The Spring 2013 No.22
ORGANICThe journal of the Organic GROWER Growers Alliance IN THIS ISSUE As hot as it got this THE AGE OF Schofield scribbles...... 2 summer! OGA research...... 3 AGROECOLOGY?
News...... 5
Oxford Real Farming Conference...... 9
ORC Producer Conference...... 10
CSA vouchers...... 16
Nature notes: Almost a vegetable...... 17
Interview with Lawrence Woodward.....18
Land Army training...... 21
Mulching with wool...... 22
Bats on your holding...... 24
Grower profile: Sam Eglington...... 27
Stanhay seed drill...... 28
Salad leaf growing...... 30
Apprentice corner...... 33
Manifold green manures...... 34
Dr George Vivian Poore...... 36
Carbon footprint calculator...... 38
Hotbeds for propagation...... 40
Book reviews...... 41
Comment: Dumped!...... 43
Events...... 44
Page 1 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Schofield scribbles Let them eat horse Everything by the end of the decade. I joke of course but it is a good start. The difficult bit As I write this, the horsemeat scandal rumbles on and on. For all is getting the message over to people that the Assurance and Quality schemes created by the powers that business as usual is no longer an option. be, they seem unable to trace the source of this very embarrassing Again this year the OGA sponsored seven bursaries problem in our food chain. To me, it is nothing other than an for apprentices to attend the conference and to me it is wonderful inevitable consequence of the UK’s food policy and strategy these to see youthful faces at this event - the succession that we need. last few years of “leaving it to the market”. We have adverts on the We have learned a lot individually but the task is to pass that TV suggesting why bother cooking fresh ingredients that take so knowledge on to the next generation. It is so much easier to pass long, when in seconds we can zap one of the myriad offerings of pre- on information when you know that it is wanted. prepared brightly packaged ready meals instead. It does not take a genius to walk down any of our city streets to see that, as a society, Our next gathering after Sheffield is the AGM at Longmeadow we are not well. NHS statistics back this up and again the powers in Dorset on March 23rd. I hope as many of you as possible can that be struggle to find solutions to the nation’s ailing health. join us for the day and social evening. The amount of work done by all the committee this winter has made me think about trying As growers of course we all know the answer, eat more vegetables! to access funding for the OGA and this is the subject of our forum Vegetables that have been lovingly grown, close to where we live. session at the AGM and all your views will be welcome. We know this is so, so why is it so difficult for others to see this simple solution to a food system that delivers benefits to the local I will close now by wishing you all a productive and predominantly economy as well as health? If we leave it to the market we will dry season. reap only what we sow. That prognosis is not good. Alan Schofield, Chairman Organic Growers Alliance Returning from the producers’ conference in Birmingham this January, I felt both humble and apprehensive. Humble from the wonderful comments that I received from all corners of the room in praise of the work that the OGA is doing for which I thank our committee for their endless hours of hard work.
Apprehensive, for although we seem to be getting somewhere with trying to change people’s attitudes toward food and its production I know there is still an incredible amount of work to be done. This is mainly against opposition to our views, coming from those with big business interests to protect and fuelled by the profits they generate. The growers’ sessions at the conference addressed some of these issues and as attendance at this event was the best to date, I really feel that growing organically, despite the challenges, is alive and well and the baton is being taken up by the next generation with their equally radical ideas on production and marketing.
We have been very busy on the research front, which culminates in our Sheffield conference on March 6th. To me, this is an opportunity for growers to put forward our views to those who do the research and this is something we have been trying to do unsuccessfully for over 20 years. Yes, of course there has been useful work done, but now the whole future of production has to become more sustainable and we all know where that should lead. It is of course down to us to make our views heard at this critical time. Caption competition winner! There have been two meetings of the Farmer and Grower Board Congratulations to Laura Davis - winner of the caption since I last wrote and as the OGA we have been working closely competition in Organic Grower No.21. Laura wins a 15kg net with the Soil Association and Organic Research Centre on their of Carolus seed potatoes, courtesy of Leary’s organic seeds and research bids which are again led by growers and farmers. If all Bioselect! We hope they are slug as well as blight resistant!! goes to plan we should know the answers to Life, the Universe and
Cover photo: Rocket and vetch at Cotesbach Gardens - Phil Sumption
Page 2 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 OGA-led Research - why it matters Over the last twelve months the OGA research team have been working together to develop an R&D strategy for the OGA. This might seem like a grand plan – why is it important for an alliance of small growers to have an R&D strategy? Here are five good reasons why it is a good idea.
Firstly, it makes good business sense. If you can identify order to do this. To best make use of these opportunities, and where within your business where you can make even small the limited funds that they have, we need a strategy to decide on improvements, such as yield, increased resource-use efficiency, priority applications. Applying to these funds without a proper increased labour efficiency, flavour, storage, better tool design strategy could lead to inefficient use of the opportunity and and so on, and then take measures to improve these, then you possibly waste funds. will see a real impact on your bottom line. Also, now is a time of Fifthly, OGA members are the embodiment of diversity and change: the weather is changing, seed availability is changing, the resilience, and are thus beacons of hope in an industry that is on market is changing. Things that worked before are not necessarily the one hand increasingly dominated by a few giants, and on the working as they used to. R&D, informed by a carefully thought- other has a supply chain that is ever longer and more fragile. We out strategy, is an excellent way of making the right improvements are the most vibrant point of new growth, and a source of potential and of coping with change. Few small businesses have time or new, innovative entrants into the industry. We are thus important resources to do this for themselves in all areas of their business – in the development of a resilient, sustainable food system. If we an alliance can help! have a clearly communicated R&D strategy, we become more Secondly, OGA growers have needs that differ in important ways visible to funders and decision makers, and the solution that we from large conventional growers: such as scale; use of machinery offer to the broken food system will be taken more seriously. and IT; crop protection; variety choices for organically managed So, we have R&D needs in order to protect, develop and grow soils; markets; timing and specification. Hence we need our own our businesses. We, in turn, are needed by the industry, by the R&D strategy that respects these differences and better reflects our researchers and also by ORC and the Soil Association. This priorities. Existing R&D for UK horticulture does not reflect our situation has great potential for win-win-win-win, to help all priorities and, unless we make our needs known, it never will. parties to achieve their goals – OGA members in particular, for Thirdly, food has risen to the top of Government’s agenda. Money whom the outputs of R&D programmes are most important. is available at the moment for food-related research, but researchers Devising a strategy that reflects the needs of OGA members, now need to show potential funders that their projects will be and using this to access funding, is a sensible move. We must of use in the real world. Researchers need growers to back their progress our ideas now, because the Government emphasis projects. Having a published R&D strategy that we communicate on food-related research will not last forever, nor will the Soil to the researchers, and which we involve them in, will help ensure Association programmes. that we can influence the decisions about what research is funded. The graphic shows how OGA’s R&D strategy fits into some of We need to encourage researchers to study areas that match our the main funding options. There are a variety of funding routes; priorities, and only give our support to projects that have real priorities from our strategy (OGA R&D) will be channelled through benefit for us. In order to know what to encourage and what to the most appropriate one, depending on the nature of the projects support, we need to identify what our priorities really are, form created. Some projects can go directly to the research funding them into a clear strategy and make them widely known. councils via our network of academic contacts (as with out current Fourthly, the Organic Research Centre and the Soil Association bid for downy mildew research); others may be best progressed have both recently launched programmes that could prove useful first through on-farm proof of concept via the Soil Association or in helping us to achieve some of our R&D goals. The ORC. Some projects will not be suitable for the research Soil Association in particular needs to show their OGA R&D funding councils, and may be best progressed by other funders that their programmes are of use, and they Strategy devised routes. WS need us to take part (and achieve good outcomes) in from annual research needs survey
Duchy Originals Duchy Originals Organic Research Research funding Universities & Other funders councils (NERC, Field Labs Research Fund Centre colleges There are other BSRC etc) & EU options for some of Participatory Student projects. (Soil Association) (Soil Association) Larger projects the more social & research similar to Another option or with academic economic aspects of Small proof of Small projects with Duchy Original Field proof of concept and possibly other research concept and very an academic partner Labs but could also studies industry partners practical projects (up to £25K) be large EU projects
Page 3 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 OGA R&D - What have we achieved so far? Over the last 12 months, in between the day jobs and tending to truculent veg, the OGA committee members have been working behind the scenes to develop a research and development strategy that will benefit OGA members. Our priority has been raising awareness of the OGA within the R&D sector so that our voice is heard, and so that both the needs and the contributions of our sector are brought to attention of researchers, funders and policy makers in this time of concern for “global food security”.
We need your input to help drive this forward. Thank you to all of you who have contributed ideas and information so far. Thank you in advance for all those of you who will contribute in 2013! Here is a summary of what we have achieved together in the last 12 months. It is a good beginning and, with your help, we will use this as a springboard to generate real benefits for all small-scale organic growers whose needs are currently quite overlooked. • We have a rolling programme updating R&D articles in the R&D strategy development Organic Grower and on the OGA website; the OGA website • 2012 research-needs survey (see OG20). 2013 results soon! now has also a research page.
• R&D strategy development and collaboration-forming • We have established a link with the Environmental meeting – growers, researchers, horticulture suppliers and Sustainability Knowledge Transfer Network (ESKTN) and research funders: Sheffield University March 6th 2013. they have agreed to film our research meeting in Sheffield so that growers who cannot attend in person can benefit. Network building They may also be able to provide us with real-time on-line • We have formed links with the Universities of Newcastle, facilities to allow growers who cannot attend to take part in Sheffield, Aberdeen, York, Lancaster, Southampton, Warwick, discussions as they happen. Harper Adams, and Warwick Crop Centre, Scotland’s Rural • We have formed a collaboration with the University University College and the James Hutton Institute regarding of Newcastle and are working on a project to improve OGA research and development projects. information flow for small-scale growers. • We have strengthened our links with Garden Organic, the Conferences & meetings Soil Association and the Organic Research Centre. • As usual the OGA organised the grower sessions at ORC Project proposals conference on producer innovation.
• The OGA was a member of three out of 28 consortia bidding • The OGA was invited to give a presentation at the Nourish for funding from the Biological and Biotechnological Sciences annual conference – regarding the state of knowledge and Research Council (BBSRC) to take forward research into skills in small-scale UK horticulture. sustainable UK vegetable production. We were involved in bids for water management, nutrient management and Consultation & policy management of downy mildew. The downy mildew project is • The OGA responded to “Feeding the Future: Innovation currently in the last stages of the competition. The other two requirements for primary food production in the UK to 2030 ” projects did not get through to the final round, but may be re- – this is an important consultation, likely to determine future written for other opportunities and were useful for forming government spend on R&D for UK food production. strong links with relevant researchers. • The OGA will be involved in a new UK innovation platform • OGA projects, based on OGA research needs suitable for for agroecology along with the ORC and others. research students, have been circulated to UK universities: http://www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk/research • The OGA has been invited to join an innovation partnership for UK horticulture. • We submitted ideas to the Soil Association for both field labs and research projects, based on the outcomes of the 2012 • The OGA are taking part in the Natural Environment Research OGA research needs survey. Councils’ task force on sustainable food production. The purpose of the task force will be to identify specific areas where scientific • The OGA is putting together a consortium bid for an HDC- knowledge is most needed (and is currently lacking) to help the funded review of research into soils management over the last UK food industry, Government and society move towards more 20 years. The review will identify the major knowledge gaps to environmentally sustainable food production. inform future research and knowledge transfer programmes. • The OGA has representation on the Scottish Organic Forum. Information collation & dissemination • The OGA relays horticulture R&D issues pertaining to the • We have been uploading technical articles to the OGA website Duchy Originals programme via the Soil Association Farmer to build a useful and accessible resource for OGA members. and Grower Board.
Page 4 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 • The OGA has been taking part in “Our Food” – a project that natural pest control http://www.biodiversityknowledge.eu/ aims to improve communication between growers, scientists • The OGA is receiving an increasing number of requests from and the public http://ourfood.org.uk/ academics for letters of support for research applications. • The OGA has taken part in workshops with the Biodiversity Wendy Seel Knowledge Network to help establish research priorities for Research news Towards a collaborative programme as laser weeding, zone tillage and precision muck spreading. Ecological ideas included the control of flea beetles, a troublesome in sustainable agriculture pest of brassicas, and methods to discourage badger setts On 20th February the Natural Environment Research Council from encroaching into fields. Amongst the more unusual, (NERC) and the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research was controlling mastitis in cattle with propolis from bees and Council (BBSRC) held an industry consultation regarding the best developing open source programmes for the low-cost Raspberry way to spend a £10 million government investment in research Pi computer to monitor environmental conditions. underpinning sustainable agriculture. The OGA was represented Once the ideas were in, a call went out to research establishments, at this meeting by Wendy Seel (OGA research leader). There were inviting researchers to work with farmers on these sustainable 150 delegates from the research councils, levy boards, universities challenges. Although the grants are small by research standards and companies – mostly very large scale (including Pepsico, Coca- (up to £25,000 per grant) the interest expressed in the fund was Cola, Heineken, GlaxoSmithKline, Syngenta, the large seed houses fantastic, with more than 70 researchers coming forward from and supermarkets). We might be very small in comparison, but universities, research institutes and businesses. we are a part of the sustainable food system, we have a valuable contribution to make, and we also have research needs. It was The final stage has been to match-make the researchers with important to be at the meeting to voice our views and needs, farmers, so they can develop the ideas into workable research and to argue that the structure of the funding initiative should proposals. The proposals will be considered by a panel of farmers be inclusive of smaller organisations. Some of the recent funding and an expert group chaired by Prof Charles Godfray, with the initiatives have been exclusive. The Crop Improvement Research successful applicants announced by the end of March. Club is a good example, where only those companies large enough For information on the research fund contact Euan Brierley, Research Manager, to pay a substantial annual membership fee are able to take part. Soil Association [email protected] We have asked the Soil Association to support our call for a better structure that does not unfairly bias public research spend on food Reducing greenhouse gas emissions production towards the needs of large corporations. with urban agriculture Duchy Originals update A study at Cranfield University has shown that community farms can help to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) burdens from food. Farmers and growers were not short of ideas when asked by Researchers used environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) the Soil Association to suggest topics that they would like to be to quantify the potential savings of food-related GHG emissions researched. Topics ranged from weed control and animal welfare that may be achieved with the establishment of an urban to tackling the spread of TB and using green manures. community farm, based on the case study of Sutton Community This was the first stage in the awarding of grants from a £125,000 Farm, in London. The greatest reductions can be achieved by research fund supported by the Duchy Originals Future Farming selecting the right crops that yield best in local conditions and Programme which backs innovation in sustainable agriculture. are usually produced in energy-intensive greenhouses or air- Farmers and growers from across the country came forward with freighted in. Implications from further development of the dozens of suggestions, of which 41 had potential to be developed farm on local, unused land were examined, taking into account into research projects. The growers were interested in deterring market requirements. This showed using urban fringe land for slugs, the timing and application of green wastes, no-dig methods, food production could potentially reduce GHG emissions in using rock dust and biochar to boost soil fertility and breeding Sutton by up to 34 t CO2e ha−1 a−1. Although the percentage of vegetable varieties suitable for wet summers. Arable farmers this reduction in total diet emissions is relatively low, the result wanted research into controlling weeds, such as creeping thistles exceeds carbon sequestration rates for the conventional urban and using weed suppressant species for cleaner harvests. The green space projects, such as parks and forests. livestock farmers suggested research into liver fluke, TB, mob Kulak M, Graves A and Chatterton J (2013). Reducing greenhouse gas emissions grazing, legume leys and rush management. with urban agriculture: A Life Cycle Assessment perspective Landscape and There were exciting ideas for engineering approaches such Urban Planning, 111, 68-78
Page 5 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 General news
CSA for producers Organic farming has the potential to contribute to sustainable food security by improving nutrition intake and sustaining livelihoods Secure cash flow, business resilience and increased customer in rural areas, while simultaneously reducing vulnerability to loyalty - as a marketing model, Community Supported Agriculture climate change and enhancing biodiversity. Sustainable practices (CSA) can provide all this and more. associated with organic farming are relatively labour intensive. Existing work on CSA in the UK has been very clearly focused on Organic agriculture uses up to 50% less fossil fuel energy than community-led initiatives, but there has been increasing interest conventional farming. Common organic practices - including amongst producers in adopting the approach as an alternative rotating crops, applying mulches, and maintaining perennial business model. There are already some very good working shrubs and trees on farms - also stabilize soils and improve examples of producers using the CSA approach as a guaranteed water retention, thus reducing vulnerability to harsh weather market for their produce, sometimes alongside other marketing patterns. On average, organic farms have 30% higher biodiversity, routes. This approach is particularly relevant to smaller scale including birds, insects, and plants, than conventional farms. organic producers who find it difficult to broker viable contracts Certification for organic agriculture is increasingly concentrated with the bulk retail and procurement markets. in wealthier countries. From 2009 to 2010, Europe increased its The Soil Association want to support farmers and growers who are organic farmland by 9% to 10 million hectares, the largest growth interested in developing a CSA business model and are offering in any region. The United States has lagged behind other countries training events, visits and free one-to-one support to both organic in adopting sustainable farming methods. When national sales and non-organic growers over the coming year. They would also rather than production are considered, however, the U.S. organic like to hear from producers who are already using this approach. industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the nation, expanding by 9.5% in 2011 to reach $31.5 billion in sales. Please contact Rachel Harries: [email protected] T: 0117 987 4601 Sustainable food production will become increasingly important Worldwatch Institute report in developing countries, as the majority of population growth A new Worldwatch Institute report examines the growth of global is concentrated in the world’s poorest countries. Agriculture in organic agricultural practices and their impact on food security developing countries is often far more labour intensive than in and the environment. industrial countries, so it is not surprising that approximately 80% of the 1.6 million global certified organic farmers live in Despite a slight decline between 2009 and 2010, since 1999 the the developing world. The countries with the most certified global land area farmed organically has expanded more than organic producers in 2010 were India (400,551 farmers), Uganda threefold to 37 million hectares. Regions with the largest certified (188,625) and Mexico (128,826). Non-certified organic agriculture organic agricultural land in 2010 were Oceania, including in developing countries is practiced by millions of indigenous Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific Island nations (12.1 million people, peasants and small family farms involved in subsistence hectares); Europe (10 million hectares); and Latin America (8.4 and local market-oriented production. million hectares), according to the report authors. Further highlights from the report: Organic farming is now established in international standards and 84 countries had implemented organic regulations by 2010, • In 2010, the most recent year for which data are available, up from 74 countries in 2009. Definitions vary, but according to certified organic farming accounted for approximately 0.9 the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, percent of the world’s agricultural land. organic agriculture is a production system that relies on • Africa is home to 3% of the world’s certified organic ecological processes, such as waste recycling, rather than the use agricultural land, with just over 1 million hectares certified. of synthetic inputs, such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Asia has 7%, with a total of 2.8 million hectares.
“Although organic agriculture often produces lower yields • Despite a decline in organically farmed land in China and on land that has recently been farmed conventionally, it can India between 2009 and 2010, India’s export volume of outperform conventional practices - especially in times of organic produce increased by 20%. drought - when the land has been farmed organically for a longer time,” said Reynolds, a researcher with Worldwatch’s Food and Agriculture Program. “Conventional agricultural practices often degrade the environment over both the long and short term through soil erosion, excessive water extraction, and biodiversity loss.”
Page 6 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Pesticide / GM news
Pesticide risks to bee decline BASF drops GM potatoes in Europe identified BASF announced at the end of January that it is abandoning EFSA scientists have identified a number of risks posed to bees by efforts to gain EU authorisation for three GM potatoes after over a three neonicotinoid insecticides. The Authority was asked by the decade of investment and research. The company is also dropping European Commission to assess the risks associated with the use research into GM “nutritionally enhanced corn” in the US, which of clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam as seed treatment will trigger the closure of six field sites and the loss of 40 jobs. or as granules, with particular regard to: their acute and chronic BASF’s statement says of its GM potato, “Investment cannot be effects on bee colony survival and development; their effects on justified due to uncertainty in the regulatory environment and bee larvae and bee behaviour and the risks posed by sub-lethal threats of field destructions,” but this fails to acknowledge that in doses of the three substances. In some cases EFSA was unable to fact there is no market for the products and activist interference in finalise the assessments due to shortcomings in the available data. GM trials is in fact very rare.
