Organic Farmers & Growers (OF&G) today publishes a white paper evidencing how a shift to greater organic land use in England to 10% would significantly deliver on the Government’s environmental objectives.
OF&G says the document “shows exactly what an organic solution would look like in the real world” and hopes that it will “encourage policymakers to actively engage in incorporating organic in a wider framework”.
Growing organic – a multifunctional component of English land use policyidentifies how a three-fold increase in organic land use area would reduce total agriculture-related greenhouse gas emissions equal to the carbon sequestered by third of million acres of broadleaved woodland.
OF&G calculates that since synthetic fertilisers and pesticides are prohibited in organic systems (although some specified materials can be used) fertiliser use would therefore be reduced by a figure equivalent to 179,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, and over a million kilos of pesticide active ingredients would not be applied each year.
OF&G’s chief executive, Roger Kerr puts these figures into perspective: “It’s the same as removing 8,840 full lorry loads of fertiliser every year. If you parked the lorries bumper to bumper, they’d stretch from central London to Rugby.”
The white paper also highlights biodiversity gains achieved by removing artificial inputs. It shows that in organic systems, arable plant species were found to be up to 95% higher, field margin plant species up to 21% higher, farmland bird species increased by 35%, pollinators are up by 23% and earthworm species increased by 78%.
“Organic farming at its heart seeks to work with and enhance natural processes and ecosystems. Our report evidences organic farming’s contribution to delivering necessary climate and biodiversity restoration goals while still producing nutritious food,” says Kerr.
“OUR REPORT EVIDENCES ORGANIC FARMING’S CONTRIBUTION TO DELIVERING NECESSARY CLIMATE AND BIODIVERSITY RESTORATION GOALS WHILE STILL PRODUCING NUTRITIOUS FOOD”
OF&G believes the white paper demonstrates how supporting organic, as part of an integrated land use framework, is a crucial step towards a viable, productive, low carbon economy.
“Continuing to feed people in the face of climate and biodiversity collapse is a complex problem and complex problems require versatile and multifaceted solutions like organic,” Kerr adds.
“Underwritten by clearly defined and auditable legal standards, organic is proven to provide significant improvements in public goods delivery and natural capital gains.
“We recognise there’s no single ‘right’ way to produce food. To answer the critical challenges we face effectively, we must combine different approaches to ensure we reflect the land’s topology, and climate, alongside the management experience of farmers.
“This is why we’re calling for greater Government support for organic farming as it provides one simple, obvious and easily quantifiable route to take in addressing the multiple environmental challenges we currently face.
“Organic farming is a standard and practice that already operates within planetary boundaries. It’s not a dream. There’s clear scientific evidence gathered over many years of its positive impacts and so it represents a clear direction of travel towards a low carbon, and nature and people positive food production system,” says Kerr.
Speaking to Natural Newsdesk, Kerr said he hoped the new white paper would help “get organic back into the conversation”, noting that the former Defra minister, George Eustice, had cited organic farms as examples of good practice (in terms of delivering public goods) but omitted to name check organic. “Just getting some level of ambition would be good. Even government recognising organic as part of a wider land use mix, and ministers talking about organic alongside other farming systems would be a start”.
Growing organic – a multifunctional component of English land use policy is available to downloaded here: https://ofgorganic.org/news/land-use-policy-increasing-organic-farming-and-growing