SA licensing Israeli goods from illegal settlements
On Friday 15th October from 11 am onwards and until 2.00pm, campaigners will demonstrate, and present a box of bloodied fruit and vegetables to the Soil Association's head office in Bristol, to express their concern about the Soil Association's licensing of goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley.

Demonstrators will picket and leaflet outside the SA building, but will also request dialogue with Soil Association officials in their offices.

Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign has found evidence that the highly respected Soil Association, whose national offices are located at the bottom of Stokes Croft in Bristol, is licensing produce grown on illegal Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley. This is a practice well documented by both Corporate Watch and the Brighton-Jordan Valley Solidarity group.

The Soil Association stamps as 'organic' produce exported to the UK by Israel, after receiving assurances from its Israeli counterpart, an organisation called Agrior, that the fruit and vegetables meet the SA's own high standards.

However this is often far from being the case. Apart from licensing fruit and vegetables from illegal settlements, Agrior appears to have approved goods produced with child labour, or harvested in hazardous safety conditions. Soil Association representatives appear to accept the word of Agrior without question.

Last week members of Bristol PSC, including one who is also a Soil Association member, attended the SA's AGM in London to call on the SA to distance itself from Agrior. Soil Association representatives insist that Agrior is 100 % ethical, but has so far not been willing to suspend its relations with Agrior while the allegations made by Corporate Watch and others are investigated.

A spokesperson for Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign says, "The Soil Association is one of the most respected national organisations healthy food and ethical farming practices are concerned. By involving themselves with an organisation like Agrior which fails to meet their own high standards, they stand to lose a lot of credibility."

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Notes:
In April 2010 boxes for cherry tomatoes exported by Red Sea Organics were found by Corporate Watch at a packing plant in the settlement of Tomer. They carried the logo of Agrior, and were labelled,’Produce of Israel,’ even though grown in the occupied Jordan Valley. Organic herbs with the logo of Fresh Direct and labelled ‘Produce of Israel’ were found inside the Halpert Moshe packing house – in an organic farm on an illegal West Bank settlement. In other words, it is probable that goods the Soil Assocation has approved actually came from illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land - in breach of the SA's own ethical guidelines.

Some companies exporting organic produce to the UK from illegal settlements: Carmel-Agrexco Hadiklaim, Jordan River, Edom UK, Amit Agro-Fresh, Arava..TBP Export. Waitrose in the UK stock Agrior and Soil Association certified products, including organic herbs and vegetables from settlements. (Corporate watch report, February 27 2009)