The risk assessments focused on three main routes of exposure: BASF’s GM starch altered Amflora potato is one of only two exposure from residues in nectar and pollen in the flowers of crops with EU cultivation authorisation. Its approval and treated plants; exposure from dust produced during the sowing commercialisation has a chequered history. Post-industrial pulp of treated seeds or application of granules and exposure from of the crop is used as animal feed, and approval was delayed residues in guttation fluid produced by treated plants. because EU Member States raised questions about its safety and objected to the use of antibiotic resistant marker genes in its Where the risk assessments could be completed, EFSA, in development - a practice EU authorities say should be phased out cooperation with scientific experts from EU Member States, to help prevent escalation of the antibiotic resistance in human and concluded the following for all three substances: veterinary medicine. The crop’s eventual 2010 authorisation caused • Exposure from pollen and nectar. Only uses on crops not considerable controversy, then BASF’s reputation was tarnished attractive to honey bees were considered acceptable. further when Amflora seed potato was accidentally mixed with another unauthorised experimental GM potato, and the first crop • Exposure from dust. A risk to honey bees was indicated or had to be destroyed. The total area of Amflora grown under license could not be excluded, with some exceptions, such as use on in the EU in 2011 fell to a mere 18 hectares in Sweden and Germany. sugar beet and crops planted in glasshouses and for the use of some granules. There is still no clear need for the crop, and there is evidence that existing markets have rejected it. Germany’s Emsland Group, • Exposure from guttation. The only risk assessment that could which is developing its own non-GM starch altered potato, said be completed was for maize treated with thiamethoxam. In in April 2012 it “will not cultivate nor process GM potatoes or this case, field studies show an acute effect on honey bees derived products during the campaign in 2012/13”. There are a exposed to the substance through guttation fluid. number of conventionally bred varieties with very high resistance The European Commission has subsequently called for a to potato blight (from the Sarvari Research Trust and others) two-year ban on all uses of neonicotinoid products in crops rendering GM a costly, risky and lengthy diversion. considered dangerous to honey bee health. Commission Pete Riley of GM freeze commented: “BASF’s decision to dump spokesman Frederic Vincent said the EU was proposing a GM potatoes and ‘enhanced’ corn is very good news. GM is on suspension on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides in oilseed the ropes. The companies that stand to lose the millions poured rape, maize, sunflowers and cotton. Mr Vincent said the into ill-judged research projects will of course try to blame others, ban was for crops that “most attracted bees” but did not but the fact of the matter is there is no market for these products. concern “crops that don’t attract bees and “Conventional plant breeders can now get on with developing are planted in autumn”. conventional potatoes for industrial uses or with blight resistance, MEPs will now discuss for which there is a clear market, as they have for many years. the proposal in a meeting BASF seems to want to blame everyone else for its poor investment on 25 February. If the choices, but the truth is there is no demand for GM products. BASF regulation is approved, shareholders might have some questions for their the Directors as a ban could be imposed to why the company has been heading up a blind alley for so long from 1 July this year. when the signs of consumer and corporate rejection of GM has been all too apparent for the last 15 years.” Photo: Anne Taylor Anne Photo: Honeybee covered in pumpkin pollen.
Page 7 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 General news Delfland’s new online tray shop For many years Delfland has catered for smaller growers with sowing systems and traceability geared up for single trays. However, delivering small quantities is a major cost, so they have come up with a new tray that is suitable for delivery via courier. Each tray has 144 cells, with an average of 137 usable plants per tray. The trays are non-returnable and reusable, with care. This new service is ideal for smaller growers, community supported farms, smallholders and allotment associations.
Delfland also deliver by pallet loads anywhere in the UK and make regular deliveries in trucks of various sizes to East Anglia, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, the M4 corridor, West Midlands, South Coast, South West and North East England. Other areas are possible.
"We cater for all orders of all sizes, so whether you want a handful, a tray, a pallet or thousands we can help" says John Overvoorde, Managing Director (and grower).
The following plants are also available from the online tray shop: beetroot, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, calabrese, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, chard, kales, kohl rabi, land cress, leeks, lettuces, onions, parsley, perpetual spinach, wild rocket, shallot and sprouting broccoli.
To order from the tray shop visit www.delfland.co.uk. Small quantities of other plug plants, including grafted tomato, cucumber, pepper and aubergine seedlings can be ordered from www.organicplants.co.uk and are all in peat-free compost. The Spanish ‘stealth’ slug threat rest of Delfland’s organic wholesale plants are in a reduced peat Last summer the aggressive slug species (Arion vulgaris) was, mix. For larger quantities contact John Overvoorde on 07885 for the first time, identified in the UK. Dr Bedford, head of the 638284, 01354 740553 or [email protected]. BBSRC-funded John Innes Centre’s (JIC) Entomology facility, Future Growers said: “The presence of this aggressive species is bad news. With few predators, a voracious appetite and the ability to lay around Future Growers offers a new six-month traineeship, as well as a two- 400 eggs each, the slugs multiply quickly, can cause huge damage year apprenticeship. The Soil Association’s organic apprenticeship to crops and can push out other slugs and snails to dominate an is widely recognised as the gold standard in providing a area.” Dr Bedford and his colleagues at Aberdeen and Newcastle comprehensive two-year training in organic horticulture, allowing Universities are developing a potential programme of research to apprentices to follow two whole growing seasons. find out more about the Spanish Slug, its distribution in the UK and The new traineeship will allow more future growers to work the effect it is having. “I think the main thing is people are going alongside organic experts who are passionate about training the to see humungous amounts of slugs in their gardens,” said Dr next generation and passing on their skills and knowledge. The Bedford. “There are reports of oilseed rape having problems this traineeship is ideal for growers who are unable to offer a two year year from molluscs which we think could well be because of this placement, but allowing them to recruit seasonal staff who are Spanish Slug. I’ve actually seen them in a potato field in the middle committed to organic principles, keen to learn and eager to join of summer sliming across dry, sandy soil and the agronomist with the UK’s community of organic fruit and vegetable producers. me couldn’t believe what he was seeing because slugs don’t usually do that. It’s We need more organic growers to step forward and play their part a hardy in helping to train up the next generation. Please contact Rachel species.” Harries: [email protected]. T 0117 987 4601 Photo: Wikipedia Photo:
Page 8 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Oxford Real Farming Conference
This was the fourth Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC): the first one took place in 2010 as an alternative to the long standing Oxford Farming Conference (OFC), which focuses on how British farmers can compete in the global market. The ORFC aims to discuss and carry out actions on other things: nutritious food, sustainable systems, and satisfying jobs for instance. Colin Tudge (author and biologist), one of the chief organisers from the outset, sums it up: “The crux of the difference [between the two conferences] is that they see farming as, I quote, ‘a business like any other’. We are saying that, no, the task of agriculture is to produce good food for everyone, and to do that without wrecking the rest of the world.”
It is not unlike other conferences in that whatever sessions you reforming agrarian systems in such a way as to achieve the most attend, you feel that there are others running concurrently that efficient development and utilization of natural resources.” you would also like to go to. With over 67 hours of discussions and lectures over the two days, there was plenty of choice. Positive Real Participation change was a theme running through every session, whether When I look back on the 2013 conference, and what sets it apart it be scrutinising food law and regulations, or launching a new from other conferences, I will think of the sessions above the café on initiative to join together organisations of shared goals. Turl Street, which is on a side street by some of the oldest university
The 2013 ORFC saw the launch of the Agroecology Alliance, a new buildings. In three small rooms there were sessions ongoing grouping of like-minded UK-based organisations seeking to make throughout the day, as well as film showings. During nearly every agroecology the norm for production. The aim is to change the session I attended, there were probably as many people squashed framing of the debate on food production among politicians, public, into the corners of the room, on the floor, on sofa arms, as there food providers and researchers and to shift the political agenda were in chairs. Attending the discussion came above and beyond towards agroecology, in particular in R&D funding priorities. The everything else; having your ears in the room (and a voice if you OGA would certainly fall into the category ‘like-minded’. wanted) was much more important for delegates than having a seat.
A session on Food Sovereignty UK gave an introduction to the Just prior to an inspiring end to the conference by Reclaim the international movement Via Campesina, and a proposal to found Fields, telling their story of using neglected land in the Forest a UK branch. The aim in the UK would be to collaboratively set of Dean, I attended a packed room for the GM Freeze sessions. out a campaigning strategy for addressing issues facing small From a discussion that both organic and conventional farmers producers in the UK. It would need a producer-led organisation contributed to and found common ground in, a letter has been with the unity, legitimacy and resources to speak for small-scale produced that summarises what was agreed on: Plant breeding food producers. The alliance could advocate the benefits of this and genetics cannot provide all the answers to all the potential type of food production, propose policy changes, lobby for more obstacles that lie ahead in food production. There are very support for small-scale producers, and contest the dominant important socio-economic factors that need to inform the direction discourse of the NFU on agricultural issues. It sounds like another of research and development. There are so many variables that organisation that the OGA would benefit from being a part of. there is limited worth – if the aim is to produce food in a way that will actually feed the population, economic factors and business Nic Lampkin noted, in another session, the need for organisations interests aside – in spending millions of pounds of tax payers’ to join forces, remain focused, compromise a little and do what money solving specific problems within a flawed system. It is the they’re best at: “We have suffered from fragmentation,” he said of systems themselves that need more research; systems based on the organic/sustainable food movement. sufficiency as a starting point, rather than productivity. The letter In Dr Naomi Salmon’s session, we looked at how it could be criticises the emphasis of researching ‘above the ground’ factors, argued that the current prevailing food system, and the food it when it is in fact good soil management and better understanding produces, actually contravenes European law. Article 11 of the of the soil that would benefit food producers.
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights That said, and the point was made many times over the two makes interesting reading: “The States Parties to the present days, research results invariably correlate with the interests of the Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard bodies that fund them. It is interesting to note that although a lot of living for himself and his family, including adequate food… of the money going into GM research is from the taxpayer, it is The States Parties to the present Covenant, recognizing the not possible to read the protocol; it is guarded by confidentiality. fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger, shall take … the measures … which are needed … to improve methods of Will Johnson production, conservation and distribution of food by making You can read the letter in full (and put yourself forward, as I have, as a signatory,) full use of technical and scientific knowledge, by disseminating at www.oxfordrealfarmingconference.org/uploads/1/2/9/8/12984490/open_letter_ knowledge of the principles of nutrition and by developing or to_defra_on_rd.pdf.
Page 9 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 ORC 7th Organic Producers’ Conference - Making producer- led innovation a reality Opening plenary In stark contrast to last year, this year’s organic producer conference opened with a panel of four active producers covering dairy, arable and horticulture. Philip Cook and Becky Jam from Coombe farm in Somerset started us off with a summary of their long- term relationship with Waitrose. Back in 1978 they started selling traditional Somerset cheese, through what was then a relatively small Waitrose retail chain. Whey from the cheese-making process was used on-farm to feed pigs, which in turn added manure to feed the soil and help close the nutrient cycle within the farm. Photo: Phil Sumption Phil Photo: As Waitrose grew, however, their artisan operation found it The conference was held at a snowy Aston University on 22nd-23rd January 2013 difficult to keep up with cheaper, heavily branded competition and and her experiences of starting a business. Slugs were a big problem they realised that they needed better communication within their for her, as I’m sure they were for many OGA members in what product offering to survive in this market. For Philip, converting was a very challenging year for growing vegetables. Kate sells her to organic put his business back in touch with the values he and produce through a farm shop and supplies local restaurants, both of his farmers held dear. which maintained strong demand throughout. Becky went on to describe how they now supply fresh milk to Kate feels that there is a general suspicion in society of fresh or Waitrose, through a milk pool of 24 dairy farmers, all of whom organic food, due to the price premiums, but that those who are open to innovation and change. Coombe Farm’s relationship understand food value the way it is produced and how it reaches with Waitrose, based on constant communication and deep their plate. She would like to see more independent research understanding has led them to achieve the status of ‘strategic into organic methods and more work carried out on grassroots’ partner’ with the retailer, allowing them even to contribute to awareness, in schools for example. DW Waitrose’s corporate strategy.
[Ed – Philip Cook sadly passed away suddenly the weekend after this conference, Organic seeds & breeding for and our thoughts are with his family and friends] organic growers John Pewsey of Shimpling Park Farms followed by describing After a delicious organic lunch and the usual networking and the problems and opportunities in his organic arable system trade-stand-visiting, it was straight into the sessions. The first which covers 2,500 acres in Suffolk. He faces the typical arable OGA-organised session was opened by Peter Brinch from Open weed problems posed by blackgrass and wild oats, while the Pollinated Seeds, who generously kept his talk very short so that wet conditions last year allowed yellow rust to reduce his wheat breeder René Groenen might have longer to talk to us later. Peter harvest by around half – a cool £330,000 in lost revenue. did explain that we are at a real crossroads when it comes to seed production: we now have a very centralised system, with F1 hybrids John spreads risk through diversity, both in cash crops and choices dominating the market – a complete reversal of 20-30 years ago. of green manure crops. In terms of innovations he proposed that Seed-saving skills are becoming forgotten as buying seed is now better soil management alone so easy and cheap; but saving seed will be very important in the could boost wheat yields from future, especially if we’re to grow the best crops for our region and 5.5 to 6.5 t/ha, possibly through climate. Peter hopes that seed production will once again become GPS-assisted muck applications. part of the growing and food production process. Having said this, he asserted that while yield increases are important Louisa Winkler from the ORC then gave us an update on the work we should never compromise on she’s involved with on the SOLIBAM project. Based at Wakelyns, organic principles. this long-term European project is looking at how increasing diversity in both genetics and systems can improve resilience Kate Collyns of Grown Green then and performance of crops. The two crops they are looking at are provided the growers perspective Photo: Organic Research Centre Research Organic Photo: Kate Collyns
Page 10 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 taking notes; and ensuring a large enough quantity is saved, in order to prevent inbreeding. René also suggested saving some original seed, in order to compare the new adapted version with it. Growers could set up small networks saving particular varieties and crops for seed exchange; and take advantage of seed cleaning services offered by places like Stormy Hall. René pointed out that we should do this if we want to grow brassicas in the future, since CMS (Cytoplasmic Male Sterility) hybrids are rapidly replacing
Photo: Phil Sumption Phil Photo: F1 hybrids, and CMS seed is not currently allowed under some The seeds panel: Ben Raskin (chair), Louisa Winkler, Peter Brinch, René Groenen European organic standards. and Brian Smith broccoli and beans; crossing Italian landrace varieties and trialling An interesting discussion followed, and Sam Eglington pointed them at a number of sites across Europe, saving seeds from each out that seed-saving is very easy for a number of crops (beans, generation and propagating them for three seasons. The trial peas, tomatoes), even for parsnips, which put some people off as has lasted for two generations so far, but there are already some they only flower in the second year. However he recommended interesting results: comparing a number of cross-pollination his system of setting aside good parsnips while harvesting, and combinations with control varieties including F1 hybrids. There replanting elsewhere to flower in a small area in order to re-use is clearly lots of potential, and the yields of the landrace broccoli the ground (this can also work for other biennial crops such as varieties are comparable with the F1; and score higher for texture brassicas). Sam reported better crops since saving his own seed, and flavour. There is currently a programme trialling the varieties and agreed with René that you can’t really dip in and out of seed with growers in East Anglia, to find out if these crops are practical saving – you need to do it seriously if you want results. KC to grow in terms of harvesting and so on; some French growers have refused to grow the broccoli however since there are a Innovations in grower tools number of small shoots rather than a large head to harvest, which After a quick coffee break, the horticulturalists came back together larger growers are not geared up to harvest. to enjoy some online streamed videos of Eliot Coleman giving us a brief glimpse into his professionally-homemade tools perfect for There are also potential problems with these varieties, since small-scale growing: he points out that the tools he needs are the only seeds legally registered on the EU list can be traded or their same tools that growers were using 100 years ago. We also saw produce sold; currently the EU are revising the process, although an interesting film from The Seed Farm, Penn State Extension, it seems unlikely that this will lead to much more freedom for demonstrating how to use the Japanese paper pot transplanter small seed producers. system. This involves pulling prefabricated special thick paper Biodynamic grower, breeder and seed producer René Groenen concertina sheets over tray guides, filling with compost and then explained how the ‘initiative circle’ of growers in Germany sowing as usual, and then setting up on the special transplanter (although he is based in the Netherlands) have founded a co- when ready to plant out: then simply pulling the transplanter operative to breed, maintain and sell a whole range of open- along which opens the earth, leaving the ream of plants in paper pollinated seeds. They select varieties that are good for both the pots perfectly spaced in the furrow, then closing the space behind. grower (i.e. ease of production and harvest), and the consumer It’s a very neat system, and could work on a particular scale (not (i.e. taste). René explained that negative selection happens first; too small or no time would be saved once all the elements had so while the crop is growing, anything which is stunted or been completed rather than planting by hand; and it probably diseased gets whipped out, so its genes won’t carry on. In the wouldn’t replace tractor-based planting) for particular crops, such organisation, the seed price is based on the cost of production, as onions or leeks. and in the beginning, growers would only get paid for what they Roger Hitchings then took us through his two visits to Eliot sold, at the end of the season. This enabled the organisation to get Coleman’s holding in 2009 and 2011, looking in particular at going and build up funds; now growers get paid for what they his range of tools. Eliot has his own system of bending metal produce, not what they sell. Membership is open; and there is tubes with a former to whatever size and curve he wants; complete transparency, where anyone can read the biography and and has made a huge range of structures with them: movable history of a variety; there are also expert groups on species. The chicken houses with mesh floors and secured with chains; a groups are financed by donations, membership fees, and small solar-powered tool carrier with seat; and a corn crib. He also ‘royalties’ (although growers register varieties, they do not have uses modular tunnels (Roger points out that although these plant-breeders’ rights to the seed). René likened the approach to seem very convenient since you can add sections at a time, the ‘copyleft’ instead of copyright. system involves inconvenient cross braces at floor level); and He encouraged all growers in the UK to save seed, explaining movable tunnels on rails to cover some crops at certain stages how simple and fun it can be. He advised reading books that of the season, before moving to cover others (See OG #18). are older than 50 years for the best advice; storing seed well;
Page 11 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Iain Tolhurst then added his thoughts on ‘innovative’ tools (he said Via Campesina UK Meeting he didn’t realise he was being ‘innovative‘ until quite recently). Since 80% of labour goes into around 10% of his land area, tools are Adam Payne (Organiclea) gave a short briefing to the conference incredibly important to operations at Hardwick. We saw pictures delegates who stayed behind on the nascent plan to launch a of his newly painted neat tool shed (2012 offered time to get those UK branch of La Via Campesina (VC), the international peasant kind of jobs done!). Tolly explained that some of his most valued farming movement. The organisation was founded in 1993 to and used tools are a metre stick, row-marker (OG #6), and long- represent the rights of small-scale traditional food producers and handled tools such as shovels. Anything that saves your or your currently represents 200 million farmers, growers, pastoralists employees’ time is definitely positive, especially economically. We and fisherfolk around the world. A central part of the VC identity also saw a picture of Tolly’s tunnel supports in action, following the stems from the international campaign for Food Sovereignty snowy weather just days before: simply 2”x 4” planks of wood on that began in 1996: “the right of communities to define their own every other hoop to help prevent damage from the weight of snow food and farming system”. In political and lobbying terms, they on polytunnel roofs. He also advocated making a finger weeder see themselves in the UK as a public counterweight to the NFU, using three small pieces of high tensile wire stuffed into a wooden representing a coalition of small-scale producers and giving voice handled; and more wire with polytunnel plastic over the top to to the issues affecting their livelihoods. make invaluable cloches or low tunnels, in order to offer early crops The shape and the agenda of the UK branch is still being formed; such as early courgettes some protection when planted out. they want it to represent a broad church of interests (while Tolly also showed us impressive pictures of an experiment with remaining small producer-led), and build on the experience using his famous woodchip compost piles as hot beds: just a few of other interested organisations, such as the OGA. The list of trays of salad leaves on top of the pile made good use of the 7C+ campaign issues that the UK branch wants to engage with is still when the outside temperature was well below freezing. He also being shaped. Their draft manifesto covers seed sovereignty, suggested simple alterations such as a traffic cone used with an CAP reform, planning reform, access to land and animal feed obsolete potato planter can give equipment a new lease of life regulations. Membership is now open and the inaugural AGM took as something else – in that case, planting onions or Jerusalem place on Sunday March 3rd at Ruskin Mill Farm, Gloucestershire, artichokes. The best thing to do during boring jobs after all is to see www.viacampesina.org.uk to find out more.JE come up with ways of making them pass more quickly! KC Horticulture research session Postgraduate Diploma and MSc in Some of us stayed on for a discussion on research opportunities available for organic growers. The ORC Participatory Network and Duchy Originals Future Farming Programme have been Organic Farming asking growers and farmers about where they think more SRUC offers this high-level taught postgraduate course on a part-time research could be most useful. So far under the horticultural online distance learning basis. Supported by a number of residential study weekends throughout the year, the course allows students to study in their heading, the following areas have been identified: identification of own home or workplace. suitable varieties; seed availability; improved nutritional quality; The course aims to enhance organic businesses and promote careers in managing soil biota; soil organic matter/carbon; soil management organic consultancy, farm management, inspection, certification, marketing and research, etc. techniques; composting; control of brassica whitefly; control of Topics covered include: slugs; control of flea beetle; information on beneficial antagonists. • Organic Crop Production • Soils and Nutrient Cycling The following discussion tended to coalesce around seed • Organic Forage and Livestock Production • Environmental Issues saving and varieties, and the practicalities involved (especially • Food Quality seed cleaning. There is definitely scope for the OGA and/or • Marketing local growers’ groups to get involved in arranging seed saving The course starts each year in September. Applications, assessed individually on academic qualifications and and swapping groups and sessions; possibly facilitated by experience, are invited throughout the year. research students or Field Labs. The ORC also invited growers For further information please contact us or take a look at the postgraduate to send further research ideas to them at any time. elmfarm@ courses page on our web site. organicresearchcentre.com KC
