Four trustees who recently resigned from Britain's largest organic group, the Soil Association have claimed the organisation has lost touch with its roots and abandoned the 'o' word.

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Publishing an open letter to the Chair of the Soil Associaton Council, the four restated their support for the founding principles of the Soil Association and added, "We think that the organic approach to food and farming is ecologically coherent, humane, scientifically responsible and potent… We hope that our action stimulates thought about how the Soil Association might campaign most effectively."

According to the former trustees, the Soil Association has begun to avoid using 'organic', "The 'O' word," wherever possible, opting instead to use 'nature–friendly' or 'planet-friendly'. They also criticised the Association for 'infantilising' the organic message in its major campaigns and relying too heavily on its 'Food for Life' catering certification programme, when "its standards depart in important respects from Soil Association organic standards." 

The departing trustees warned that, as a result, the Soil Association's message has shifted to deal predominantly with healthy eating, meaning the "Association [now] lacks political clout on national farming matters" and has become "controversy-averse."

The four said, "We will continue to devote our energies to challenging corporate control of the food system."

Denying claims that the 70-year-old organic charity has adopted a pro-corporate and risk-averse mindset, chief executive Helen Browning said the Soil Associaton "Remains firmly committed to its founders' original organic mission for health, environment and animal welfare. And that means reaching out to a broader public, ensuring that organic principles are ever more widely understood and applied."

Writing in the Ecologist on Tuesday, Browning said, "We also know if we are to see real change in the world we need to work positively with all farmers - organic or not - sharing the research and knowledge of organic farming techniques, and learning from them too. Most farmers don't have this 'us and them' attitude. We are all trying to make a living the best we can, working together to find solutions to the issues facing agriculture in the UK.

"We need to move beyond just telling others they are wrong; we need to share ideas and solutions to some of the big challenges facing our food system today."

In 2011, before joining the council, Joanna Blythman sparked debate by stating that organic agriculture and the supermarket model are "not suitable bed mates," a view with which the Soil Association said it "Strongly disagreed."