Lord Deben:

No, it has not. I laid down the rules, when I was Minister, which made sure that organic farming was genuinely organic and not fraudulent, which sometimes it can be. We are talking about extensive farming and there are many bits in the organic argument which, scientifically, I find difficult to take. I do not understand why it should be right to use, for example, copper sulphate but not right to have potassium. I do not see that their rules about a number of things make sense. I have strong views on the remarkable work of the woman who was much the leader of it. She made people respect the soil. Even though I do not accept the organic argument of the Soil Association, I do accept the fundamental view that the soil is important and that we have misused it, and I come back to the comments of the Pope about that. It is this misuse, through greed, that has put us in the position in which we are. We have allowed the soil, which we should have been protecting and looking after, to be diminished because we have misused it. She was right.