Contact Dr Lou Ralph e: [email protected] t: (01224) 711218
www.sruc.ac.uk/learning
SRUC is a charity registered in Scotland, No. SC003712 Photo: Organic Research Centre Research Organic Photo:
Page 12 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Systems resilience for weather at Wakelyns is a north-south alley cropping system with a rotation of potatoes, clover leys and cereals between avenues of hardwood, extremes apple trees or willow and hazel. The latter are coppiced for fuel in It was no surprise to find this on the conference agenda after a short rotation (see www.wakelyns.co.uk for a full description). the weather horrors of last season and it was a lively and well- The research is measuring the effect tree rows have in regulating attended session at the start of day two. With the prospect that the microclimate around them and slowing down the spread of climate change will increase the frequency of extreme weather pests and pathogens. events, the speakers explored the potential for using organic and The results show many potential benefits from integrating trees into agroecological systems to help buffer the worst effects. a horticultural system. The climate buffering effect is significant; Sam Eglington began by taking us back to the basic science of the tree rows are able to shelter the crop from wind, reducing energy flow in ecosystems. We’re all familiar with the role of evaporative stress and regulating temperature extremes, making the nutrient, water and carbon cycles on our land. However, the it cooler between the tree alleys in summer and warmer in winter. energy that drives these processes is created by photosynthesis Soil erosion and water use efficiency is also improved. Disease- and is linear rather than cyclical in nature; a substantial amount spread can be buffered; for example hazel coppice rows gave an (typically 90%) of that energy is continuously lost as heat through extra three weeks before the onset of potato blight compared with metabolism by plants, by decay processes and by scavengers at a neighbour’s open field. Apple yields this year were also much each trophic layer; Sam demonstrated this as an ecosystem ‘energy higher in quantity, with less disease than a nearby non-organic pyramid,’ with plants in the bottom layer. So maximising the orchard. Agroforestry bolsters resilience by diversifying the productivity of your land means maximising the energy captured range of outputs: top fruit, soft fruit, timber or biomass, as well by plants at this lowest tropic level of the energy pyramid. The as vegetables. The range of habitats promotes more biodiversity, variables a grower can work with to capture more energy into which increases resilience when extreme weather impacts on crops are: plant coverage area, increasing the area of ground cover important species, for example pollinating insects (see OG #21). by crops or green manures (or weeds) to eliminate bare ground; The questions from the floor addressed some of the downsides; plant density, increasing the density of cover by crops and green most of us rent land and persuading a landlord to let you establish manures; and growing time, maximising the period of active rows of trees across a field is not an easy proposition. The tree growth and choosing faster-growing varieties where appropriate. element also reduces the area available for vegetable crops and Increasing ground cover also protects against soil erosion, in needs appropriate management to avoid competition for light, particular the most immediately damaging erosion occurring in water and nutrients. But if you can get a system in place, the periods of heavy rain due to breakdown of the crumb structure benefits greatly outweigh the difficulties. and nutrient loss in the first few centimetres of bare cultivated Iain Tolhurst expanded on his reflections in his essay of last soil. The more ground cover you can maintain, the more resilience year ‘Weather we like it or not’ (see OG #20) by offering some your system will have to the very wet and very dry extremes. sobering challenges for the future. Climate change and increasing Sam described the practical measures he is using on his land; frequency of extreme weather years are now facts of life that we principally inter-cropping and extensive use of green manures have to work with. But climate is not the only potential shock for under-sowing and ground cover. For inter-cropping, the to the system; energy and fuel shortages, fertility pressures, ideal partnership is a faster and a slow growing crop to establish long-term degradation of soils, market instabilities, civil unrest, ground coverage quickly and then maintain it. Sam’s experience is reduced genetic diversity of crops and the threat of GM are all that the real key to controlling weeds is competition from a faster- real threats to our livelihoods. There are no simple solutions here, growing cover crop; mechanical weeding alone isn’t enough. At it demands long-term thinking and gradual steps towards a big Garden Farm his plan is to find an inter-cropping system for as change to the system of food production. many crops as possible. For example, Sam had some unexpected Tolly sees the organic producer as being in a far better position good results from (by chance due to lack of ready bed space) than most to bring about a change to a more resilient system. growing beetroot and carrots together. Issues to be aware of are However we are up against the GM lobby who think they can shading-out effects and slower growth in the middle of beds, and design their way out of trouble; he cautioned that GM could be the inevitable headache of how to work it into your rotation. (Sam a far greater threat than climate change to the resilience of our will be writing up his experiences with inter-cropping at www. agricultural systems, because it will lead to complacency which is themarketgardener.co.uk/blog/ - see also Grower profile p27) a very dangerous thing. Wakelyns is the ORC’s 23 hectare agroforestry site in Suffolk, Tolly was questioned on practicalities and what growers should farmed by Martin Wolfe. The lesson that horticulture can take be doing now, in the face of all this doom and gloom, to invest in from agroforestry research is how increasing diversity, using more resilience? Again there were no simple answers, but he saw perennials and working in three dimensions can greatly benefit the key to the future as finding more ways to ‘close the loop’ on the stability and productivity of a growing operation. The layout
Page 13 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 your holding and work more closely with nature. If climate change Roger surmised that many of the enduring schemes in the US means that annual cropping will be more risky and vulnerable, (who have been working at CSA for longer and have many more then we need to start thinking more about using perennials and than Europe) were those that started life as producer-led CSAs, take on board some of the lessons from agroforestry; trees and because an established growing business already ticks most of the perennials establish themselves deeper into the ecology and survival guide boxes. increase the stability of the system. Or failing that, just buy A CSA can offer an opportunity for a grower to diversify their yourself a nice old sailboat like Tolly’s and retire to ride the rising market. Roger used Mike Westrip at Rhos Market Garden as an waters in comfort. JE example of a grower with an established box scheme and local CSAs & other community-based market sales who has now added a subscription CSA to his business. The CSA has a voucher scheme where customers can opportunities for growers choose to pay upfront for blocks of vouchers that can be redeemed Community Supported Agriculture ventures can take several for box deliveries or at the market stall; the voucher acts like a forms, but essentially they are either community-led or grower- social share, giving a commitment to support the grower while the led. Much of the spotlight in recent years has been on the customer gets the benefit of flexibility.(See article on p16). community angle, so this session wanted to look at how grower- Ben Raskin then summarised the findings from the Soil led CSAs work and what advantages they can bring to an organic Association’s four-year study of CSA in the UK. Ben described the vegetable business. The theme was how CSAs can stay viable business case (“what’s in it for me?”) for a producer considering a when funding streams come to an end, and how the CSA model CSA. The biggest advantages are the cashflow benefits, the greater can benefit existing growing enterprises. security by sharing the risk with the customer (especially attractive Roger Hitchings reported on the findings from a study he is in light of last season), and the stronger allegiance and loyalty working on for Better Organic Business Links (BOBL) in Wales. that a CSA scheme fosters in customers. The catches are that you His brief is to produce a survival guide for CSAs in Wales (though really do have to like working with other people (and some of us the findings are applicable elsewhere) to help them secure a long- don’t…) and that it can take more time to make things happen term future. It can also help funding bodies to be more confident when many more people have a say in it. Managing volunteers they are investing in projects that are likely to succeed. Roger noted and CSA members is a different skill to growing, but another that the CSA movement has taken different directions in different big advantage is the access a CSA gives to a wider pool of skills. countries. The Japanese Takei model (from where the Western Ben spoke about The Community Farm (see OG #19) that he CSA model originated) and the French AMAP (Association pour is involved in, where the business can draw (for free) on their le Maintien d’une Agriculture Paysanne) are both partnerships board and members’ expertise in, for example, fund-raising, legal between a pre-existing producer and a nearby population. CSAs problems, marketing, social media and community engagement, in the US and the UK have diverged into a wide range of different things that for a lone grower might be unaffordable. models to suit local circumstances; this is a strength but can also In the discussion from the floor it was noted that we need to do a be confusing for customers and supporters when trying to explain lot more to raise the awareness of CSAs and food security in the what CSA means. wider public and among policy markets. Alan Schofield reflected The BOBL study looked at the experiences of just eight CSA on his own experience that a loyal local community can offer schemes (there are few of them in Wales) so it was not a large tremendous support to a grower in times of trouble, often without sample, but also took a wider perspective from a literature review you asking for it first, and without you being a CSA. Ben said that of the lessons learned in other countries. The greatest longevity while this is undoubtedly the case, times are getting tougher and seems to be where the CSA is run as a not-for-profit company or relying on customer loyalty might not be enough any more. by a charity. There were few concrete examples of why projects do The Soil Association’s report The Impact of Community Supported not succeed; crop failure is cited more often than scheme failure. Agriculture, and the Plunkett Foundation’s 2012 report Keep Roger concluded that in order to survive, CSAs need these things: Farming Local give good overviews of where the CSA movement • a realistic pricing policy (don’t under-price) is at and where it might be heading (both available from the
• expertise: make sure the right people are doing the right work
• avoid over-reliance on volunteer labour
• be clear about land entitlement and for how long
• a suitable site
• clear communication with all involved
• be very clear about the structure and how it works Photo: Phil Sumption Phil Photo:
Page 14 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 respective websites). Rachel Harries of the Soil Association said that they have a modest amount of new funding this year to assist producers who want to set up CSAs; contact her (rharries@ soilassociation.org) for more details. JE Closing Plenary
Nadia El-Hage Scialabba answers a question, while David Gould and Lawrwnce Photo: Organic Research Centre Research Organic Photo: Woodward look on
The closing plenary took a broader industry perspective, with the panel consisting of speakers involved at the international policy level. Nadia El-Hage Scialabba represents the agroecological agenda at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. She described how most talk of ‘sustainable intensification’ looks at issues in isolation, GMOs being a prime example of this. Her department carried out evaluations for
Rio+20, showing benefits in profitability, resilience and resource-
efficiency in agroecological systems. After giving examples of success stories from developing countries, Nadia questioned the projection of 65-70% rise in food demand that underpins UN food policy. All the same, a major
study by FiBL (Swiss Research Institute of Organic Agriculture) using all FAO data found that even with this scenario, a world using 100% organic methods could be fed if consumption of meat was reduced by a third.
David Gould of IFOAM echoed this need for diets to change, reflecting the relative availability of local resources that can be sustainably utilised. From talks with policy makers, David reflected that everyone knows the current paradigm isn’t working, WWOOF is a network connecting farmers, growers that the top-down approach cannot deliver food sovereignty. He and smallholders with volunteers who want to noted that most of the ‘organic bashing’ was done by those with learn about low-impact, self-sufficient and organic powerful vested interests, influencing many to still see organic living first-hand. farming as something elitist, expensive and unscaleable. However, - Volunteers help hosts in return for food, when the whole picture is presented, lots of people eventually accommodation, knowledge and hands-on come to organic as the solution. experience One comment from the floor criticised the whole concept of - Hosts get to meet like-minded people from sustainable intensification. Another questioned whether fuel around the world and gain valuable extra help on and fibre demands featured in FAO projections, to which Nadia the land replied that they did. DW For more information and to Conference reporting by David Wright, Kate Collyns and join as a host or volunteer visit John English. www.wwoof.org.uk The ORC Producer Conference proceedings have now been published on the ORC website www.organicresearchcentre.com
Page 15 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Community support? We can vouch for that!
It’s five years almost to the day that Alice and I began establishing But as time has our market garden enterprise in the Welsh Marches (see OG #8). gone on, we Four rented acres of what you’d expect at 850ft and a static caravan have found that our starting point, this month two acres of our own land across the some customers road will complete conversion and help increase production. As a would spend all family, we continue getting accustomed to the quirks of living in a their vouchers house again, since finishing building it last autumn. in less than 40 weeks, perhaps spending three a week. Very few seem to take a whole year, and it didn’t really seem to matter We knew a little about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) when people renewed, just as long as they did; and most of them schemes, and saw the potential benefits: less isolation; more help; do/have. We now average 20 customers a year on the scheme, stronger customer relationships. But we wanted to avoid what we securing us just under £6,000 – just over 10% of last year’s turnover. saw as potential snags – committees mainly. We certainly didn’t want to exclude purely financial support: we recognised not It obviously does not suit everyone who shops with us (nor would everyone would want to be physically involved, some just want we want it to): £200 or £400 cheques are not small ones to write, good food. We also felt we wanted to be a business; a sustainable and paying upfront for anything can be pretty daunting. However, business, with the CSA scheme forming a spoke in the wheel. those that are willing and able to seem to find it a really refreshing way to offer an extra level of commitment to a local business. We The key for us was to try and make things as flexible and simple love the fact that other customers see strange bits of paper being as possible, in order to (hopefully) make the scheme an attractive handed over instead of fivers and tenners. An annual get-together option for at least some of our customers, and not give us an here also gives us the chance for further ‘thank you’s.’ administrative headache. Another source of inspiration came from Eliot Coleman and his writing on subscription marketing Voucher books also provide us with local currency. We exchange and producer/consumer co-partnerships, convincing us that books in return for help with marketing (including the designing getting people to pay upfront for produce was a possibility. and printing of all the voucher books), our hedges being laid, and even the odd piece of artwork. So we struck on the concept of ‘Veg Vouchers’. We sell books of 40 vouchers valued at £5 or £10, costing £200 or £400 per book. More than money Once a customer has bought their book, the vouchers can then be redeemed for produce either at our weekly market stalls, or the Some of those who can’t invest in a financial sense, join in on our veg bag collection point. monthly work mornings throughout the busy spell. With a dozen or more eager sets of hands, we can hit those out-of-control places Making it work we might normally just walk past with our heads down. Time and labour is given freely for the odd bunch of flowers or carrots, Our initial plan was to have a single yearly renewal date: sometime and cup of coffee. Of course there’s our growing band (currently a in the spring, when, as you know only too well, bills are big, and duo) of weekly volunteers who come and contribute in more ways having a cash transfusion into the business is extremely helpful. than we ever thought possible. Therefore books would only be valid for one year: January to January. We also saw it as a one voucher per week thing. Hence Around 80% of our sales are within four miles of here, and the reason we set on 40 vouchers in a book so that if a person was any of us who aim to sell truly locally have to engage with and away or missed a few weeks it wouldn’t matter....it meant they enthuse our local community to gain its support. CSA schemes, of were allowed a holiday even if we weren’t. Plus £5 or £10 units whatever denomination, give this a pretty good stab. Cementing just made the maths easy. and affirming mutually supportive relationships within those communities has to be a cornerstone, in the same way that rotation is another. So, only two more cornerstones and we’re sorted: if we want to be square that is… Mick Westrip
Rhos Market Garden serves the communities of Knighton, Presteigne and surrounding area, growing and providing seasonal organic produce through weekly market stalls and vegbag scheme. www.rhosorganic.co.uk
Page 16 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Nature notes: Almost a vegetable
The one pleasant surprise among my small and two arms of the eastern sea. An additional pleasure almost permanently saturated area of 2012 field was the presence of several pairs of oystercatchers, vegetables was a few handsomely large swedes. which in the north have over two or three centuries A few large swedes is almost a contradiction, extended their nesting zone far inland. The nest because this is a crop known for its liking of itself – an inconspicuous scrape marked by nothing being in a crowd of its own kind, in a field of its more than a few small pebbles and a straw or two – own where the wind may play under a large sky. might as well be on the beach. But there is nothing We used to grow an acre or two for the wholesale inconspicuous about the bird, one of our largest market, but with boxes swedes became the one waders. Its orange-red beak and eye and long pinkish thing we did habitually buy-in. I’m only growing legs are complemented by a smart piebald plumage, them now because I’m more of a gardener these black above with white breast and underparts, and days and can please myself, and because the white again revealed on the wings in flight. It has too Photo: Edwin Tucker & Sons Ltd Sons & Tucker Edwin Photo: ones available to buy are pretty poor – meagre, Devon Champion: Now in the a shrill and insistent piping call which it is not shy Heritage Seed Library tough and tasteless. about uttering. The whole ensemble gives it a bold and confident air, wary but not cowed. They’d sit tight on their Maybe you can still get a decent swede in Scotland. I hope so. eggs until you’d worked quite close. I’m sure it’s true that you Nearly forty years ago I worked on a farm in the north-east could move the eggs out of the way and replace them afterwards, Highlands where we grew more than thirty acres (one field) of but I preferred to arrange things so that I could let the nest and them, about 10% of the farm area. They weren’t called swedes of eggs pass undisturbed under the centre line of the tractor. course; usually neeps, sometimes swedds. Through the winter they fed both beasts and man, chopped in the first case, generally Back on a mixed farm in the Westcountry we grew a few acres of mashed in the second. With the addition of a bit of rolled barley swedes most years, more as an afterthought than as the central they fattened finishing cattle, with hay they sustained the stores, plank of winter feeding. The variety was Marian, then ubiquitous - while they kept the sheep going pretty much on their own. As for presumably on account of its resistance to clubroot. They certainly man – there wasn’t a great deal else available in the vegetable line had nothing to recommend them in the kitchen, and - tilled about through the winter, and these were good swedes. Midsummer as is normal down south – made an unimpressive crop compared to what I had known in the Highlands. This was my first experience of row crops – little did I know the life to come. Mildew not being an issue up there they were Later (on our own land) we discovered that it was just such little sown in early May on wide ridges and grew mightily, an average starvelings, as I thought of them, that the market wanted but at individual being 4 or 5 pounds in weight. Once or twice in late least we found a variety that cooked and tasted well. This was spring and early summer men came by in hope of work singling Devon Champion, bred and maintained by the venerable Edwin and hoeing, an echo of the time when agriculture depended on Tucker and Sons Ltd of Ashburton. Even so it was a relief to give such itinerant labour. They were too late - a Webb’s precision drill up wholesale swede growing. The root fly was bad enough and had done away with the need for singling, and as for hoeing ... we would certainly have been defeated by the rising tide of flea an applicator on the drill dispensed pre-emergent herbicide, a beetle through the 1990s. Devon Champion, once the king of the flowable powder (I believe it’s called trifluralin) which somehow Devon swede market, is available commercially no longer. It spared the emerging neep but gassed everything else. I never doesn’t process, and that’s the end of it. This season’s swedes are picked up a hoe until I became an organic grower. Ruby. They’re not bad, better than expected, and what’s more – I never saw a flea beetle in 2012. Weeds did grow though, as they will, especially on the sides of the ridges, and this gave me my first experience of mechanical weed I remember a student meal, when there was little in the larder, control. We used a scarifier, elsewhere known as a side-hoe, to that we christened Massed Swede. It left us yearning for cut them away. This consisted of a pair of angled discs for each something else. The swede is good stock-feed but a poor sort of two ridges, each pair being shiftable laterally by means of long of vegetable. Some vegetables will make you most of a meal, levers that could be reached from the tractor seat. This and the others are at least adaptable and can be deployed in a variety drilling was when the grey Fergy had its few days of glory on of ways. But the swede – you can mash it, or you can put it in a an otherwise more highly mechanised farm, and pleasant it was stew. Either way it wants a bit of meat to set it off. As a crop it to putter up and down the drills, with (on the upward bout) the turned out to be a sort of bridge for me between agriculture and great waste of moor and mountain rising one farm beyond us to horticulture, but I think it’s best left on the farmer’s side of the stretch away in its emptiness to the furthest coast and then - on line – almost but not quite a vegetable. the downhill – a neat and peopled country held in view between Tim Deane
Page 17 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Interview with Lawrence Woodward OBE Lawrence Woodward OBE has been at the forefront of developments in organic agriculture in the UK for over 30 years. He has also played a prominent role in its development in the EU and internationally. He was a co-founder of Elm Farm Research Centre (now the Organic Research Centre), and its Director for many years. He currently acts as its Principal Policy Adviser. Amongst many positions he has been President of IFOAM and a member of the UKROFS board during the critical period of standards development and served on the Soil Association Council. He is coordinator of Citizens Concerned about GM, which is an essential source of information about GM and he urges people to sign up to their website. www.gmeducation.org. He is also working on projects about food quality and health (Whole Organic Plus).
