Living Earth - Spring 2022

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Stop Poison Poultry

Growing Better Together

The toxic truth behind chicken feed

Our Strategy to 2030

Plant & Share Month Sow and grow together

Welcome to the spring edition of Living Earth The awareness of where our food comes from is greater than ever. Coupled with the growing public interest in how our diets are linked not only to our own health but to so many wildlife species. This month sees the launch of our Stop Poison Poultry campaign which is raising awareness of the toxic pesticides sprayed on soya crops across Brazil. But we need your help us call on supermarkets to pay urgent attention to pesticides and scrub their supply chains clean. Will you sign and share our petition calling on supermarkets to remove dangerous pesticides from their supply chain? You can read the full details of the campaign and how you can help on page 6.

We’re in a complicated moment with a major threat to global food security due to the war in Ukraine. In response to looming shortages, there have been calls for the loosening of environmental restrictions to intensify agricultural production.

While the need to improve the resilience of our supply chains is clear, lowering our environmental standards would only weaken that resilience in the long run.

Instead, we need a broader shift towards agroecological farming practices, such as organic, which can ensure long-term food security by simultaneously tackling the nature, health and biodiversity crises. Read more on page 12.

Living Earth Spring 2022

We are fortunate to work across varied sectors, hearing many different views and experiences. Every voice is important if we are to shape an inclusive and holistic regeneration. We’ve been speaking with many different people, including some of you, our members to review how we achieve our vision - a future of regeneration - a world with good health, in balance with nature, and a safe climate. You can read more about our strategy on page 18.

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You may have noticed we’ve given our members’ magazine Living Earth a refresh - we hope you like it. As ever, we’d love to know your thoughts – do please get in touch.

Thank you for your continued support. It makes all our campaigning and influencing work possible.

Cathy Cliff Policy Advisor (Campaigns) Issue: 267

What’s inside this issue 4

Thanks to you…

Find out what you’ve helped us to achieve

22 Horticulture Corner

Growing without Peat Chickens

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Stop Poison Poultry Sign the petition

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Postcards from Woodoaks Farm

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Ukraine: The world’s breadbasket at war

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Plant and Share Month Get involved

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Organic Health & Beauty is growing

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Growing Better Together Our Strategy to 2030

24 Why don’t we care more?

Recipe for the Season

26 Try these veg pasties using leftover veg

28 Notes from the Farm

The latest at Empire Farm

Contact us on: memb@soilassociation.org 0300 330 0100

Living Earth Spring 2022

Please get in touch if you would like this magazine in a different format

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Thanks to you...

Your donations and actions have achieved this…

There are now over 2 kilometres of new hedgerows at our Woodoaks Farm Thanks to all of you who were able to give a donation to our appeal to plant new hedgerows at Woodoaks. Many of you also volunteered and braved all weathers to get the trees and shrubs planted. These new hedgerows will quickly enhance the farm’s biodiversity, help protect the soil from rain and wind and absorb carbon from the atmosphere too. There’ll also be blackberries to pick if you’re in the area next autumn!

Next up at Woodoaks is agroforestry – planting trees around the farm to benefit wildlife, soils, farm animals and us humans too!

Read more on page 10.

We’re putting pressure on UK supermarkets to put an end to toxic pesticide use in their chicken supply chains

Living Earth Spring 2022

British chickens are typically fed on soya from Latin America that is sprayed with toxic pesticides, many of which are banned in the UK. These pesticides are killing bees and endangering wildlife. Read the full story on page 6 and get involved!

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Regeneration is firmly on the climate agenda Our ‘Regenerate Now’ report shows UK progress towards 2030 climate goals and puts regeneration at the heart of the solution. It gives an update on our push for a transition to naturefriendly farming and sustainable land use and our work towards healthy and sustainable diets and also looks forward to what the year ahead holds.

Make yourself a brew and have a read: soilassociation.org/progressreport

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Living Earth Spring 2022

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE ENVIRONMENT

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ST P POISON POULTRY The toxic truth behind chicken feed

Living Earth Spring 2022

Our Stop Poison Poultry campaign launched last month. We’re raising awareness of the toxic pesticides sprayed on soya crops across Brazil – pesticides that are dangerous to farm workers and their families and wreak havoc on Brazilian biodiversity.

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As the soya is exported to the UK and fed to millions of British chickens, we’re calling on supermarkets to pay urgent attention to pesticides and scrub their chicken supply chains clean.

Will you help us? By signing our petition

It accounts for almost half of all meat eaten in the UK and, despite calls for people to opt for more plant-based foods and less and better meat to help protect the planet, chicken’s popularity shows no sign of waning. In fact, consumption has risen steadily over the last few years – and it’s still on the up.

Responding to demand, farming has intensified: the mass production of fast-growing birds, commonly 50,000 or more housed in huge, purpose-built sheds and fed on a high protein diet.

Soya plays a vital part in this diet. It provides the amino acids chickens need to grow fast and fat. Without soya, intensive chicken farming with today’s fast-growing breeds simply wouldn’t be viable.

That’s why we import huge amounts of the stuff every year – a staggering 3 million tonnes per annum. Most of our soya comes from the Americas and most of it is genetically modified.

And when it comes to poultry feed, Brazil is our main source. Soya trading corporations around the world are profiting handsomely from Britain’s love for chicken.

To meet the soaring global demand for poultry feed, Brazil has become an epicentre for soya production.

Brazilian soya farming has increased almost sixfold since 1990, while pesticide use has shot up by 900%.

Biodiversity, wildlife and human health have been hit hard along the way.

Under Brazil’s current president, Jair Bolsonaro, deforestation rates reached a new 15-year high in 2021, and he’s taken a similarly reckless approach to pesticides. The market has been flooded

with new products, and of the 96 active ingredients contained in pesticides released in Brazil in 2020, one in three are banned in the UK or EU. It gets worse.

