How is the UK’s organic farming scene faring?

Around the world, organic agriculture currently occupies just one per cent of cropland. This is in spite of the practice growing rapidly in recent years. With so much land available, will it be a wise move to consider a career move into becoming an organic farmer? Farm insurance providers Lycetts investigates:

Understanding what is meant by organic farming

Organic farming is when crop and livestock production has been designed in a way to optimise the productivity and fitness of the diverse communities that make up the agro-ecosystem. Livestock, people, plants and soil organisms are all covered within this holistic system then, with the primary aim to develop enterprises that are both sustainable and harmonious with the environment.

Compare organic farming to traditional farming practices and four key differences will be recorded:

Any genetically modified crop or ingredient is banned.
The routine use of antibiotics, drugs and wormers is banned.
Artificial chemical fertilisers are prohibited. Instead, organic farmers are encouraged to develop soil which is healthy and fertile by growing and rotating a variety of crops, making use of clover to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and adding organic matter — compost, for instance.
There are severe restrictions on pesticides, with organic farmers instead looking to wildlife to provide a helping hand for controlling disease and pests.

Organic farming: the stats

The Soil Association has helped to make organic farming more appealing, as the following statistics show.

On average, organic farms have recorded a 50 per cent increase in wildlife when compared to non-organic farms. There has also been an average increase of 30 per cent in species found on organic farms when compared to non-organic setups. These figures make for particularly good reading when you consider that the percentage of British wildlife has dropped by 50 per cent since 1970.

Pesticide use throughout England and Wales could also decrease by 98 per cent if all farming in these two countries became organic, the Soil Association goes on to claim. More than 17,800 tonnes of pesticides were used throughout British farms during 2015 and 43 per cent of British food was found to contain pesticide residues by government testing during the same year.

Just how appealing is the organic farming scene for UK farmers though? According to the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs’ Organic Farming Statistics 2016 report, the nation had a total area of 508,000 hectares of land which was farmed organically in 2016. In the same year, the total number of organic producers and processors stood at 6,363 — up 5.1 per cent from 2015.

When it comes to the most popular types of crop grown organically in the UK, cereals, vegetables (including potatoes) and other arable crops make up the top three. When it comes to cereals, barley had the largest total organic area at 12,900 hectares, followed by oats (11,600 hectares) and then wheat (10,900 hectares). When breaking down other arable crops, fodder, forage and silage had the highest total organic area at 5,400 hectares. The next most popular was maize, oilseeds and protein crops at 1,700 hectares, followed by sugar beet with a total organic area of 100 hectares.

Regarding livestock, poultry is the most popular type that is farmed organically throughout the UK. In fact, there was a 10 per cent rise recorded in 2016 alone — reaching over 2.8 million birds. This number is significantly more than the 840,800 sheep, 296,400 cattle and 31,500 pigs which make up the next three most popular types of livestock currently farmed organically across the nation.

Unfortunately, the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs’ report isn’t all positive reading for the current organic farming scene. While making up a substantial space, the total area of land which is farmed organically across the UK dropped between 2015 and 2016 and has also declined by 32 per cent since its peak in 2008. All three of the main crop types grown organically have seen declines since the latter years of the 2000s too, while the number of producers is down by 35 per cent since 2007.

Organic farming: can it help feed a global population that is growing rapidly?

Organic farming should be seen as a relatively untapped resource which offers plenty of potential, according to John Reganold, a Regents Professor of Soil Science & Agroecology at the Washington State University, and doctoral student Jonathan Wachter.

The pair made this claim in a study which was published in Nature Plants under the title Organic Agriculture in the 21st Century. It involved 40 years of science and hundreds of scientific studies being reviewed.

According to their analysis, organic farming systems are able to produce more profitable and environmentally friendly yields than those recorded when conventional means of agriculture were used instead. Organic farming was also linked with delivering more nutritious foods containing less or even no pesticide residues than those produced by conventional means.

While the research did also acknowledge that organic farming systems produced 10 to 20 per cent fewer yields on average than conventional agriculture technology, Professor Reganold underlined to The Guardian: “Overall, organic farms tend to have better soil quality and reduce soil erosion compared to their conventional counterparts. Organic agriculture generally creates less soil and water pollution and lower greenhouse gas emissions, and is more energy efficient. Organic agriculture is also associated with greater biodiversity of plants, animals, insects and microbes, as well as genetic diversity.

“Despite lower yields, organic agriculture is more profitable (by 22–35 per cent) for farmers because consumers are willing to pay more. These higher prices essentially compensate farmers for preserving the quality of their land.”

Starting along the organic farmer career path

Interested in becoming an organic farmer after reading the above? Before you begin producing, preparing, storing, importing or selling organic products, the first step you will need to take is to register with an organic control body.

This process will involve you filling in an application and then having an inspection occur at your facilities. Steps will then be taken to make you a certified organic farmer. The entire procedure can take two years to complete — at the end of which you’ll receive a certificate from an organic control body (CB) to prove you’re registered and passed an inspection. You will be breaking the law if you claim that a food product is organic if it hasn’t been inspected and certified by a CB.

Each certified organic farmer certificate will expire after one year. However, renewal will simply involve a CB inspecting your farm and then updating your records if the inspection is a success.

To find out more information about how to meet the EU standards which are in place surrounding organic farming, head to this GOV.UK page. This hub is also the place to read about a selection of funding options that are available which aim to make converting your farm to organic farming practices a lot easier.