and how they had helped their organic sectors develop.
• Generating enough public support from organisations and individuals to make it impossible for the Government to ignore the campaign.
• Lobbying MPs and Ministers.

As a result of Sustain's campaign, Defra established an Organic Action Plan (OAP) Committee, which was asked to write the Organic Action Plan. Sustain was represented by the Organic Targets Campaign project officer, Catherine Fookes.