Organic September: Could farming be a solution to the climate crisis?
The IndependentSign up to IndyEat's free newsletter for weekly recipes, foodie features and cookbook releases Get our food and drink newsletter for free Get our food and drink newsletter for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. If Europe’s farmland all followed organic principles, agricultural emissions could drop by 40-50 per cent by 2050 But, the destruction caused by not farming in tune with nature is becoming much more apparent now. “In the past five years the impacts have been felt; organic matter in the soil is running really low, the chemicals aren’t working so it’s costing a lot to cultivate these crops, and across the board farmers are recognising that we haven’t done enough to care for our soils.” open image in gallery Planting forests, known as agroforestry, helps build soil resilience and biodiversity The Soil Association claims if Europe’s farmland all followed organic principles, agricultural emissions could drop by 40-50 per cent by 2050, with plenty to feed the growing population of healthy diets. The secret is in the soil It is only fairly recently that we have started to appreciate the significance of what Sir Albert Howard, a founder of the organic movement in the early 1900s and the Soil Association in 1946, always knew: “The health of soil, plant, animal and man is one and indivisible.” It’s a rare example of a win-win situation – a variety of nutritious fruits, vegetables and free-range meat practically become the bi-products of farming healthy soil. open image in gallery Milk that comes from cows like these on Berkeley Farm in Swindon contains around 50 per cent more beneficial omega-3 fatty acids Last month a peer-reviewed study, published in the journal of Environmental Research and funded by Friends of the Earth, revealed that eating an organic diet can reduce the amount of glyphosate – the world’s most widely-used weed killer – in your body by 70 per cent within a week.