1. What do you think are the main aspects of policy, of about a change in the economic model and recognition of farming governments around the world, which promote or harm limits, and whilst research and farming bodies are talking about sustainable farming and healthy food? Michael Holland commercial growth, there is no coming together. When I hear farmers saying we should come together, to face some common The big problem is not specific attitudes or policies of governments; technical questions in conjunction with the NFU and others I say, it’s that the overall economic system is based on the pursuit of 'get real'. There may be some scope and we should try it where economic growth. Our whole lifestyle and economy is based on the appropriate; but basically it's fiddling on the margins. I can’t see idea that we can continue to grow and use up our finite resources that you get very far if there is no common agreement about what on consumption and that is clearly not sustainable. There is a the world is really like. Conventional agriculture and its leaders failure to understand that agriculture and the supply of food also are wedded to the idea of economic growth and consumption. has to adopt and accept limits, and you can't talk seriously about Because they don’t recognize limits and pursue the opposite they sustainable and healthy farming without recognizing these limits. contribute to creating a hostile environment – economically and So, the attitudes and policies from organisations, governments or politically – for those of us trying to create real change. I want to be institutions, so long as they are predicated on that economic model careful about who I’m 'inclusive' with; I don't want to cuddle up to of growth, and the culture, direction and economic imperative that a latter day Dr. Crippen – unless it's to strangle him! goes with it, all harm the idea and prospects of sustainable farming. We do have to use research grants, universities and politicians for This is why the organic movement has to challenge these policies short term gains, but must also be aware they are trying to use and it is suicidal for us to fail to recognize that growth does not us for their own agendas. We have got to be smarter than they work. There is no difference here between agriculture and any other are, their agendas are different, and I can't really believe there economic or social activity; and unless we recognise sufficiency and will be any significant coming together. There are short-term find a different driver for our society and economy, anyone involved projects on which we can work together and strategic ways in in a business or enterprise dealing with 'sustainability' is working which organic and conventional farmers and scientists can come in a hostile environment. As well as being farmers and growers, together on specific projects. But we must never forget that the we are also ambassadors for genuine sustainability and have to be organic movement is about is something completely different, and spokespeople for fundamental and political change - we have got in working together we have to be aware that they are more likely to engage in this conversation. There are some countries that have to change us than we are to change them. attempted change - Bhutan, for example recently decided to have a wholly sustainable organic farming policy, but in the UK, only the The organic movement is based on a number of fundamental Green Party is talking about limits. We have to extend our agenda concepts, one of these is limitation and our activities have got to beyond the usual suspects, take it outside the context of conferences reflect that. But it is also about 'the whole' - with environments, because I am sure that in the conventional world people understand local and general communities, biodiversity all coming together that we (our society) are on a treadmill to nowhere or oblivion. and these are healthier if treated as an integrated organism, fitting in with the organic concept of health. This concept is that 2. How do you see the organic movement, conventional living organisms have a dynamic; an energy or vitality that can farming world, scientists, governments and other relevant be transferred through the soil, plant, animal, and man cycle and organisations working together to promote and improve delivers resilience, strength, vitality, energy and harmony which sustainable farming? Alex Armstrong overall we call health. This can be applied to a farm, society and other I believe that there is little possibility of us working together with social structures. There are obviously a number of technical issues parts of the conventional farming world, because what many to be solved at all levels but in political terms it means you exist scientists and too many conventional farmers see as sustainable firstly with your neighbours and then in your region, but the whole farming, is not what I recognise as sustainable. Again, I am talking social organisation of the society in which you live is enhanced.
Page 18 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 In terms of social and economic organisation; resource use, but an alternative, principled organic supply chain which might production and recycling is first of all based within the village have led the way to methods of doing business, appropriate to a community, then the region and so on, moving outwards, but world of finite and diminishing resources has not been developed. the relationships should always be harmonious and the political Instead the organic movement turned into the organic sector and organisations should follow that. Politically and economically, it rushed into the mainstream screwing organic principles and some means you have to exist within local economies, through proper organic producers in the process. local democracy and establish relationships with other communities If you go back to end of the '80s there were enough projects and based on rights and responsibilities - neighbourliness. links with producers in UK, Europe and developing world, to 3. There is a lot of talk about sustainable development, have slowly built up an alternative supply chain, but we rushed, sustainable growth and sustainable intensification. Do we wanted to get into the supermarkets, we bought into the you feel any of these are achievable with our present existing system - there was always a commitment from organic economic model of food production where the farmer/ producers to 'do the right thing'. There were others in the supply grower carries all of the risks and costs of production and chain, producers, processors, Control Bodies (CBs) and particularly the marketeers want to stack it high and sell it cheap? manufacturers who wanted to move rapidly to develop an organic Alan Schofield market, but not one significantly different from the mainstream. I remember a big discussion in the SA Certification Committee These words are a con trick - none of them challenge the growth about whether or not supermarkets in-store bakeries would have imperative, they are just not achievable, you cannot have sustainable to be certified individually and we let them off the hook. What we growth in a world of finite resources. Sustainable intensification - should have done was insist that if an in-store bakery was going what does that mean? Conventional agriculture has been claiming to process, it should have separate certification. We should have that it has been sustainable for the last 25 years so all of this stuff is insisted on separate packing for vegetables and separate abattoirs. part of modifying the current economic model of food production We had a chance, we didn't do it and the net result was that some without any real change. At the moment, it means that farmers and genuine organic businesses that tried to establish dedicated organic growers are carrying all of the risks because the economic model units were forced out of business. In the drive for being part of the is about cutting costs and labour which is the growth model and mainstream and for certification business, we lost the opportunity. placing all the burden on those who deliver the raw materials. Adding value to raw material makes money, the producer of that 4. Do you think the future of the organic movement has raw material never makes the real money and rarely has exercisable more of a chance of lasting by persuading more large power, that's the history of economics. established farmers and growers to convert; or encouraging more new entrants to take on organic holdings? Kate Collyns The food system has developed globally just as all the industrial models have; buying raw materials from wherever they can be We need to persuade the larger established growers and farmers bought as cheaply as possible and using the cheapest material to convert, but we also need to encourage more entrants. It's the for processing. This is exactly what's happening now with same message, because what we have to do is to persuade and the horsemeat 'scandal'. This global supply chain and market demonstrate that the organic approach is the best way of living gives greater scope for conmen to make money – whether they on the planet. To new people coming into agriculture, we need are (or are called) banks, investors, speculators or 'duckers and to show them that going down the industrial, resource expensive divers', running businesses in Romania, Greece or even Wales. farming route is not the answer to the problems faced by It's opportunism and is the net result of so-called economies of civilization and we have to do the same to existing farmers. scale and geographic advantage. Whatever label is used it means Unlike most of the so-called leaders of conventional agriculture and screwing the producers and the managers and stewards of natural many conventional farmers, there are some existing conventional resources. This has to be changed. farmers who are beginning to understand the organic message. The biggest failure of the organic movement in my time is that They are seeing themselves on a treadmill, using more and more we wasted the opportunity to demonstrate and put in place a inputs to maintain yields and they don't like what they are doing to completely different supply chain through the international the soil and environment. There's a growing feeling out there that organic movement. We had links with producers throughout the there is something basically wrong with the overall system, and we world, and we failed to develop an alternative supply chain. For can make our message relevant to those who have these concerns. the most part the organic sector has just copied the conventional It's not to do with us changing our message to make it easier for those system. There are processors, manufacturers and retailers with people, but it's about finding the communication skills to talk to them. businesses based on organic labels but they are just part of the I've been struck in the last few years by the number of conventional conventional supply chain and have done nothing towards farmers who have converted to organic production, but who changing the world or even just the food system to something wouldn't now consider reverting. They have moved significantly in that approximates organic principles. There are those who have their thinking and not just at the level of technology. Some are now made money out of organic agriculture, some have made millions beginning to recognise that things are wrong at a fundamental level.
Page 19 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 The notable thing is that these farmers haven’t changed their minds There are a lot of smaller/part-time producers who really because we watered down our message or because we pandered do see the costs as a barrier. We are particularly interested to their conventional sensibilities - they moved because of the in your views on whether small producers who are selling organic message, we didn't change the message to suit them. They locally should bother or whether you feel the onus is upon moved because we have established the credibility of the practices, certifiers to come up with a formula that works for smaller and they moved because they began to realise the strength of the growers so then they can afford it. Alan and Debra Schofield concepts, analysis and philosophy. Difficult, because certification was developed to facilitate those 5. The Soil Association seems to have jettisoned the word buyers of organic products who couldn't see or question the grower ‘organic’ from its website strapline in favour of ‘healthy, about how the stuff was produced. However, I don't think there is humane and sustainable’. In the light of this change do you - any reason to have full-scale certification for anyone who is selling from their farm or holding, direct to the public. As long as: a) look forward to the day when the SA has standards for these qualities? or a. The holding can demonstrate complete transparency b) consider that the UK Organic Movement is now b. The producer is able and willing to explain what he/she is doing comatose, if not actually dead? Tim Deane c. Systems are in place for questions and answers and there is a The organic movement is not comatose - that implies that it is still process for communication to take place. intact as a body, whereas a large part of it has been dead for the last I can see, for example, OGA running a scheme, training producers ten plus years. Actually there are bits of it which could be described and undertaking audits of its members to ensure that organic as a movement but as a whole body it doesn't exist either sleeping producers have the facilities and are giving time to communicate or alive! My hope is that there are still enough people around who information to consumers, buyers and customers, including open are committed to the organic ideals and one of the things I am most days. Under this system, there should be no reason for certification. proud of over the last ten years is being part of the re-creation of the This could be stretched to deliveries and third party box schemes, OGA - because I see the growers as the essential part of the organic where the communication chain is short and close knit and where movement in the UK. Growers have always understood the links that transparency can be easily extended. Anything beyond that between changing lifestyle, production and limits, they have lived becomes a problem and, of course there is an issue of equity with it in a way the others haven't - they have the technical commitment those larger producers who are obliged to have full-scale certification. to doing the right thing when it comes to soil and resources. Almost all organic growers have understood and foregone things in Group certification is more problematic especially on a scale order to live and grow in a particular way. They have lived their where it is regional or sectoral. Control bodies (CBs) have got commitment and whilst the radical agenda is not always clear, to look at the cost of certification, differentiate between classes I think that as individuals and collectively they have understood of small producers and where they are selling. If an individual the need to change and have committed their skills and lifestyles producer is selling into multiples through a co-operative, then I to that vision. There are some farmers who have also done that but can envisage a system where that co-operative may take on the the organic growers are the ones that have stayed together as an burden of auditing its small-scale producers. However, that co- organisation. My greatest regret is that in the last 30 years I was one operative itself will have to be subject to an enhanced inspection of the leading proponents of the idea that we merged the producer routine where there is a fairly rigorous audit of a selection of organisations into the Soil Association. I thought it was a good idea producers - I could see that working in certain circumstances. at the time, but it was the height of naivety and arrogance on my However, EU Regulations currently do not allow such changes. part to think it would work. There were good administrative and All producers – large or small – have to be individually inspected economic reasons for the proposal, but it was a major mistake. on an annual basis. The EU and CBs are very aware of the burden As for the words Healthy, Humane and Sustainable; these can of costs to small producers and it is likely that something will be applied to and are used by almost any organisation that uses emerge to try to deal with the problem. Whether that will be any buzz words, it's meaningless, marketing-speak - the NFU, crop good is a moot point. protection associations or anyone else could use them, it's a My suggestion is that OGA could consider creating a scheme nonsense without a conceptual framework. I truly have no idea where it took its direct sale producers out of certification and the what the Soil Association thinks it is doing down-playing the EU regulatory framework, and found a way of developing a chain word organic, - if that is what it is doing. In today’s world we of transparency and communication, with a form of words and should be highlighting, promoting and emphasising organic as a criteria about trust, transparency and principles which then can radical philosophy and agenda for fundamental change and not – be relayed to the buyer. I believe that if you are a member of OGA in anyway - down-playing it. you could move out of certification and not use the word organic. 6. What are your views on small scale certification? This has OGA should insist that each holding has transparency, a particular been a hot topic of debate recently on the website forum. standard of explaining what growers do in their leaflets, a number
Page 20 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 of open days per year and literature to empower customers with the CBs because they do not represent producers. For the most part the knowledge to ask questions. It could also require producers to they represent themselves within the certification business. have someone dedicated to customers to answer questions. The questions were asked (on OGA members’ behalf) by I am also clear that the growers should not be leaving this issue to the Carolyn Wacher. The second part of this interview (focusing Soil Association, the other CBs or indeed to IFOAM. In fact I don't mainly on GM issues) will appear in OG23. believe that any producer organisation should leave any issues to Land Army Training Working in partnership with the Kindling Trust in Greater Manchester, I have been providing short course training in all the essential skills to set up your own commercial organic growing enterprise. In partnership with local farmers like Moss Brook Growers and Glebelands City Growers, the Kindling Trust has established a Land Army of volunteers, placements and trainees to help increase the production of sustainable food for Greater Manchester. Greater Manchester’s Land Army was inspired by the women’s land armies of the First and Second World Wars, and offers a solution to a number of challenges faced by local organic growers, such as labour issues and costs at busy periods e.g. harvest time. The Land Army’s goals are to increase yields and income for growers and nurture a small number of committed and trained individuals whom farmers can call upon in times of need. Following on from this has been the need to run a course in all the essential skills to run an organic growing enterprise.
At the time of publication, the course will have run three times Sample course programme with 36 participants completing the course. They also have to do a Topic Trainer two-day placement on organic farms. The feedback from the course Week 1: • Wider principles Jenny Griggs: Fir Tree has been good, including comments such as: “Very enjoyable and 16th Feb • Soils Community accessible to everybody. Good mix of people, knowledge and farms. • Composting Growers Maybe a bit more classroom stuff and a bit more scientific detail at • Green manuring times.” “It was great, would do it again any time. Very relaxed but • Seedbed preparation intensive approach to a very large topic.” looking at machinery Week 2: • Finances of running a veg Debra Schofield Breaking the course down into bite-size chunks has proved most 23rd Feb growing business (Growing with challenging. To assist, this I am currently writing a “workbook”- Nature) • Co-operative working type manual also with the hope that it can be delivered by more Mark Simmonds teachers and mentors. I have been the primary course designer and (Co-ops UK) learning mentor to the participants. It has been fantastic, although Week 3: • Propagation & sowing Glebelands City 2nd Growers (Sale) • Indoor & outdoor salads at times challenging because the answers to financial viability March are not straightforward and there always seems to be a need for Week 4: • Field-scale growing Moss Brook 9th Growers additional income, either from charging a mark-up on bought-in • Pests and diseases March (Glazebury) produce for box schemes; training; consultancy; or care farming. • Machinery Another issue has been translating course participants into actual Week 5: • Quiz as to all growing skills Jenny Griggs: commercial growers. For the first set of courses, anyone local was 16th Fir Tree • Organic certification Community allowed to attend. However, from that point onwards, there has been March • Financial viability Growers an application process to the free course, where participants have a • Finding a local market chance to explain their intentions. The Kindling Trust then hope to • Presentation of assignment move them onto their own growing enterprise. This is a chance to see if farming suits them, and to put FarmStart Project their ideas to the test. Kindling want to see more people FarmStart is Kindling’s newest project, and aims to bridge the growing food around Greater Manchester, and need more gap between volunteering with the Land Army and becoming a suppliers for the organic fruit and vegetable co-operative, commercially viable organic producer. As we know, access to land, Manchester Veg People. By trying to remove the barriers capital and mentoring are barriers. The Kindling Trust is launching that stop people getting started in vegetable production, FarmStart Manchester in March 2013, in partnership with Abbey they hope to make it possible for a new generation of Leys Farm. FarmStart is an incubator farm for new growers to trial growers to emerge. This scheme is the first of its kind in their farming business ideas in a low-risk setting. When new growers the UK, though it has proven a great success in Canada. join FarmStart, they benefit from access to certified organic land, www.farmstart.ca on-going training and mentoring, market access and peer support. Jenny Griggs
Page 21 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Mulching With Wool Organic agriculture presents challenges for every farmer. Many farmers find unique approaches to deal with specific problems that occur on their farms, whether they are pests, weeds, irrigation or labour costs. Bonnie Mitsui of Turner Organic Farm in Cincinnati, Ohio, identified the problem of unwanted wool resulting from the production of lamb for meat. The problem at Turner Organic Farm reflected a growing issue with the accumulation of sheep wool by many regional sheep farmers, and a non-existent market for the sale of imperfect wool. To maintain their flocks for lamb production, the farm typically shears 40 ewes and three rams annually, resulting in the accumulation of 260lb (72kg) of raw, unsaleable wool per annum. This unsaleable wool is referred to in the industry as “kempy” wool.
The situation at Turner Farm is a small-scale representation of a The soil under the wool was cool and moist and it also seemed larger problem facing many wool producers in Ohio today, and this to support a diverse microbial habitat with a fluffy, aerated tilth. is confirmed by the Ohio Wool Growers' Association and the Mid By the end of the 2010 summer growing season, the results of the State Wool Growers' Cooperative Association. The accumulation initial experiment were so stunning that the next step was to apply of unsaleable wool from the production of lamb for meat increases for a USDA Sustainable Agriculture, Research & Education (SARE) overall storage needs and overhead costs. The reason many wool Grant. Our results showed that Black Beauty eggplants mulched producers store this kempy wool is simple; there is no existing with kempy wool grew taller and yielded significantly more than market as it has no textile value and is considered an agricultural those eggplants mulched with hay. It was also remarkable that waste. During the 2010 season the price of kempy wool was seven the eggplants mulched with wool were unaffected by the drought cents per pound. which occurred in 2010, and although the flea beetle damage was Trialling for flea beetle suppression still observed on those eggplants, the plants were visibly more resistant to the pest than those mulched with hay. At Turner Farm, Bonnie Mitsui and Melinda O'Briant, the garden manager, resolved to address the problem of wool storage by using In our preliminary trials, we also noted that many complex it as a mulch in vegetable production. Melinda hypothesised that environmental variables were at play in conjunction with the wool would help to control flea beetle, one of Turner Farm's the application of wool mulch. The plants receiving the wool most persistent pests in eggplant (aubergine) production. She treatment were significantly taller and darker in leaf coloration suggested that the flea beetle, which breathes through tiny holes and this suggested that nitrogen was somehow more available to known as spiracles, might suffocate due to the lanolin in the wool. the plants mulched with wool. Although the flea beetle did not It was this initial hypothesis that spurred Bonnie and Melinda to seem deterred, the plants seemed more resistant and appeared approach Katherine Charlton-Perkins, with the request that she healthier than the samples mulched with hay. Row weight and conduct initial preliminary experiments testing kempy wool as number data suggested that the plants mulched with wool were a mulch in eggplant production. This initial experiment enabled more productive as there was a significant difference in row her to apply her training in ecology and environmental science weight and number between the two treatment groups. We also to agriculture and she was delighted to have the opportunity to noticed that the soil surface under the wool felt significantly cooler conduct on-farm research that might be beneficial to other farmers. with better moisture retention than that under the hay mulch. After the initial experiment, we raked and composted the wool. In our initial trial we applied the wool to the rows as entire fleeces As it can take up to two years for wool to fully break down, we and parted the wool around the base of the plants. The wool was believe that wool can be reused, or perhaps even left on the soil as roughly four to six inches in thickness, and we spread it over rows long as plants are being rotated in order to not spread diseases to of four foot (1.2m) in width. It matted down slightly after rain, susceptible plants such as tomatoes. but seemed to keep its overall density as a mulching material. 2011 trials for productivity & yield Our grant application was successful, and acquisition of funding enabled us to repeat the experiment in more depth in the 2011 growing season. With the price of wool at seven cents per pound, one of the goals of the grant was to create a market for kempy wool. The grant paid 25 cents per pound to wool producers and enabled Turner Farm to purchase additional wool.
