Asked by: Hugh Bayley (Labour - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much land in Yorkshire was given over to organic farming in each year since 2008-09.
Answered by George Eustice
The table below shows the areas of “in conversion” and fully organic land in the Yorkshire and the Humber region from 2008 to 2013, which is the most recent year that these data are available. Data is not available just for Yorkshire.
Area of Organic Land in Yorkshire and the Humber region*
Thousand hectares | |||||||||
2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | ||||
In-conversion land | 4 | 3 12 | 1 14 | 1 13 | 1 | 1 | |||
Fully organic land | 11 | 10 | 10 | ||||||
Total organic land | 15 | 15 | 15 | 13 | 10 | 11 | |||
Source: Organic Certification Bodies in the UK. | |||||||||
Please note that totals may not necessarily agree with the sum of their components due to rounding. | |||||||||
* Data is collected during the annual inspections of organic operators. Due to the nature of annual inspections, the data is collected at varying times throughout the year. Therefore, the data presented here does not give an exact snapshot of organic farming at any specific time of year. It should be treated with a degree of caution. | |||||||||