Organic farming first arose in the 1940s, as a reaction against the industrialisation of agriculture. These days, it\u2019s got a strict legal definition, and to call your produce \u201corganic\u201d you must be certified. In the UK, most organic goods are certified by the\u00a0Soil Association\u00a0or\u00a0OF&G\u00a0\u2013 just look for their stamps on the label.<\/p>\n
Above all, organic farming is about nature: protecting it, enhancing it, and working in harmony with rather than fighting against it. The whole farm system works together with natural systems and cycles, for the good of the soil, plants, animals, humans, and wider environment.<\/p>\n
\nYou may need to ask questions about the things that matter to you \u2013 how often do they spray with artificial pesticides? What are their standards of animal welfare?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Organic accounts for just three per cent of the UK\u2019s farmland. A broader, more accessible movement may well be needed \u2013 and regenerative is open to any farmer who wishes to work more sustainably, to whatever extent they can. But as a customer, it\u2019s harder to know exactly what you\u2019re buying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is regenerative farming?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Regenerative has been gathering speed as a grassroots movement among farmers over the past decade. It\u2019s not yet a standardised system, like organic \u2013 instead, it\u2019s more of a mindset. The phrase can be used to describe a broad range of farming activities which aim to restore healthy soils, clean water, and biodiversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Groundswell, the UK\u2019s annual gathering of regenerative farmers, describes five key principles:<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
\n
- Don\u2019t disturb the soil by tilling, which damages its complex structure and biology.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Keep the soil surface covered with plant-life, to protect it from erosion.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Keep living roots in the soil, to feed the bacteria and fungi that keep it fertile.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Grow a diverse range of crops, rather than growing one crop intensively and repeatedly.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Bring grazing animals back to the land, as part of a fertility-boosting rotation of crops and animals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
First, how best to protect healthy soils? Organic farmers are permitted to till their fields, to kill weeds and fertilise without artificial chemicals. Regenerative farmers, on the other hand, may feel that it\u2019s less damaging to sometimes spray their fields with agrichemicals such as glyphosphate (a practice adopted by many larger corporations who claim to be \u2018regenerative\u2019) rather than to disturb the soil with a plough.
Arguably, there isn\u2019t a right or wrong here; both are damaging in different ways. That\u2019s why many organic farmers also use low- or no-till methods, and many regenerative farmers also minimise their use of agrichemicals.
The key thing is not to fall for the greenwash. As reported by Food Unfolded, \u2018the 2023 report by FAIRR looked at 79 global food and retail giants worth over $3 trillion and representing a third of the sector. They found that 50 of the 79 mega corporations mention regenerative agriculture initiatives in their disclosures. But relatively few of them could back up their claims meaningfully.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amet minim mollit non deserunt ullamco est sit aliqua amet sint. Velit officia consequat duis enim velit mollit. Exercitation veniam consequat sunt nostrud amet…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spirituality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriethos.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriethos.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriethos.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriethos.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriethos.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agriethos.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriethos.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriethos.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriethos.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriethos.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}