Organic Farming is Kinder to The Planet
We’ve stayed true to organic ever since – and over the years, a lot of what felt right has turned out to be right for very tangible, logical and scientific reasons.
Agriculture is necessary for food production. We can’t survive without it, but we can strive to tread on the land as lightly as possible. Organic food is food as it should be: with no artificial nasties, the highest standards of animal welfare, and full traceability from farm to fork. We reckon it’s the best show in town.
What is organic food?
Organic food is the product of organic farming; put simply, a system of managing our land and livestock that works with nature rather than against it. Just because it’s more natural doesn’t mean that organic farming isn’t rigorously controlled. For our food to be labelled as organic, we must meet strict rules set out in law, and be inspected and certified by the Soil Association.
No Artificial Pesticides
Almost 300 synthetic pesticides can be routinely used on non-organic farms. Organic farmers are permitted just 15 pesticides, all derived from natural ingredients such as garlic and clove oil, and only used in very restricted circumstances. Around 90% of Soil Association-certified organic farmers use no pesticides at all.
Instead, we use naturally occurring ecological phenomena to our advantage; for example, encouraging predatory bugs that will eat the aphids off our crops. Sometimes it’s as simple as planting veg a little further apart so pests or disease can’t spread!
Protecting our planet
Agriculture takes a toll on our planet. Thanks to nitrogen-based artificial fertilisers, farms are responsible for around 50% of all nitrous oxide emissions – and the world’s fertile soil (a finite natural resource) is being severely degraded at a rate of 24 billion tonnes a year.
Instead of artificial fertilisers, organic farms use crop rotation and companion planting. Each field is cycled through various crops over time. The sequences and combinations of plants are designed to keep the soil naturally fertile, well structured, and free of disease.
The soil on organic farms has been found to contain at least 20% more organic matter. If organic farming was common practice in the UK, we could offset at least 23% of agriculture’s current greenhouse gas emissions.
