Why our meat isn't labelled organic

Although our animals are all raised on our organic farm, our meat cannot be labelled as organic. For the full story, read on…

At North Aston Farms we're proud to be certified Organic with the Soil Association since the 1980s. We don't use artificial fertilisers or pesticides anywhere on the farm. You can find out more about the robust standards we have to meet on the Soil Association's website.

​

All our fresh dairy products, including our ice cream, are organic. You can find the Soil Association logo and our certificate number on the label of each product. We make all of these products ourselves on the farm so they are included within our certificate. Where we add ingredients not from the farm - eg. the yummy chocolate in our chocolate ice cream - these are organically certified in their own right.

None of our meat products are certified organic. We don't use any artificial fertilisers or pesticides on the fields where our livestock eat and live, so their lives very much follow organic principles. However the organic certification doesn't just include the life of the animal: it includes their death too. For meat to be organically certified, the animal needs to have been killed in an abattoir with organic certification and then butchered by a butcher with an organic certification.

​

A good life and a good death

Sadly, organic abattoirs are few and far between. As a small farm we only send off one or two animals at a time, which means that large abattoirs aren't particularly interested in our business. But smaller, local abattoirs are closing across the UK. You can read more about the state of local abattoirs in this report by the Sustainable Food Trust.

Since the closure of Long Compton abattoir we've had to look further away - but we don't want to go too far! On top of the additional time and cost that would involve, long road journeys are stressful for our animals and we're keen to keep them to a minimum for their wellbeing. As a result, we've chosen to use an abattoir which is closer to the farm, but not organic.

​

Because we don't use an organic abattoir, none of our meat products can be labelled as organic. Sadly, until we have the option of a small, organic abattoir which is near the farm, we'll continue to be unable to label our meat as organic. We would love that to change! But in the meantime we'll continue caring for our livestock in the best way possible, which includes a good life on our organic farm, and a good death in an abattoir nearby.