As part of the grant, we set up a more rigorous and randomised experimental design, which included a checkerboard-mulching scheme with three treatments: kempy wool; hay; and a control treatment with no mulch. In addition to looking at eggplants, 2010 Preliminary experiment; Ping Tung Long eggplant with hay mulch (left) and wool mulch (right) Page 22 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 cost of fertiliser and labour due to reduction in time spent on cultivation. We also wouldn't have to take up valuable space in our hay-lofts to store this wool, thereby saving in overhead costs.
We believe that many organic farmers have the potential to benefit by mulching with wool, especially if they can network with wool- producers in their area to obtain kempy wool. Katherine Charlton-Perkins & Melinda O’Briant
2011 USDA SARE Grant wool mulching experiment: experimental area we also evaluated peppers and tomatoes. Four replicates of each treatment were included in the experimental area, with each plot measuring roughly 4x4 ft (1.2m x 1.2m). A portable weather station was also employed at the plots to measure environmental variables. In addition to confirming our results from 2010, our aim was to gain an understanding of the other beneficial contributions of wool, particularly its mode of action by assessing such environmental factors as soil moisture, air temperature, and precipitation. Although our subjective research already suggested that wool is an excellent weed deterrent, we were curious about the other impacts of the wool that resulted in improvements of plant vitality and production. We compared wool mulch, hay mulch (pseudo control), and no mulch (control) using a randomised planting scheme with four plant replicates per treatment group and a total of 100 single variety tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers. The use of monitoring equipment, namely the HOBO weather station, allowed us to repeat our preliminary experiments while monitoring critical Charlton-Perkins Katherine Photos: environmental variables. Sampling occurred three times each week 2011 USDA SARE Grant wool mulching experiment: eggplants over the course of the four-month experiment. Rain provided moisture to the plants and when there was a drought (as our soil has high organic matter content), we watered once a week on a Wool in the UK standard treatment for each row. The current situation in the UK regarding wool is very different Results confirmed from that in the USA. 45,000 producers in the UK (apart from Shetland) with four or more sheep are required by law to Our results in 2011 confirmed that again the wool mulch played register with the British Wool Marketing Board, a farmer-run an enormous role in increasing productivity and yield. Foliar organisation, established in 1950, which operates a central analysis was conducted and the results showed an increase in marketing system for UK fleece wool. The UK price for wool nitrogen in those samples mulched with wool. We also found is currently an average of £1.20 per kg, but two years ago was that temperatures under the wool were less variable. In addition, £1.90 (compared to the equivalent of 10p/kg in the article). 70% moisture levels were more constant under the wool. of quality wool goes to the carpet industry and following the We had an excess of wool after the experiment was established, process of scouring, one million kilos per week of kempy wool is which we used on sweet potatoes and again, found the dark sold to fertiliser companies for processing. leaf coloration. We also found that deer damage was mitigated: About five years ago, there was a small company in the UK three rows of sweet potatoes mulched with hay next to the wool adding value to kempy by using it as a weed suppressant, but mulched rows were obliterated by deer damage, but the rows because of the relatively high price for fleeces in this country mulched with wool were untouched. Out of the rows mulched there has not been much research on alternative uses. Other with wool, we harvested almost four times more sweet potatoes, examples of wool products include mulch mats from www. than from the un-mulched deer-damaged rows. Not only did woollyshepherd.co.uk; mulching material and other services nitrogen availability to the eggplants increase, but due to this from www.nutrelgroup.co.uk/org_wulpak.html; and slug pellets increase we concluded that we could save considerably on the from www.greenhousesensation.co.uk/slug-pellets.html.
Page 23 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Bats on your holding Reading the paper some time ago, I stumbled across an article about white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease causing a large number of deaths amongst bat populations in North America. While the UK has been unaffected thus far, the news highlights the importance of bats within our ecosystems, and indeed within our farming systems. Approximately 1100 tonnes of pests that would otherwise have been consumed by bats, remain on the loose across the Northern States due to the disease! The potential financial impact on farmers owing to reduced yields and higher pesticide use is huge: bats have been estimated to save agriculture around $22.9 billion per year in insecticides (1) - not to mention the effect on the wider ecosystem. Meyer-Graft Isabeau Illustration: Lesser horseshoe bat
Due to comparatively smaller bat populations in the UK, the can adversely affect bats are artificial lighting, roads and radio effect on pests is bound to be less pronounced. Bats in the UK still waves from mobile phone masts. Wind turbines located within consume impressive numbers of insects: a single bat, for example, foraging or migration routes may also have a negative impact on can eat 3000 gnats, mosquitoes and other insects in one night (2). bats, though this can be minimised with careful sighting. Gnats and mosquitoes - though annoying - are probably not the biggest worry for growers. However, bats live on a wide array Providing foraging habitat of other insects, some of them pests, including cutworm, chafer, Diets as well as flying and feeding techniques of species vary, but wireworm, weevil and crane fly. Many pests such as moths are all resident bats are nearly exclusively insectivorous, though some active at night, when there are few other predators around. Alan will also eat spiders. Therefore they will forage in locations with Smith of Sunny Haye Fruit Farm in Devon has commented that the largest abundance of dusk– and night-flying insects, such as their resident bat populations are very good at keeping winter along and over hedges, trees and near water. Generally, a rich moth populations in check. Bats form part of a healthy ecosystem, biodiversity on your holding at (plant) species and habitat level and given their numbers have been declining in past decades, will encourage a wide array of insects – and thus bats. Organic they are worth considering when managing your holding. holdings, being generally diverse and pesticide-free, are already well placed to provide suitable bat foraging. Statistically bats are Some basic UK bat facts 61% more active and foraging rates are 84% higher on organic There are altogether 17 resident bat species in the UK, all of which farms, as compared to conventional farms (3). are nocturnal and insectivorous. The most common species are Incorporating a wide variety of plant species which flower Brown Long-Eared, Daubenton’s and Pipistrelle (of which there throughout the seasons - annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees – are three types). will help. Native plants will usually support more insects than All UK bats use ‘echo-location’ to navigate in the dark and to exotics. Plants with night-scented flowers, such as honeysuckle locate prey while flying. Bats are most active between April and or evening primrose, are particularly useful. White and pale November and hibernate during winter. They spend most of their flowers are more visible for nocturnal insects. A list of plants time in groups sharing roosts. Bats are the only flying mammals. which will encourage bats can be found here: http://www.rhs. While mating in autumn they give birth to a single pup in June/ org.uk/Media/PDFs/Advice/Plants-for-bats. July which they raise on ‘bats milk’ in large, female-only nursery Retaining and creating a variety of habitats will be equally colonies. Juveniles can start flying out with their mums as early as beneficial, including woodland, trees, hedges with herbaceous three weeks after birth, but will stay with them for the rest of the undergrowth, extensively managed grassland, diverse field season. Bats can reach up to 30 years of age. margins, beetle banks, ponds, bogs, dead wood, log piles, compost All UK species are protected by National and European legislation. heaps and dry stone walls. Therefore it is an offence to intentionally disturb roosts and to Water features provide a breeding ground for many insects, and harm or kill bats. A licence is required to carry out works affecting open water also gives bats opportunities to drink. They should a bat roost, and bats are to be handled by licensed specialists be managed to provide a wide variety of depths and flora, and only. If you should find yourself in a situation where bats may be disturbance by livestock should be limited to certain areas if affected in any way, seek specialist advice from the National Bat possible. Fish in ponds will eat insect larvae, and overstocking Helpline (0845 1300 228) or a qualified ecologist. should be avoided. Bat populations have been decreasing mainly due to a decline of roost sites (tree loss, alterations to old buildings, modern Providing roosting sites building styles, etc) and of foraging habitat. The latter is largely Different bat species use various natural sites for roosting, such connected with changing farming practices and associated loss of as trees and caves, but also use buildings and the underside of hedgerows and trees in the landscape. Other major factors which bridges or tunnels. According to prevailing climatic conditions,
Page 24 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 food availability and reproduction cycle, bats move freely between Works to existing buildings, both old and newer ones, can different roost sites throughout the year. Some sites are occupied potentially limit the potential for roosting, if bats are not for shorter periods only, some are used for maternity roosts and considered early in the process. This includes any demolition (for others again serve as hibernation roosts. However, bats tend to example of old barns or sheds), insulation of lofts and cavity walls, return to the same roost sites year after year. re-pointing of brickwork, filling in gaps around windows, doors or pipes, as well as the use of harmful chemicals, such as timber Roosts will have to provide the ideal climatic requirements for the treatment in lofts. One key aspect is that access points where bats time and purpose, but in general terms they need to be dry, dark, can enter the building are not closed off. Basically think crevices, sheltered, and safe from predators. gaps and entry points. As a reminder, any works potentially Trees affecting bat roosts are subject to a licence. Therefore, if in doubt, advice should be sought from the National Bat Helpline, who may Most UK bat species have been found roosting in trees. Trees organise a specialist to visit free of charge. Such involvement does with holes, cracks and hollows are particularly interesting to bats. not prevent any works, but considers bats in their implementation. Potential roosting features (PRFs) can be, for example, abandoned woodpecker holes, cut wounds, split leaders, lightning damage, If you are planning to build a new house, you can allow for frost damage or tension cracks, and are often difficult to spot. They potential roosting sites without having to compromise on comfort are normally found on mature or dead trees, though occasionally or energy efficiency. Again giving bats opportunities to enter the on relatively young specimens. PRF’s provide dry shelter, and building and/or crevices to roost are the main factors. There will if the entries are easy to fly into while being inaccessible by be an obvious conflict with energy efficient air-tight buildings, in predators, they will be very attractive to bats. Bats have also been which case extra measures can be taken to encourage bats. These found roosting on the outside of trunks, underneath loose bark include introducing special bat roosting features or entry points, or in the shelter of ivy cover. Therefore it is worth thinking twice such as built-in bat bricks, bat access tiles or bat lofts. Timber before tidying up and cutting out old wood or felling trees, even cladding and weather boarding also offer potential for roosting. if they may be over-mature or dead. Also consider continuity by Any associated features which increase diversity, such as green planting new trees of suitable species. Oak, Beech, Ash, Horse roofs, climbers and green walls, will naturally also be beneficial Chestnut, Sweet Chestnut, Poplar, Walnut as well as taller to bats. The surroundings of buildings are also important. growing Willows and Maples (including Sycamore!) are all good Following the advice above about increasing foraging habitat, candidates. Broad-leaved trees tend to have more potential for the area around the house should be as bat-friendly as possible. bat roosting, though some conifers, such as Wellingtonia, Larch, Interestingly, most roosts are found within 450m of small groups Douglas Fir and Pine, also provide good habitat. If you have the of mature trees or woodland. space, old trees with bat roost potential should be surrounded by a vegetation buffer of other trees or shrubs. Bat boxes Buildings Most resident bats have been known to use boxes, for short term, maternity as well as mating roosts. They are valuable in providing First of all, bats do not damage buildings. With natural roosting additional opportunities for roosting. There are various styles of sites having become scarce, many bat species rely on man-made bat boxes on the market, and needless to say, different species structures for roosts. Apart from the more obvious places like lofts prefer different designs. It is also simple to build one from scratch, / underneath roofs or in crevices or mortar gaps in brickwork, see. http://www.bats.org.uk/pages/bat_boxes.html#Making there is an array of other locations on the outside and inside of your own buildings bats may use. Requirements of the roosts themselves as well as of their entry points differ between species. As such, Bat boxes can be nailed to trees (please use aluminium nails, bats can be divided into crevice dwellers, roof void dwellers, those which will not harm trees or chain saws), most valuably amongst which require roosts with flight space and those which need flight a hedge or line of trees. If space and flight access. For example, while many bat species can you fit only one box, aim for crawl through a 10mm crevice to access their roost, horseshoe bats a southerly aspect. Ideally, need a big enough entry to fly through and require room to fly install several boxes facing around the roosting site, often in a loft space. different directions, so bats can choose according to their Your buildings, be it your home or around the holding, may already requirements. In any case, host bats. You may see bats entering or exiting your building at boxes should be fixed at a dusk or dawn, find small clues such as droppings underneath height of 2m to 7m and not be roosts, similar to mice droppings but powdery (which happen to obscured by branches so that be excellent fertiliser!), or even spot them roosting. But just because they are accessible via a clear you don’t see any signs does not mean there aren’t any bats. flight path. Photo: Isabeau Meyer-Graft Isabeau Photo:
Page 25 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Linear features for navigation Cats Hedges, lines of trees, rivers, streams and canals all represent Cats can be a threat to bats. Try to keep cats indoors at night, invaluable linear landscape elements for the navigation of bats especially from mid-June to end of August when bats raise their to their main foraging sites. These features offer food on the young. Bats are most vulnerable when they are emerging from journey, and, if vegetated, also provide shelter from weather, their roosts, generally from half an hour before sunset until one light and predators. To be most valuable, linear features need hour after. to be interconnected and continuous, as gaps as little as 10m can If this article really got you interested, you can find out more on interrupt bats’ flight lines. the Bat Conservation Trust website, contact your local bat group
Any hedge trimming should be restricted to a minimum. Ideally or even invest in a bat detector, a wonderful device which makes cut only one side at a time and carry out the works during winter. bat sounds audible to the human ear (this is if you are not tired When laying a hedge, make sure that other linear connections enough in the evenings!). remain available. Retain occasional trees every 20m or so, which Isabeau Meyer-Graft will provide extra value. Any gaps should be filled with new References and further information planting. Try to link new hedges and lines of trees with existing Illustration: Isabeau Meyer-Graft Isabeau Illustration: linear features in the surrounding landscape. www.bats.org.uk Serotine bat Other things to consider (1) Science magazine, April 2011, J. G. Boyles, P. M. Cryan, G. F. McCracken, T. H. Kunz. Economic Importance of Bats in Agriculture. Science, 2011; 332 (6025): Lighting 41 DOI: 10.1126/science.1201366
Generally, bats as nocturnal animals will keep away from lit (2)Encouraging Bats – a guide for bat-friendly gardening and living – Bat conditions. After all, light increases the threat of being spotted Conservation Trust by predators. Outdoor lighting should be reduced to a minimum, (3)Bat activity and species richness on organic and conventional farms: impact of both in terms of quantity and intensity. Lights should therefore agricultural intensification, by Liat P. Wickramasinghe et al Journal of Applied be avoided near, or directed away from, any potential bat roosts, Ecology, Volume 40, Issue 6, pages 984–993, December 2003 roost entry points or flight paths. Though bats are sometimes seen foraging under white light, its use is not recommended, as it attracts Biodiversity for Low and Zero Carbon Buildings: A Technical Guide for New a variety of insects away from their habitats. Build by Dr Carol Williams
Page 26 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Grower profile: Samuel Eglington
I think it was James Alexander Sinclair who what was worse was the inability to described horticulture as the last refuge of the incorporate green manures with it. I unemployable: it has certainly been true of me. found myself, a supposedly organic I had my schooling disrupted to say the least grower, smashing the life straight (attended only five weeks of year 11 as one back out of the soil to try and get a example) by what was diagnosed as post viral seedbed. This led me to use Mypex to fatigue syndrome, now called ME. This meant kill off and rot down green manures. that I spent most of my time at home, not at I have also added a flail mower to my school. I am from a Norfolk farming family range of equipment and moved to on my father’s side and my mother’s father mowing at vulnerable growth stages was a market gardener. He came and helped to get the best results. The biggest with the garden one day a week and I would challenge however remains the lack of work with him a bit to get some fresh air; he infrastructure: market gardening, with encouraged me to grow runner beans – he had its continuous planting, cultivation grown a quarter of an acre of these each year and harvesting, needs irrigation and and was very fond of the crop, insisting that it secure storage for the equipment. It must be picked over every day! is also enormously helpful to be able
to live on site. I have got into the Eglington Sam Photo: After leaving school I got a part-time job practice of doing split shifts: I start helping a widow regain control of her vineyard, and progressed in the morning, open the polytunnel and work with one lot of to various other small gardening jobs. I also took on an allotment equipment from the van; go home for lunch and a rest, come back and discovered the Faber & Faber range of 1930-40s farming books with another lot of equipment and work until it is cool enough to and took an interest in organic farming. My interest was confirmed close the polytunnel; and then carry on until dark. by a soil science text book (the name of which escapes me) which to this day is still the best instruction on organic growing I’ve In spite of the weeds and weather (2010 and 2011 were very bad ever received from a book – in spite of it not mentioning organic droughts, I won’t mention 2012), my health continues to improve, farming once. the soil is easier to manage and I have built good relationships – with the village shop where I have a stand and give them sales By 2008 my health had improved quite a bit; I was growing commission, and the wholesaler who has effectively kept me in vegetables in a walled garden at a nearby farm when ‘set aside’ business by ensuring I at least have some sales. My business plan ended and I was offered a small meadow to grow vegetables on now revolves around supplying these two outlets, concentrating as well. The autumn of 2008 was not the best time to enter organic on early production for the wholesale market and winter growing however. I had planned to run a box scheme and buy in production for the retail market. I am very hopeful for the year the extra needed from Eostre Organics, a local wholesale co-op; ahead and am looking forward to trying to coordinate all that I but it went bust before I’d sown my first seeds. David Barker, a have learnt into one year’s production. I have even discovered (via local small-scale box scheme producer, stopped doing boxes and Facebook’s street life - an app that creates social networking for started selling at farmers’ markets in London where he found people that might actually meet in real life ) that there are some a more viable clientele; and one by one over the next two years people locally interested in organic vegetables. businesses that I had hoped would supply me what I couldn’t grow went out of business, or concentrated on animals and arable. It left me re-jigging the business plan a lot. I developed a list scheme – essentially an Excel spreadsheet – I later picked up a box scheme when a farm shop I had been supplying closed. I also sold out of the back of my van at the sheltered accommodation where I had worked as a gardener. I have felt much hampered by being in For a massive range of both old favourites, new and exciting a part of Norfolk that isn’t chic, where footfall at a farmers’ market vegetable & potato varieties, including organic and unusual. is measured in the hundreds and there are six supermarkets in the Contact us for FREE GROWERS or GARDEN CATALOGUE nearest town of 17,000 people. Tuckers Trustworthy Seeds – The Value for Money range Available by Mail order or online at: If the marketing situation was dire, the growing wasn’t much WEBSITE: www.tuckers-seeds.com better. I seriously overestimated the capabilities of a BCS two- EMAIL: [email protected] TEL: 01364 652233 FAX: 01364 654211 wheeled tractor to control weeds and cultivate in a heavy soil;
Page 27 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 The Direct Approach: Stanhay Belt Drill
It could be said for any part of the grower’s cycle; but it’s that time of year again. Some parts you look forward to; others you view with some trepidation – this applies to getting out the precision seed drill. Yes, the one you put away last year after cleaning it and storing in a nice dry place, remember?
Or could it be the one that drilled all the seeds in a tenth of the area intended; or the one where you found half the seeds still left in the hopper at the end? The dread of going through all this again can put fear in the hardiest and most skilled of growers. Many have gone to great lengths to avoid this stressful operation, propagating and module-raising as much as possible. Obviously in organic terms this has so many advantages; but not all crops lend themselves to this process, and it can be very costly and time consuming.
The enemy of direct drilling is weeds and pests, especially for brassicas. A clean seedbed is essential: I can only succeed by using pre- emergence flame weeding. Another option may be a bed weeder; or good old fashioned hands.
Tools for the job If turning is stiff or impossible, then remove the drive pulley and associated belt and try turning with the lower pulley. If it’s still There are air drills nowadays that do a marvellous and almost fool- tight, then it’s an internal problem, which means removing the proof job; but to justify that shiny bit of kit, you need to grow acres pulley and chain cover. You’ll need to remove all chains via the and acres of parsnips, carrots and so on. For those of us who grow gap using a sneaky allen key in the middle double sprocket. Check for the smaller box scheme or farm shop, we need a wide range everything is turning; the usual culprit is the bottom bearings for of crops in smaller quantities: this is why most of us will have a the repeller wheel. You can try oiling this first and spinning it back Stanhay belt drill. When these first came out, it revolutionised the and forwards for a while. If it’s still stiff, replace the bearings. ability to drill crops to a ‘stand’; meaning its ability to (almost) Oil all other bearings and assemble the chains, but make sure they singularly select a seed and place it at predetermined spacings. are not stiff. The gasket for the cover is not so important; a bit Of course, it never was and still is not as straightforward as that. of silicone and it should be OK. When replacing the drive pulley Globe-shaped or pelleted seeds are not such a problem; but natural with the short belt, make sure you oil the bush and it’s free. The seeds such as parsnips and carrots, together with the different tension of the belt needs to be tight but not too tight, or it will grades the seed companies offer, can add to the headache. make turning difficult. The unit now should turn quite freely. Digging out the seed drill and remembering which belts you used last year is a daunting prospect; but it doesn’t matter, this year’s Trouble shooting seed will be a different grade so you need to start again anyway. On the inside of the seed area, the rubber tyre fitted to the repeller Keeping records of drillings, settings and their outcome is good wheel needs checking for wear such as thin rounded edges, reference for the future though. bulging and cracking. Worn tyres can cause problems with seeds sticking under the rubber, causing them to jam or erratically slow The one golden rule is to check the seed unit in conjunction with down or stop the belt turning. Clean all surfaces, especially under a manual. It’s important for the setting-up of various components the rubber tyre. Check the rubber on the belt wheel drive, too; if and how it works; then as a guide as to what components to use loose it can be glued back. for each seed type and range. A manual only deals with settings and adjustments, and does not allow for years of neglect, wear and The belt tensioner roller needs to roll freely: if stiff try WD40, lack of maintenance however. Also, a combination of aluminium, although some never roll properly again and need to be changed. mild steel, rubber and plastic are a bad mix of materials when the Seed belts actually wear across their width, making them narrower passage of time and moisture enters the equation. Dismantling can so you might get a gap which allows finer seeds to leak. The angle be difficult and extreme care is needed undoing nuts and screws. of the belt tensioner is important, since this controls the linear travel of the belt ( if heading into the casing or the lid it can cause Simple maintenance friction and wear on either of these surfaces), therefore running Firstly check to see how freely it all turns. With the seed belt and in the centre is important. The idler rollers may be stiff or stuck: if repeller wheel removed, try turning in the direction the seed belt you’re lucky they will have a slot on the top to screw them out; it’s travels using the drive pulley; this should turn reasonably freely the metal spindle that has rust build-up and taking them out and with some resistance. Check for play in the spindles going through cleaning is the only way. It’s important, too, that the lid sits evenly the casing: there shouldn’t be any – if there is then the bearings and tightly to the casing. The rubber flap inside the seed chamber need replacing. is important: it should be square to the belt and sit on the belt at all times, otherwise seed will leak out.
Page 28 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 I do the hand check at the end of every run and look for movement of seed in the seed box; although on the first run it could be seed going just into the chamber, so still check seed is coming out. Drilling too much can also be a problem, so slowing down the speed of the seed belt will help. Remember that the coulters need to be in good condition and set at the right depth in order for the soil to cover the seeds sufficiently. Happy drilling! Romeo Sarra
PEEPOUT FARM MACHINERY, Portfieldgate, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire Tel: 01437 783800, [email protected]
Possible source of Stanhay parts: Root Systems Swineshead Tel: 01205 821491
All this so far is aimed at the smooth running of the whole unit with no leaks. When it’s all assembled with all components in the seed area and lid fitted, there should be some resistance when turning by hand in the correct direction. Also the unit should never be turned in the wrong direction when assembled, especially with seed in the chamber.
From here on it’s just about selecting the components for the purpose of drilling the seeds you want. As a guide, the manual has charts to point you in the right direction. General rules The choke size or aperture opening has to be large enough to let the seed flow from the hopper into the seed chamber without overflowing the chamber, or restricting the seed so much that it stops flowing. The consistency of the seed can have a bearing on how it behaves. Again the manual gives a guide for seed belt selection. Generally graded seed has sizes within a range so the difference between the top and the bottom sizes is not great. When selecting a belt to use, you always need to allow for all the top At Elsoms we have a superb sizes to go through the hole in the belt; the bottom sizes may end up as doubles. The depth of the belt (thickness) is important in selection of organic and relation to seed size: generally the bigger the seed, the deeper the non-chemically treated seed, belt – or even a grooved belt can be used. The exception to the rule backed up by an experienced could be natural parsnip seed, which is large and flat, so a large hole on a thin belt. team of specialists.
General rules I employ when drilling are to turn the seed unit by hand and hold out my other hand to catch the seed and get the For more information please contact feel on the amount of resistance to turn and the seed coming out. Keely Watson or visit our website: If still if in doubt, I drive forward on semi-hard ground so the seed is semi-exposed, and check the density and spacing. t 01775 715000 w elsoms.com You could dab white paint or mark lines on the drive belts so you can see the belts moving when drilling.
Page 29 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Salad leaf growing Before I start talking about salad leaves I always feel that I should give a health and safety notice. There is an E.coli risk from all animal manures if they are under five months old, and as salads can transferE.coli it maybe preferable to use mature plant- based compost. Also, salad leaves take up nitrates readily when growing under suboptimal light, especially in early spring. In November 2011 I visited Growing Communities, Allens Gardens market garden in Stoke Newington, Hackney. With support from the Big Lottery Local Food, they have set up a patchwork of sites where new growers are trained and given all the support and training they need to start organic growing commercially. Salad leaves can yield 20-28t/ha; Growing Communities will pay £10/kg salad leaves from the patchwork growers, and are therefore making small-scale urban salad growing commercially viable. This gives growers the potential to earn £20,000-£28,000/ha on outdoor land, but the growers are usually on a fraction of these areas and are part-time. I am also indebted to salad leaf information from Glebelands City Growers, Sale; Lesley Bryson; Adam York; and Charles Dowding.
Outdoor rotation for high value leaves Giant red mustard – pluck individual leaves. Plots 1. Fertility 2. Brassica 3. Lettuce 4. Beet 5. Misc. Don't put too many in as they can overpower building family family family mixed salad bags. Main season Green Turnip tops, Lettuce Red Coriander, manure wild rocket and orache celery leaf Red Russian kale – the smaller the better. mizuna Harvest leaves over time by plucking. Autumn / winter Green Kale, mustard Endive Ruby Sorrel, winter manure chard purslane Lettuce family leaves Problems – slugs: a healthy beetle population Polytunnel rotation for high value leaves will eat slugs eggs but this takes time to establish Plots 1. Fertility 2. Brassica 3. Lettuce 4. Beet 5. Misc. and might not be enough in a very wet year like building family family family 2012. According to Growing Communities, the Early Spring Green Salad rocket, Lettuce Red Coriander, manure mizuna, orache celery leaf best barrier is bottles cut with pinking shears golden streaks, around the top over each individual plant. red streaks Also reduce slug populations by hand picking Autumn / winter Green Rocket, Over- Ruby Sorrel, winter manure mizuna, winter chard purslane, before planting. Wilted comfrey leaves can be golden streaks, lettuce, French used as a decoy. red streaks endive parsley Too much nitrogen – do not grow after fresh Brassica family salad leaves muck (remember also E.coli risk) or turning in green manures. This will result in lush growth Problems – for flea beetle and cabbage white caterpillar use fine mesh netting which attracts aphids and leads to rots. – can survive very low temperatures so good for outdoor early spring Turnip tops Premature bolting – happens when lettuces are sowing but it is important to not let them get too fibrous too dry. Endives and chicories tend to bolt from Mizuna - probably the most productive salad leaf of them all. It is easily grown, spring sowings. noted for its vigour and for tolerating high and low temperatures. It is less likely Lettuces – the flat-type lettuces are not to bolt prematurely from an early spring sowing than many other oriental greens recommended as they tend to wilt as soon but will rapidly run to seed (bolt) in dry conditions. For lush growth in summer as picked. Charles Dowding recommends it must be irrigated. It is best as a late summer/autumn crop as it will not suffer growing lettuce as ‘leaf’ rather than heart. Plant from flea beetle. Wet winter conditions or snow will cause them to rot. Protect from at 250mm diagonally spaced. Pick off outer flea beetle with fine mesh. Sometimes flower spikes can be cut off and they will leaves as they develop leaving a rosette of four continue to grow from the base. or five small leaves, which rapidly grow into Salad rocket – grows best in coolish weather and will rapidly run to seed (bolt) in another harvest. Lettuce puts on about a leaf a hot dry conditions. It is easy to grow, best direct sown in clumps and responds day in mid-summer, and is the most profitable well to cut and come again. It is ready to cut within three to four weeks and can be crop to grow. The main lettuce season is May cut with scissors across a clump. If they have sent off a flower spike they can have to July and this wants to be made the most of. leaves taken off stem and the flowers are edible but fiddly. Crispheads and batavians are part of the Wild rocket – as salad rocket. Smaller leaves but more suitable to outdoor growing. crisphead family that also includes icebergs.
Page 30 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Salad leaves best sowing times other lettuce. A good variety for northern England is Crop Harvest Length of Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep cuts harvest Xanadu. (months) Salad bowl types include Turnip tops (o) 2-3 2 oakleaf types which have a Salad rocket (p) 1-2 1 different texture. Northern- Wild rocket (o) 2-3 3 recommended varieties Mizuna (o) 2-3 5 include Solix, Red Salad Bowl Mizuna (p) 2-3 5 Red mustard (o) 4-5 5 and Green Salad Bowl. Please Red mustard (p) 4-5 5 note that Lollo Rosso yields Red Russian kale (o) 4-5 5 poorly. Lettuce cos (o) 2-3 2 Winter lettuce: Growing Lettuce cos (p) 2-3 2 Communities recommend Let. Bat/salad bowl (o) 2-3 2 outdoor winter varieties Let. Bat/salad bowl (p) 2-3 2 Lattughino and Rouge Endive broad/frisee (o) 2 -3 5 D'hiver. These probably Endive broad/frisee (p) 2-3 5 won't survive outdoors in Red orache (o) 2-3 3 northern England. Red orache (p) 2-3 3 Endive – most broad-leaved Ruby chard (p) 2-3 5 varieties can be grown for Coriander (o) 2-3 1 much of the year and they Coriander (p) 2-3 1 Celery leaf (o) 2-3 4 look like lettuce but are Celery leaf (p) 2-3 4 much more bitter. Frisée- Broad leaf sorrel (o) 2-3 8 types have nice looking Winter purslane (o) 2-3 5 serrated leaves but are less Winter purslane (p) 2-3 5 winter hardy. Endives are Basil (p) 2-3 2 cut and come again (CCA). French parsley (p) 2-3 8 Growing Communities' recommended outdoor (0) = outdoors (p) = polytunnel winter varieties are Cornet de Bordeaux and Pancalieri. Charles Dowding's recommended variety is Bubikopf. Beet family leaves Problems – beets are relatively trouble free unless they get aphid or caterpillar attack. Companion planting and cottage flowers will encourage natural predators. Other problems include premature running to seed and slug attacks of true spinach.
Mountain orache – has attractive purplish-red leaves and will grow to a metre in fertile ground. Keep pinching out growing points to pick individual leaves. It is not particularly tasty but a very colourful addition in summer.
Winter true spinach – this is a cool weather crop that is prone to rapid bolting at high temperatures. If you want large leaves, Salad leaves from Glebelands City Growers, Sale direct sow singularly; and if you want small leaves, sow thickly. Icebergs do not do that well in organic systems and batavians are It does not like to be grown as a transplant so direct sow, but in preferred. Grow batavians in late spring, summer and early autumn clumps with about five seeds for small leaves. as you can get them in amazing shades of red, green and blonde. Ruby chard – The same advice as for true spinach but can also Varieties recommended for northern England include Kamali. be grown as modules. Any leaves too big can be used in cooking. Charles Dowding recommends Bijou, Redina and Rosemoor. Ruby chard does better as an over winter crop than spinach beet. Cos: Includes cos, romaine and little gem with their very upright growing habit. They can cope with cooler temperatures than
Page 31 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Miscellaneous salad leaves Seed-sowing techniques Major Crop Method Notes Seeds/ plants per module Winter purslane (claytonia)– described as “padding” by Turnip tops Module Cluster of seeds 3 to 5 one grower. Its succulent leaves are a good background/ Wild rocket Module Cluster of seeds 3 to 5 complementary taste to a winter salad. Fir Tree Community Salad rocket Module Cluster of seeds 3 to 5 Growers make two thirds of their winter salad bags with Mizuna Module Cluster of seeds 1 this, and the other third with more flavoursome leaves. It is Red mustard Module Cluster of seeds 5 to 8 very winter hardy but cannot tolerate roots sitting in the wet. Red Russian kale Module Prick out one seedling 1 It will self-seed very easily so prevent this. Lettuce Module Prick out one seedling 1 Endive Module Prick out one seedling 1 Minor Red orache Module Prick out one seedling 1 Basil – green Sweet Genovese variety is standard. You need Winter spinach Direct sow - to be careful that you do not water the leaves. Ruby chard Direct sow - Coriander Direct sow Through planting Coriander - does best in light soil and needs successive board in cluster sowings. Celery leaf Module Cluster of seeds 3 to 5 Celery leaf – germination can be erratic so best surface-sown Broad leaf sorrel Module Prick out one seedling 1 and pricked out from an early March sowing. Winter purslane Module Cluster of seeds 5 to 8 Basil Module Cluster of seeds 5 to 8 – should overwinter from a July sowing. Flat leaf parsley French parsley Module Cluster of seeds 5 to 8 Broad leaf sorrel – is a perennial so can put in a permanent Edible flowers for salad bags (grown in separate borders) – borage, bed that needs composting each spring. It is important to cut chicory, calendula (marigold) – individual leaves, nasturtium, heartease off the flower shoots and renew every three years as plants (wild pansy). will loose their vigour. Pluck individual leaves. Jenny Griggs
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Page 32 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Apprentice Corner Creating a New Salad Garden at The rest of the salad plants can be broadly grouped into ‘unusuals’ because smaller amounts of them are used in the mix. These are Growing With Grace the following: When I heard about the need to do a project for my apprenticeship • Allium: chives, garlic, with the Soil Association, I wanted to do something that would spring onion be both really useful for my host farm, and a good learning • Amaranthaceae: Seaweed experience for me. I spent the cold winter nights of 2010 looking on land at the farms sales figures, working out where it would pay for me • Apiaceae: chervil, to concentrate my efforts, and it soon became apparent: it was the coriander, dill, fennel, parsley, sweet cicely salads. The salads at Growing With Grace (GWG) are exceptional. The almost unlimited fertility in the soil (GWG takes the local • Aizoaceae: ice plant villages’ green waste and turns it into top grade compost), and • Leguminosae: broad bean, the fantastic growing environment the two acres of glasshouses pea provides in the cool of north Yorkshire mean that salad leaf • Lamiaceae: basil crops grow abundantly and succulently all year round. Several • Portulacaceae: purslane local restaurants had bought our salad for years, but I saw a real (summer and winter) opportunity to increase our salad production and market it to • Polygonaceae: sorrel many more outlets, as there really is nothing to compare to it for • Rosaceae: salad burnet miles around. • Valerianaceae: lambs lettuce Salad seedlings waiting to get planted
The next major change I made was to convert the salad growing area to no-dig, inspired by an apprenticeship visit to Charles Dowding’s gardens in Somerset. This would allow us to improve the soil by allowing the microflora to remain undisturbed. It also meant that we would not longer rely on using the tractor to cultivate the land the salad grew in. Because of accessibility reasons in the glass houses, using the tractor meant that we had often to wait for a whole row to need cultivating before being able Over-wintering brassica salads, showing hoops that supported fleece cover. to dig any of the soil in that row, and this meant we lost valuable The first thing I saw that was important to do was to take the salads growing time. With no dig, we could get straight in, lightly out of the main rotation, and create a new rotation purely within cultivating by hand, and resow/plant immediately. the salads. This allowed us to keep them in the best growing areas, cultivated for longest, with the richest soils, and the least weed The final change I made was to create a new, much more detailed, problems. It also meant that harvest was easier: no longer was sowing programme for the salad garden. The existing sowing it necessary to chase all over the site, getting leaves from many schedule was wholly inadequate and was not really used. Salad different plant families. There are no major differences in the sowing instead relied mostly on each growers’ knowledge, with nutritional needs of the salad families as they are all grown for leaf no formal way to pass this on between growers. production and want a soil rich in nitrogen. It is still good practice Unfortunately, I was not able to stay around to see the real fruits to rotate the families, however, since there will be differences in (leaves?) of the new system after implementing it in early 2012. take up of micro-nutrients, as well as differences in susceptibility However, while I was there, overall salad sales more than doubled to soil-borne diseases. during weeks 10-28 compared to the same period in the previous I set up a four-year rotation. The three major families that make up year (£4,900 wholesale value in 2012, compared to £2,250 in 2011). the bulk of the salad leaf in the GWG mixed salad bag are: As well as selling more to existing wholesale customers, we won • Asteraceae: chicory, endive, lettuce, salad shungiku the custom of six new restaurants, four shops, and a new box scheme. I was very pleased to be able to make this contribution to • Brassicaceae: Chinese cabbage, kale, kohl-rabi, land cress, my host farm, and learnt a lot while I did it! mibuna, mizuna, mustards, pak choi, radish, rape, rocket, tatsoi, turnip, watercress Eleanor Fairbrother
• Chenopodiaceae: beetroot, chard, orache, spinach Eleanor’s report can be downloaded from the Member’s area of the OGA website
Page 33 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Manifold green manures – Part I: Sainfoin and birdsfoot trefoil Using diverse legume mixtures can simultaneously fulfil several functions in the rotation, such as building soil fertility, enhancing weed control, and supporting biodiversity. This was demonstrated by a research project called Legume LINK, which was led by the Organic Research Centre from 2008 to 2012. Modelling work in the project showed that a well-performing basic mix would be a combination of black medic, lucerne and red clover; including white clover as a fourth leguminous component would improve the resilience of the mix.
In addition, however, several more legume species are available that could enhance the multifunctionality of this basic mix. In this series of articles, we provide profiles of currently less frequently used legume species that could be included in fertility-building species mixes to make them more suited to specific soil, climate and management conditions. This first part gives information on sainfoinOnobrychis ( viciifolia) and birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus). Sainfoin The recommended sowing time for sainfoin is spring to early summer, with later sowing Sainfoin is a perennial legume of South time (late July/August) being regarded as too Central Asian origin, native to unimproved late for seedling establishment before winter. chalk grassland. It was introduced to Europe However, this observation is not confirmed in the 15th century and has been cultivated by our study, as the six farms that did sow widely as a forage crop throughout Europe, the mixture between July and October 2009 Asia and North America. Although it was did not show reduced sainfoin cover in the widely grown in Britain in the 18th and 19th following year (2010), when compared to the centuries, it has since dramatically declined in farms that sowed the mixture in spring. importance in comparison to other legumes Whilst sainfoin has a high capacity for growth as a sole crop, such as lucerne. The name ‘sainfoin’ is of French origin, and means competition effects can impact on survival when it is grown as ‘safe or healthy hay’, referring to its historical usage to treat sick part of a mixture, particularly from grasses. Similar effects were livestock. Sainfoin has relatively large seeds, and a long tap root observed in our trials where sainfoin was out-competed by which confers very good drought resistance, exceeding even that of stronger species over time: its presence decreased from year one lucerne. Pollination of sainfoin is mainly by bumble and other bees, to year three of the study. and in temperate regions it flowers from June-August. In terms of productivity, sainfoin is often compared to lucerne, with Sainfoin is known to thrive on alkaline soils, with good sainfoin yields reported to reach about 70%-80% of lucerne yields. In performance at a soil pH of 6.0 and above; accordingly, the contrast to these figures, the Legume LINK trials showed that in the Legume LINK study found a positive correlation between soil first year sainfoin biomass was on average only 41% of the lucerne pH and sainfoin presence when the species was sown as part of a biomass. However the relative performance of the two species complex mixture on 34 farms across the UK. Sainfoin requires less was highly variable between sites, with sainfoin outperforming warmth and is more winter hardy than lucerne. Establishment lucerne at one site (Rothamsted, Herts), but reaching less than can be slow, but once established sainfoin can readily produce 10% of lucerne biomass at a site in Cornwall, which may partly be biomass in favourable conditions; in line with this, the Legume explained by differences in soil properties such as pH (see above). LINK project found that sainfoin regrowth after cutting was not significantly different from that of white clover. Regarding persistence of sainfoin in the sward, sainfoin is considered to have high longevity; however, in the trials of the Another relevant factor concerning establishment and general current study, sainfoin showed significant decrease in ground productivity is the sowing rate. While the seed rate in a sole crop cover over the three-year trial period, when grown with other of sainfoin is recommended as 140-180kg/ha, the typical rate for legumes and grasses in a complex mix. inclusion in a mixture is around 12kg/ha (http://sainfoin.eu/ farming-sainfoin), but can be as much as 82kg/ha, when it is used The nitrogen fixation efficiency in sainfoin is relatively poor in as a main crop with companion grasses. However, due to the high comparison to lucerne, red clover, and white clover, mainly because species diversity of the mixture tested in this project, the seed rate of of the lower overall biomass in sainfoin. Compared to lucerne, sainfoin used in the mix was much below this rate, with only 5kg/ sainfoin has a lower Leaf Area Index and lower efficiency of using ha. This may explain why presence of sainfoin in the mixture was sunlight. Rhizobial inoculation of sainfoin is recommended. consistently lower than for example that of red clover and white When we looked at the plant residue profile of the species, the clover. Thus, greater productivity of sainfoin in a less complex mix lignin content of sainfoin was significantly higher than for red may require a higher seed rate than that used in our trials. and white clover. This may partly contribute to a relatively slower
Page 34 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 decomposition rate in relation to clover species. In comparison to Among the legumes, birdsfoot trefoil ranked highest in terms of the other tested legumes, sainfoin had relatively high polyphenol root biomass. Regarding the plant residue profile, birdsfoot trefoil content, being similar to red clover. In accordance with this showed a significantly higher lignin content than the clover species finding, the literature indicates that sainfoin contains high levels tested, a similar polyphenol content as white clover, but a higher and high diversity of phenolic compounds. These, especially in C:N ratio than white clover. Among the legume species tested, the form of condensed tannins, have implications for the forage birdsfoot trefoil was only surpassed by large birdsfoot trefoil in value of sainfoin, as they result in the species’ non-bloating nature, terms of resistance to breakdown. The species was similar to white and increase protein absorption and palatability. Finally, phenolic clover in terms of the amount of soil N pre- and post-incorporation compounds in sainfoin also confer antihelminthic properties. A and ranged in the upper third in terms of grain yield of following feeding study found that both dried and ensiled sainfoin reduced cereal, though there were no significant differences between established populations of parasitic nematodes in lambs. birdsfoot trefoil and white clover in this respect.
In summary, sainfoin, thriving on alkaline soils, is a species with Birdsfoot trefoil has a relatively wide tolerance regarding various lower productivity than other legumes such as white clover, red environmental conditions and the present study supports clover or lucerne, but has other highly beneficial characteristics, this finding in that no significant regional differentiation was as it is (relatively) drought resistant, is highly palatable, does not observed across the UK. While the literature describes birdsfoot cause bloat, and has anti-parasitic properties when fed to livestock. trefoil as being adapted for acidic infertile soils, we observed a mildly positive correlation between the presence of birdsfoot Birdsfoot trefoil trefoil on farms and soil pH, though only in the Birdsfoot trefoil is a native plant third year of the trials. Birdsfoot trefoil has been in Europe, growing on a vast area described as being more tolerant than white ranging from Northern Russia clover to soils of extreme pH values. The wide through to West Africa. It is adaptation of birdsfoot trefoil also refers to its pollinated by honey bees as well as water requirements: while birdsfoot trefoil has bumble bees and has a long tap root, been reported to be more drought-tolerant than almost going as deep as lucerne, but large birdsfoot trefoil and lucerne, it is also better shows a larger lateral root spread yielding than lucerne, white clover, red clover than lucerne. under poor drainage conditions, and it is more tolerant of flooding than lucerne. Birdsfoot trefoil is also quite The species is known for its relatively weak seedling emergence tolerant of saline soils. However, the species requires high sunlight and slow establishment, and the experiments conducted in the levels and is not shade-tolerant. Legume LINK project confirmed that birdsfoot trefoil was slow to establish, slower than many other legumes tested (such as crimson In the present study, birdsfoot trefoil was found to be reasonably clover, lucerne, or red clover); interestingly, however, it was not tolerant to being cut to a low height, but less so than white clover. significantly slower than white clover. These results are in agreement with a study that found that white clover showed higher tolerance to grazing by beef cattle than Regarding many productivity parameters, birdsfoot trefoil was birdsfoot trefoil. Just as sainfoin, birdsfoot trefoil is a non-bloating not significantly different from white clover – seedling biomass legume, containing condensed tannins; it has been reported to be and seedling relative growth rate, plant re-growth after cutting highly acceptable to livestock, and controlled rotational grazing is in first year, above ground biomass in the first summer, pre- therefore recommended. incorporation biomass and pre-incorporation proportion of weed biomass. However, birdsfoot trefoil showed a substantially and In summary, birdsfoot trefoil is a legume species with moderate significantly lower crop cover than white clover after the first yield levels and it is relatively weak in the establishment phase. winter. In comparison with other legume species, it was mid-range However, it provides good forage value as a non-bloating legume in terms of weed cover and weed biomass. During on-farm trials, species, and high adaptability to relatively poor soil conditions, birdsfoot trefoil decreased in frequency over time within a diverse as well as slower breakdown after incorporation, which decreases species mixture, and showed a significantly lower presence on the risk of nitrogen losses. farms and in sampling quadrats than white clover, as well as a Thomas Döring and Sally Howlett, Organic Research lower ground cover. Compared to the other Lotus species tested, Centre large birdsfoot trefoil (L. pedunculatus), birdsfoot trefoil showed consistently higher productivity on all measured parameters. Acknowledgements This is in line with results from some, but not all, reports in the The Legume LINK project LK09106 was supported by the Sustainable Arable literature, where in some cases large birdsfoot trefoil was shown LINK programme by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. We to yield more than birdsfoot trefoil, depending on year, Lotus would like to thank all the farmers involved in this project for their participation variety, and companion grass species. and commitment, and Organic Seed Producers for providing seed.
Page 35 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Health and humus The life and ideas of Dr. George Vivian Poore Who should be considered the founding fathers of the organic movement? Many might identify the generation who established the Soil Association in the 1940s: agriculturalists like Sir Albert Howard, or doctors such as Lionel Picton. The “humus school” of farmers were particularly prominent at the time of the centenary of Rothamsted Experimental Station in 1943, attacking the emerging “orthodoxy” of chemical farming which the Station so successfully promoted. In fact, one of the organic movement’s most far-sighted “founding fathers” can be identified exactly half a century earlier than the Rothamsted centenary, through the publication in 1893 of Essays in Rural Hygiene. Its author, Dr. George Vivian Poore (1843 – 1904), influenced both Sanitation Howard and Picton. In Rural Hygiene one can see expressed the essence of the organic approach to cultivation, and, in embryonic For our purposes here, the most important of Poore’s spheres of form, several of that approach’s wider social implications. 1893 interest was preventive medicine. He was an ardent sanitarian, may sound remote, but it is only the span of two short lifetimes sufficiently respected to be appointed Honorary Secretary of the away; while Poore’s experiments as a dedicated grower of fruit International Congress of Hygiene and Demography held in and vegetables may interest those who are, without knowing it, London in 1891. Before we examine Poore’s views on health and his spiritual descendants. After giving an account of Poore’s life sanitation, it is worth noting in passing the rather strange fact – and achievements, I shall consider his ideas and his horticultural as it would seem to us today – that he came to value cigarettes as experiments, and, in conclusion, discuss his continuing relevance stimulants. But recognition of the connection between smoking and to the organic movement. lung cancer lay some decades ahead, and Poore was concerned with other causes of the widespread illness and deaths afflicting Background & interests large cities. In his view, the worst offender was the increasingly widespread system of water-borne sewage: he described it as The first point to make is that Poore was a countryman. He was “probably the greatest sanitary blunder ever committed”. This was born in Andover, Hampshire, maintaining a residence there while because “The proper destination of organic refuse is the soil. Why, working in London, and retiring there the year before he died. This therefore, in a moment of weakness, did we construct six millions’ background gave him a critical perspective on the capital’s rapid worth of machinery to throw it in the water?” growth in the later decades of the nineteenth century, and meant that he sympathised with the plight of British agriculture, which On the title page of Rural Hygiene, Poore quotes a passage from underwent economic depression during the same period. Poore’s Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables, in which Hugo, describing the father was a naval Commander, and at first Poore followed in his Parisian sewer system, reflects on the double waste involved: night footsteps, attending the Royal Naval School in south-east London. soil was denied to the land which it would have enriched, instead His real interest, though, lay in medicine, and he left the School to polluting the waters which carried it. This is of course a statement take up a medical apprenticeship near Winchester. of the central principle of organic cultivation, the rule of return of wastes to the earth; but it is worth remembering that the organic From there he went to University College Hospital, soon movement, which is a part of the wider environmental movement, demonstrating remarkable ability in his chosen field. In 1866 he has also concerned itself with the quality and availability of water. became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and served as surgeon on Brunel’s steam ship the Great Eastern while it laid Poore made his case against water closets both in robust religious the trans-Atlantic telegraph cable. Two years later he gained his terms (describing the sewer-pipe as “a sanitary Satan”) and through medical degrees, and in 1877 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal scientific study of the effects which sewage had on water systems. College of Surgeons. In 1872 he had been appointed lecturer Cesspools, he argued, poisoned the very wells of urban water in medical jurisprudence at Charing Cross Hospital. Other supply, and the sewage system’s demands led to the dwindling academic appointments followed: he became Professor of Medical of London’s rivers. Huge conurbations fostered domestic Jurisprudence and of Clinical Medicine at University College overcrowding, disease and foul air; industrial manufacturers were Hospital, and was by all accounts an outstanding lecturer. allowed to use rivers as dumping grounds for their noxious wastes and then to be supported from the rates “like paupers” as the mess Poore’s interests were wide-ranging. He pioneered techniques was dealt with. This was a system in which the demands of trade of using electricity in medicine and surgery, publishing a major trumped those of health and economy. The fact that it led to the text-book on the subject, and took an interest in problems of the imposition of rates made it a political issue: not just at municipal ear and throat, being expert in use of the laryngoscope. Under the level, but nationally. For what underlay this situation was the policy Cruelty to Animals Act of 1876, he became an Inspector. He was, of free trade, with its consequent detrimental effect on agriculture. in short, a gifted scientist with wide-ranging abilities in the realm of conventional medicine.
Page 36 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Rural and urban imbalance Poore’s experience was that these methods produced a wide variety of high-quality fruit and vegetables whose consumption Like the pioneers of the organic movement in the 1930s and ‘40s, caused no sickness. He supplied himself and his friends, sold Poore believed that England suffered from an imbalance of rural and spare produce, and shared the profits with his gardener. urban. Large cities harmed agricultural interests in various ways. It was essential to bury offensive matter near the surface, as activity There was the loss of agricultural land on which they were built; the in the soil’s top layer would ensure rapid dissolution. To keep fact that the gathering-grounds of cities’ water supplies could not be soil sweet, there was “only one sure and certain way”, which was used for cultivation; the use of land for sewage purification; and the “tillage, aeration and cultivation”. And to prove that, unlike water- loss, through water-borne sewage, of the organic matter which was borne sewage systems, his methods did not pollute the water supply, literally vital for the earth’s continuing fertility. Poore sank a shallow well from which visitors drank without ill Poore mistakenly regarded artificial fertilisers as a passing fad. effects. “Refuse, if properly used,” he concluded, “is a source of food “That organic matters are superior to all artificial manures is and wages.” The same conclusion, on a much greater scale, could be now generally acknowledged,” he claimed. “Farmers and market drawn from the prosperity of London’s market gardens, which used gardeners will tell you that artificial manures have ‘got no bottom the limitless amounts of dung from the city’s stables: a situation in them’, that their use is, so to say, a speculation.”Yet recent which was to change with the advent of the motor-car. policy had been to import chemicals from South America while Poore believed that hygiene could be based on scientific principles wasting home-produced organic manure. This flew in the face of only in the countryside, since there were too many political and true economy: that is, the economy of nature and its laws. vested interests influencing sanitation policy in urban areas. He Years before F. H. King wrote about the cultivators of the Far described his idea of Utopia as “a place were there are water- East in Farmers of Forty Centuries, Poore praised their thrift, which pipes and no sewer-pipes, where every cottage on a hillside has ensured that they wasted nothing. “If the fertility of the earth is round it an allotment sufficient to be fertilised by and to purify to be maintained, we must constantly replenish it.” The top few the waste waters….” But while free-trade principles dominated inches of the earth teem with the life of micro-organisms, with the nation’s economic policy, such a society was an impossibility. earthworms and with the richness of agricultural mould, or As with many of the 20th-century organic pioneers, one finds humus, which has a powerful capacity to absorb water. in Poore’s writings no conflict between religion and science, or Of all the forms of earth created by organic wastes, Poore regarded between social morality and sound economy. Healthy lives and closet-earth as the most fertile: as fertile as any earth could be, with abundant crops are attained by fidelity to the principles of natural excreta undergoing a process of “humification”. Critics objected to law. “As it is,” Poore wrote, “we reap and we do not sow”. (His such methods, assuming that they would be insanitary. Poore set criticism of the methods of American prairie farmers would be about refuting such objections in the gardens of his suburban villa vindicated within forty years). The scientist’s task was to observe in West London and at his house in Andover, through experiments and understand the principles of nature’s laws, and ensure that whose aim was to establish the disinfectant properties of humus. methods of cultivation worked with them. Like Sir Albert Howard, In both places, he sought to minimise waste and put everything to who condemned “the laboratory hermit”, Poore believed that field use, considering not just sewers, but dust-carts too, unnecessary practice was essential. “It is a great mistake to suppose that farming and dangerous. A close friend wrote, in an obituary notice in the is in any way comparable to a chemical experiment.” British Medical Journal: “Dustpan, housemaid’s pail, and kitchen Rural Hygiene is full of practical advice on how to minimise waste sink all alike contributed their share to the garden.” Bathwater and create a flourishing smallholding. One can also discern in went into lead-lined ornamental window-boxes and thence by Poore’s writings an intimation of the value of forest farming. Its hidden pipes to the garden. In Essays on Rural Hygiene, Poore concern with industrial pollution, the power of commercial vested gives detailed, practical advice on how to deal with all sorts of interests, and the harm inflicted on home food production by free refuse, organic and other. Broken glass and crockery should be trade, give it continuing relevance. The organic philosophy can be used where good bottom drainage is required, and as a foundation seen in its pages, ready for development for paths. Poore claimed that in the six years he had lived at by later thinkers. And Poore’s book Isleworth, the “sanitary” cart (the inverted commas are Poore’s reminds us that there need be no ironic punctuation) had never had occasion to call at his villa. conflict between that philosophy and a Poore did make use of a cart at Andover, but its purpose was to scientific outlook. His arguments were bring his tenants’ refuse to his garden. He had in 1882 bought thoroughly grounded in evidence, and a house with two acres of neglected land, and over the next serve as an invitation to carry out further decade he transformed it and carried out experiments into the investigations, not in laboratories, but on hygienic and deodorising qualities of the “living earth” produced the plots of experienced growers. by decaying wastes. The refuse went into shallow trenches, Philip Conford
top earth was placed on it, and crops were sown soon after. Hygiene Rural from Photo Peas from Poore’s experiments
Page 37 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Calculating the carbon footprint of a horticultural business Recently the Farm Carbon Cutting Toolkit launched the latest version of its Farm Carbon Calculator (formerly CFF Carbon Calculator). This is a tool than can be used by growers and farmers to calculate the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and carbon sequestration associated with their business. It’s free to use, hosted online and is designed to be both user- friendly and accurate.
To demonstrate how the process works, I recently worked with need to enter any more details or pay any money, and you can Tolhurst Organic Produce in Oxfordshire to help them in the enter your account in the future at any time by just signing in with process of calculating their carbon footprint. The farm represents your username and password. a similar scale that will be familiar to many OGA members, i.e. Now you’re ready to start filling in data. All you have to do is family run, local deliveries with a few acres under cultivation. enter in information relevant to your business in each section Many will know that Iain 'Tolly' Tolhurst is one of the longest of the Calculator, which include Fuels, Materials, Capital Items, established organic growers with a system that has inspired Fertility, Agro-chemicals (not for organic growers!), Livestock, many, me included. All the more reason to see how the system Waste, Distribution and Sequestration. As the screengrab shows, looks from a carbon perspective! you select the appropriate item from a drop-down menu, choose Why do the carbon calculation? the units and enter the data that you’ve collected already. Surely we all spend too much time in the office already and are swamped with paperwork? Both of those points are probably true, but this exercise gives a truly fresh perspective on the business that can't be gained in other ways. If we're serious about trying to reduce GHGs then we first have to measure them. Only when we realise what is being produced by what operations, can we take measures to reduce emissions. As land managers not only do we have a very serious role to play in helping to tackle climate change, we also have a great opportunity to sequester (absorb) carbon too. Preparing the data The first step is to gather data that will be entered in to the carbon Tolhurst Organic Produce - Emissions calculator. We provide a spreadsheet so that you can gather all Results are presented in several forms: emissions and sequestration data relevant to your business activities over the past 12 months. in kg of CO e (CO equivalence), as a % of total emissions/ It's quite straightforward and looks like this: 2 2 sequestration, in graphs, a carbon balance, and a visualisation. A summary of Tolly’s results are shown below:
Whilst this part is the most time-consuming of the whole exercise, if your business records are quite well organised it shouldn’t take more than a few hours. For my business it took about three hours, for Tolly about four hours, others have taken as little as one hour. If your business is more complex then it could take longer, but the What is immediately obvious is that of all areas, fuel use is by critical factor really is how well organised your records are. And it far the biggest contributor to emissions. This is comprised of gets easier if you repeat the exercise a year later! approximately 20% in tractor use, deliveries by van 33% and electricity use 17% of total emissions. Half of the latter is used just Using the Calculator in heated plant propagation.
Go to www.farmcarboncalculator.org.uk and click on ‘Carbon Remaining emissions include a very small amount for embodied Calculator’. You have to register an account, which is simply energy in materials and around 11% as nitrous oxide (N2O) from entering an email address, username and password. You don’t green manures. However, these green manures are also the
Page 38 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 cornerstone of the fertility cycle and provide large amounts of The overall balance organic matter. In the next section we see how this balances out in soil carbon sequestration. The lack of livestock also makes an Total emissions come to 16.6 t of CO2e per year, a remarkably low enormous difference to carbon emissions. figure for a business producing vegetables for 150 families. But
most excitingly, total sequestration comes to 21.4t of CO2 per year, Waste management is taken very seriously and the amount of meaning the whole farm is carbon positive by 4.8t CO2e per year. waste sent for recycling offsets around 10% of total emissions. In This shows that there are methods of growing vegetables with total the farm business emitted about 16.6 tonnes of CO2e last year, which interestingly is about 1.5 times the UK average per capita minimal inputs, good outputs of vegetables while still sequestering far more carbon than is emitted. All Tolhurst Organic Produce emissions of 11 tonnes of CO2e per year. customers receive vegetables every week which actually lowers What about the sequestration? their carbon footprint. This is an exciting concept and demonstrates the power of farmland to turn agriculture and horticulture into a Farms are almost unique amongst businesses in that they have the carbon positive activity that can help to bring down atmospheric ability to absorb CO2 in the biomass and soils that are so integral CO levels and reduce the impacts of climate change. to any farming or growing business. When perennial plants grow 2 they turn CO2 in to lignin and also store carbon in the soil. Soil Jonathan Smith & Iain Tolhurst organic matter is comprised of over 50% carbon, and in this form Jonathan Smith is a Director of Farm Carbon Cutting Toolkit and lead developer it is stable and not a greenhouse gas. The more organic matter that of the Farm Carbon Calculator, as well as an organic grower on the Isles of Scilly. builds and the more trees, hedges and orchards that grow, the more carbon is sequestered. Iain Tolhurst runs Tolhurst Organic Produce in Oxfordshire and has been at the forefront of sustainable horticulture for 25 years. At Hardwick, the sensitive and sustainable management of the www.tolhurstorganicproduce.co.uk land pays dividends in carbon terms. As the carbon calculation demonstrates, last year 21.4 tonnes of CO2 was sequestered, www.farmcarboncalculator.org.uk broken down as follows: Tolly’s comments: The Farm Carbon Calculator is a great piece of work as it really focuses your attention on the way your farm business impacts on the world beyond your farm gate. It should become every farmer’s best management tool for carbon and hence cost reductions in input use.
The very favourable carbon footprint for 2012 may not be so easily Hedges around the fields are tall and wide and new hedges repeated in some other years and to get a true picture of the farm have been planted; in total these account for 17% of total will really take a number of years of using the Calculator. Last sequestration. A small area of woodland, along with an area of year was atypical, we did almost no irrigation, which consumes willow coppice in a damp corner of one of the fields, accounts considerable energy in diesel and we had less crop to sell which for over 24% of all sequestration. would have reduced some other inputs such as packaging. Early One of the most surprising figures perhaps was for the amount spring 2012 was very sunny which also had the effect of reducing sequestrated in the field margins. This permanent pasture electricity usage for grow lights in propagation. around fields and beetle banks within fields is actually quite Over the past few seasons, we have reduced capital expenditure a large area, nearly 1 ha in total, and accounts for nearly 9% of on long-term business investments and have done very little total sequestration. building work. This is due to the stagnant nature of organic sales The biggest challenge for growers is how to build soil organic of veg and a corresponding reduction in profitability levels. We matter, because cultivating soil is the best way to lose it! Over had planned to replace a tractor with a newer model but have the course of the last 25 years, Tolly has managed to continually deferred that for a while until business picks up. The fact that build organic matter levels without the use of external inputs. most of my equipment is over 10 years old is a real saving in This has been achieved through extensive use of green embodied energy costs; one tractor is over 40, the other one manures, addition of compost (latterly from woodchips) and 20 years old, both have paid their carbon debt. This fact does a tillage policy of shallow and timely cultivations. This is a mean that I have to spend quite some time and effort to maintain remarkable feat, and the positive contribution of rising organic equipment so if you want to reduce your carbon emissions put matter levels across cropped areas accounts for an impressive more human effort in to your kit! 49% of all sequestration. What will be really interesting is to look at a rolling average over say 5 to 10 years of the Calculator being used on the farm business.
Page 39 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Some like it hot! Hotbeds for transplant-raising, Hungarian style At the university organic training gardens in Gödöllő (Babatvölgy) we have developed a hybrid hotbed system based on local experience. We have used the system for many years to provide heat for seedlings and young transplants in winter through to early spring. Hot bed preparation begins at the end of January and sowings begin in the second week of February (when outside temperatures can easily drop to -15°C at night), but under the double polythene covers, on top of the hot beds, temperatures remain above 5°C at night. Tunnels need to be ventilated during sunny weather to prevent overheating and plants going “leggy”, even with freezing temperatures outside. Preparation of hotbeds 1. Two parallel hotbed frames are erected (12m x 1.3m x 0.8m high) within a double polythene structure. The frames are made from acacia (hardwood) to be more resistant to rotting. We stagger the filling of the two frames by two weeks, in order to provide a longer heating period – as one frame begins to cool, the other is still at full heat output.
2. The frames are then filled in layers with 80-90cm fresh horse manure and straw. The fresh manure is well packed down by walking on, and watered in liberally, to provide adequate moisture for microbial heat-up.
3. The horse manure is transported into the tunnels with wheel-barrows. For 2 x 12m frames around 15-20 tonnes of fresh horse manure on straw bedding are used.
4. The filled frames are then covered with geo-textile compost covers to aid insulation, and left to begin decomposition and heat-up.
5. After 10-14 days the hotbeds drop by 10-20cm in height (due to decomposition and natural collapse). The top of the hotbed is levelled off using manure forks and then covered with a 20cm layer of sieved compost (we use 2 year old composted, ex-hotbed manure from previous years’ hotbeds). This sieved compost is raked level, and provides a “tabletop” for seed and modular trays, into which seeds are sown and seedlings pricked out.
The mature compost acts both as a biofilter, absorbing excess ammonia from the hotbed below, as well as providing a rakeable, flat surface for seedtrays to be placed on. After several weeks the top of the hotbeds tend to slump, and require re-leveling as the active manure breaks down further. Our experience, of 10 years, is that we have never lost seedlings which have been placed on the hotbeds to the cold. Care needs to be taken to regulate temperatures, because it is easy for seedlings to become leggy in low-light conditions. The hot-beds create a rather humid environment, but with the fast growth of young seedlings we haven’t experienced problems with seedling dieback, however care needs to be taken to ventilate, by opening end doors. The system is robust and very energy efficient, providing heating right through until late March. A disadvantage over heating mats or gas heating is that the temperatures on the hotbed are not thermostatically controlled. The temperature can’t be accurately set, so the system is “rough-and-ready”, but it has worked well for us, without any fossil fuel heating bills. Matthew Hayes
Szent István University, Gödöllő, Babatvölgy Organic Training Gardens. Email: [email protected] Hayes Matthew Photos:
Page 40 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Empires of Food: Book reviews Feast, Famine, and Hot Beds: How to the Rise and Fall of grow early crops Civilizations using an age-old Evan D.G. Fraser & Andrew technique - Jack First, Rimas, Free Press 2010 Green Books £9.95 Having read the Winter Harvest Handbook by Eliot Coleman last spring and been fascinated by Dirt: The Erosion the chapter on market gardens in Paris, I ordered a number of the of Civilizations books in his bibliography from the bowels of the British Library’s David R. Montgomery, storage warehouse to further investigate their techniques. It seems that market gardeners were once almost defined by their use of University of California hot beds so I was very keen to get the job of reviewing this modern Press, 2012 book on the subject. My interest in the survival or Hot Beds by Jack First is a far better introduction to the subject than otherwise of human societies was put into a higher gear by Jared older books. It has clearer photos, focuses on modern varieties of Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail or Succeed book in the vegetables grown and is bursting with the man’s excitement 2005. The two books reviewed below develop the themes further at being able to grow early vegetables in Keighley. Hot beds are and provide a greater historic overview. All centre on how we use, made with decaying manure or other organic matter that gives and often lose, our soils. off heat through decomposition, with a layer of growing matter Empires of Food manages to be breezy and brisk, winding up some on top and a cover to keep in the warmth. This book explains reviewers in fact, while covering the demise of the Romans et al. the process of building the hot beds and the importance of the The authors give the impression of being well read without getting height of the decomposing matter relative to the amount of heat into too much detail, perhaps hoping to reach a mainstream, or given off. It also explores a wider range of materials than the at least a popular science audience. I found it very readable, as traditional horse muck. One photo shows a hot bed made with well as an important text. It’s sobering to note Roman writers old clothes, leaves, hessian sacks, cardboard, paper, sawdust advocating manuring and cover crops, but the Empire still and some manure. The book covers the planning and sowing of wearing its soils out over huge areas. Short-term pressure versus crops very well using intercropping to get the maximum return long-term prudence is a recurring theme. and describing appropriate modern varieties. It also makes a very good point about the vast quantity of sunlight that northern Dirt is more wordy and slower to get going: it is an academic growers are unable to use because of the cold. For box scheme writing style, but the later chapters are spot on. They detail the producers who depend on their own produce to attract customers, struggles and history of soil management through the 1930s the ideas are very attractive. and ‘40s, and David Montgomery is appreciative of the damage done to subsistence farmers globally by Norman Bourlag’s However, there are a few issues with hot beds which might concern Green Revolution blitzkrieg. He is also a great deconstructor of modern growers. Anyone who remembers the brouhaha over the American ‘moving west’ myth (cheaper always to break new demarcated beds during the consultation process for the new Soil ground than maintain the existing), and the economics of slave Association protected cropping standards will look awkwardly at plantation cropping. Lincoln for one was a prudent farmer. the plants growing in a situation not that dissimilar. There is also the issue of labour - hot bed production, at least the making of the Both books share a basic account of failed societies: namely, hotbeds, would need to be mechanised in today’s world. One of population growth as new land is accessed, leading to falling the last chapters looks at using the heat from decomposition to organic matter levels, fertility and yields. Resilience and food warm water, and using that water to reduce heating costs. This reserves become so fragile such that any external threat leads could work well for green house growers. If this book doesn’t to collapse. Studied in modern times, someone will eventually make you want to rush out and build cold frames, it will make decide that a climate event wiped the society out – i.e. an act of you think about all that heat given off by the composting you are God. Wrong of course, but an easy sell. Successful societies are doing and how to make better use of it. those conscious of the fertility of soil – and their own – and that act to maintain (or manage) it. Polynesian islands such as Easter Sam Eglington Island and Tikopia provide the clearest contrasts in approach.
Page 41 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Fortunate societies have something like the Nile flowing past, bringing an annual fertility dressing; or a recent enough volcanic emission of minerals such as East Sicily.
An appreciation of organic farming practice is explicit in both books and seems to me to articulate much of why we grow the way we do. Dirt particularly drives home the problem of erosion of topsoil in farming (drastic), while making me very keen to find data on what our best and oldest organic units have achieved. We can raise organic matter to impressive levels and soak up lots of carbon; but is it only the forest (and prairie) that can really build soil? A much clearer view on this would be helpful in seeing off the intensive/GM/bi-ag approach, but also determine how many people the Earth’s crust can sustain.
While the historic view covered by the authors is unnerving, I find reassurance in how easily the public still responds to soil (not ‘dirt’ in the UK of course!). People like the notion of humus, worms and stewardship, and they are readily interested by great tasting crops. While we have to win the factual debates, we do not need to get tangled up in a pseudo-religious adherence to scientific agriculture. Science didn’t exist as a discipline for much of human history and ordinary people may well be more impressed by growers with morality and ethics than by white coat reductionists. One of Jared Diamond’s legacies will be to show that despite being much lauded in several specialisms, his real strength is overview and multi-disciplinary thought – wisdom perhaps. We should not hesitate to say that we can manage soils wisely, produce food safely and we are here to build trust. I think that is an eminently marketable proposition. Adam York
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Page 42 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 Dumped! I could have written ‘betrayed!’ but let’s not get too emotional. For some reason the February Soil Association (SA) Producer News lately arrived in my inbox. A glance at its contents was depressing enough, the merest shadow of what the Producer Services department used to pour out a dozen years ago, but it was reading the SA’s self-description at the bottom that really got me. The fact is that I am trying to come to terms with the realisation that the Soil Association no longer stands for organic agriculture, but instead is now after the healthy, the humane and the sustainable. Some time ago Helen Browning, director of the SA, told us [OG #15] that organic lacked sex appeal, and even that she feared to pronounce ‘the O word’. That was flabbergasting in itself but this latest revelation has me on the floor, searching for my roots.
Probably the rest of you have known about this for ages and it is Turks (as then they were) and the move in 1985 from slumberous hardly news, but our farm hasn’t been certified for two or three Haughley to the brighter lights of Bristol never quite got over this. years now and, glad to avoid sight of Living Earth in particular In time, as its budget grew and the payroll along with it, it could and exasperated by the SA’s progression in general, we didn’t glory in its own success, a success built really on the labour of subsequently join up as members. I’ve therefore only been able to growers and farmers who put its philosophy into practice and get a glimpse of its doings from the distant sidelines (the arrival fulfilled the market. The essential simplicity of its message became of the above mentioned producer news being an aberration). You overlain by a desire for stature, for approval, for entry into the might say, seeing as I’m not a member, that I have no right to counsels of the mighty and the drawing rooms of the wealthy and grouch about it now. fashionable. The absurd party in New York, the ridiculous Feast of Albion [OG # 4] and the rest of it have led inevitably to the ugly I think I do have that right though, and this is why. The Soil taint of elitism. And yet what could be more honest, more down Association has always seen itself, justifiably, as the fount and to earth, than the organic farmer and grower husbanding the soil? origin of organic agriculture in this country. All through its bitter Now, in following the money into localism, catering and so forth, arguments with Organic Farmers and Growers (ancient history the Soil Association has largely left the soil behind. now but a fundamental schism in its long day) it stood for the purity of the organic philosophy against the revisionism of the You can see that I have never been an unalloyed fan of the Chilean nitrate-using “practical” farmers of OF&G. Vatican-like Soil Association. Still I claim my right to pass judgement on it it cleaved to the founding philosophy of Lady Eve Balfour and now. For better or worse it has been a kind of parent to organic guarded the right to uphold orthodox doctrine, doing so through producers, especially but not solely to those it has certified, and its standards and public utterances. It has ever claimed to be The now it has dumped organic and in doing so has dumped us! I organic organisation, and certainly in the public eye this is what do feel betrayed. That is to say I feel it has betrayed its foot it has been – indeed the only one that most people have heard of. soldiers, and it has done this at a time when they are struggling in the increasingly hostile environment of a slack market and It never was a producer organisation but producers could look to an indifferent or unfriendly media. If the Soil Association is not it - not for practical help but for it to stand for the core values that going to stand for organic agriculture who is? Healthy, humane, underlay their work, and to convey to the public what organic sustainable – these are hollow words, subjective judgements and agriculture is and why it is crucial in the relationship between qualifications. Organic – that has inalienable meaning, meaning humans and the rest of the natural world. It only became a (partly) written into it by the Soil Association itself. Yet now it is dismissed producer organisation in the mid 1990s when it absorbed the as some sort of awkward embarrassment. Organic Growers Association and British Organic Farmers. These two bodies had arisen in the early 1980s out of a frustration with This is not 1980. The world has changed in many subtle and less the SA’s failure to engage with changed times and offer support subtle ways. The new OG Alliance cannot be what the old OG to the burgeoning world of commercial organic production. Lest Association was. All the we forget - it was the original OGA, with dynamic input from Elm same we have to find ways Farm, that really created the modern UK organic movement. Then to speak more forcefully for the revolutionaries took over the SA, but the distinction between ourselves because now we practical action (the producer groups) and philosophical backbone know for sure what many Organic (the SA) remained. of us have long suspected – the producer and the Soil What also remained was the somewhat dysfunctional nature Association have different of the Soil Association. I don’t want to belittle the association’s ends in view. It is no longer achievements but I have a feeling that this was there from the capable of speaking for us. beginning, that the SA was born under an unpropitious alignment of the stars, that it had a dead hand that prevented full realisation Tim Deane of its potential. The replacement of the old guard by young
Page 43 - The Organic Grower - No 22 Spring 2013 www.coca-csa.org To book contact: Astrid Toner on 0117 9142400 Events [email protected] Thursday 21st to Sunday 24th March 2013 - Strategies for setting Wednesday 24th July 2013 - Soil Association Farm Walk, up a low impact smallholding. Monkton Wyld Court, Dorset. Northdown Orchard. Basingstoke, Hants. 16.30 - 19.30. www.monktonwyldcourt.co.uk www.northdownorchard.co.uk To book contact: Astrid Toner on
Saturday 23rd March 2013 - 6th OGA AGM at Hugh & Patsy 0117 9142400 [email protected] Chapman’s Longmeadow Organic Vegetables, Dorset. Details Wednesday 14th August 2013 - Soil Association Farm enclosed with magazine or contact Tony Little - [email protected] Walk, Higher farm, Beeson, Kingsbridge, Devon www. Tuesday 9th to Friday 12th April 2013 - The Practical Side of underwooddiscoverycentre.com To book contact: Astrid Toner How to Set Up a Low-Impact Smallholding. Monkton Wyld on 0117 9142400 [email protected] Court, Dorset. www.monktonwyldcourt.co.uk Thursday 19th September 2013 - Soil Association Farm Wednesday 10th to Friday 12th April 2013 - Working horses Walk, Sheffield Organic Growers, Norton S.Yorks. www. in market gardens. Chagfood Community Market Garden. sheffieldorganicgrowers.co.uk 16.30 - 19.30. To book contact: Astrid [email protected] Toner on 0117 9142400 [email protected]
Thursday 18th April 2013 - Soil Association Farm Walk, South Devon Organic Group (SDOG). Goldhill Organic Farm. Child Okeford, Dorset. 16.30 - 19.30 We’ve started up a fledgling growers group in South Devon, last www.goldhillorganicfarm.com To book contact: Astrid Toner on month we chatted about crop rotations and seed choices. This 0117 9142400 [email protected] month we’re going to visit another organic growers holding. If
Thursday 25th April 2013 - Soil Association Farm anyone in the area is interested in meeting up then email Laura Walk, Whitethorn Farm, Herefordshire. 16.30 - 19.30. at [email protected] www.whitethornfarm.co.uk To book contact: Astrid Toner on 0117 9142400 [email protected] OGA committee Alan Schofield, Lancs 01253 790046: Chair Monday 29th to Tuesday 30th April 2013 - Polyface Roger Hitchings, Carmarthen 07980 579444: Secretary Farming Systems. Cowdray Hall, Midhurst ,Sussex. Two- Debra Schofield, Lancs 01253 790046: Treasurer Phil Sumption, Warks, 02476 217744: OG editor / web news day workshop lead by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, USA. Pete Dollimore, East Sussex, 01323 741000: Membership / website www.regenerativeagriculture.co.uk Adam York, N Pembrokeshire, 07511 546701 Wales Ben Raskin, Wiltshire, 07990 592621 SA liaison/apprentices Saturday 4th May 2013 - Basic Scything and Grassland Jonathan Smith, Isles of Scilly, 01720 423663 Organic Futures Will Johnson, Warks, 01926 315968: Technical articles Management. Monkton Wyld Court, Dorset. www. Wendy Seel, Aberdeenshire, 01330 833823: Research /Scotland monktonwyldcourt.co.uk Co-opted: Tony Little, Wales, 01970 622248 Events Tuesday 11th June 2013 - Soil Association Farm Walk, Woodlands Farm, Kirton, Lincs. 16.30 - 19.30. www.woodlandsfarm.co.uk To book contact: Astrid Toner on The 0117 9142400 [email protected]
Tuesday 18th June 2013 - Soil Association Farm Walk, Tolhurst ORGANIC GROWER
Organic Produce. Whitchurch-on-Thames, Oxon. 16.30 - 19.30. The Organic Grower is edited by Phil Sumption, with help from www.tolhurstorganic.co.uk To book contact: Astrid Toner on Kate Collyns, Carolyn Wacher, Sam Eglington, Jonathan Smith 0117 9142400 [email protected] and Collette Haynes. Additional proof-reading by Isabeau Meyer-Graft. If you have any news, events or ideas for articles Thursday 18th July 2013 - Soil Association Farm Walk, please get in touch. Caerhys Organic Farm. St Davids, Pembs. 16.30 - 19.30. [email protected] Thanks to all our contributors. Join The OGA! Adverts: Collette Haynes [email protected] Receive four copies of The Organic Grower, access the online Copy date for next issue: May 15th 2013 forum, technical articles and back issues, plus much more! The Organic Grower is the membership magazine of the OGA. Views expressed in The Organic Grower are not necessarily those of the OGA Membership - £25 or its committee. Every effort is made to check the factual accuracy of statements made in the magazine, but no guarantees are expressed Apprentice & student membership - £15. or implied. In particular, readers should satisfy themselves about the authenticity of products or inputs advertised. Material may not be Overseas members (PDF copy of magazine only) - £25 reproduced without prior written permission. Join online: www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk
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