Some of these chemicals are actually made in Europe and the UK and then sold to Brazil. At least four major pesticide manufacturers have been selling products that are banned in their domestic markets because they are classified as ‘highly hazardous.’

They contain known or suspected carcinogens, which can cause cancer, as well as chemicals that are understood to pose a risk to reproductive and developmental health.

Public health experts in Brazil have reported 70,000 pesticide poisonings among citizens in Brazil each year.

But it’s not only human health that we’re deeply concerned about.

In 2020, in just four Brazilian states, over 500 million bees were found dead. The key suspects were neonicotinoid and fipronil pesticides, commonly used in soya farming.

Scientists in Brazil are describing nightmarish scenes of pesticidefuelled harms. Bats and birds found dead. Amphibians choking on polluted algae. Frogs facing chemical castration. Brazil’s wondrous wildlife is being poisoned by pesticides for the sake of cheap industrial chicken feed.

These horrors might seem a world away from British dinner plates.

Living Earth Spring 2022

Chicken is the nation’s favourite meat.

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But remember, the average British chicken is fed on soya grown in Brazil.

While organic chickens are produced to strict standards which prohibit the use of harmful pesticides, this is not the case for most chickens in the UK. A responsible food supply chain would give people confidence that when they eat a supermarket chicken curry, a roast chicken or a box of chicken nuggets, they aren’t contributing to environmental degradation and the loss of precious wildlife.

The UK government and actors across the supply chain haven’t been ignoring what’s happening in Brazil. They’ve taken action to begin to address

deforestation and land conversion associated with Brazilian soya.

But pesticides have been mostly neglected.

This neglect starts right at the very top. Despite clear evidence of harm, the UK government allows British manufacturers to export highly hazardous pesticides – illegal here – to countries with weaker regulations and controls.

We think you’ll agree that these exports are wildly unethical and that they should be prohibited by the UK government as matter of urgency.

British retailers aren’t paying serious attention to the use of hazardous pesticides in their chicken feed supply chain.

We know this because in January 2022, we surveyed the UK’s 10 leading supermarkets - Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Iceland, Lidl, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose - to find out about their policies and approaches to pesticides used on soya crops.

Given the dangers pesticides pose to people and our planet, the results were disheartening.

Living Earth Spring 2022

• None of the 10 leading UK supermarkets said they were monitoring or restricting the use of highly hazardous pesticides in their soya supply chain.

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• Asda and Iceland declined to tell us whether they had taken, or would take, any steps to reduce the use of possible endocrine disruptors and carcinogens in their soya supply chain.

• When we asked Asda and Iceland if they recognised that pesticides applied to soya crops posed a threat to human health and human rights in some contexts, including in Brazil, where children and families are being poisoned, they declined to respond.

• Aldi, Co-op, Lidl, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose were unable to tell us how many pesticides known to be ‘toxic to bees’ were used in their soya supply chain. Not one of the retailers had introduced robust restrictions on use.

• Waitrose was the only retailer to have measures in place to reduce the proportion of genetically modified soya in its supply chain, including through the sourcing of organic feed and supporting alternative feed projects and trials.

Supermarkets can help address the impact of the chicken they sell on sensitive environments overseas and the farm workers and communities exposed to highly hazardous pesticides. Please sign our petition and share it with your friends and families.

Cathy Cliff, Campaigns Coordinator for Stop Poison Poultry

We know that the poisoning associated with pesticides in Brazil is not primarily the responsibility of the UK government, farmers and retailers. But the evidence is now overwhelming. Stuffed with soya doused in hazardous pesticides, the average British chicken casts a toxic shadow. It’s time to take action.

How you can help us Stop Poison Poultry • Sign and share our petition calling on supermarkets to remove dangerous pesticides from their supply chain. Go to soilassociation. co/stoppoisonpoultry • Get yourself on social media and share our posts far and wide. If you’re feeling confident, add your voice in support of the campaign and record a video explaining why you want supermarkets to take action! We’ll make sure to give it a share.

• We’ll be asking you to write to your local supermarkets in the coming months, so keep an eye out for more information.

• Choose to eat less and better meat.

If you can, opt for organic.

Innovative Farmers find sustainable ways to feed their chickens Soil Association’s Innovative Farmers programme brings farmers and scientists together to develop nature-friendly farming techniques in research projects called field labs.

One of these field labs has done exactly what we need it to; trialling alternatives to soya for chicken feed.

To do this, the team has been looking at boosting the availability of homegrown protein sources. One example is the research being done by organic chicken farmer, Mike Mallet. He has been growing a grain called vetch in his fields and then sprouting the seeds on his farm. When sprouted, the seeds are more nutritional to his chickens and are converted into a reliable supply of protein. Vetch also had the advantage of being useful in his farming system too as it fixes more nitrogen than peas and beans.

Ultimately, this trial and others like it could help British farmers make a crucial move away from unsustainable Brazilian soya. Read more at innovativefarmers.org

Living Earth Spring 2022

Time to act

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Volunteers restoring the hedgerows, protecting nature, improving the soil and boosting biodiversity.

Living Earth Spring 2022

Postcards from Woodoaks Farm

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Many of you will remember that we were recently gifted Woodoaks, a 300-acre farm just outside London near Maple Cross in Hertfordshire.

Our goal is to transform Woodoaks into a flagship organic farm – one that shows that nature-friendly farming is not only possible, but profitable too. We’re thrilled to report that work has already begun to make this vision a reality. Here’s some of the latest news from Woodoaks Farm.

Welcome Rickey!

“You can imagine our delight when Rickey told us he’ll be using chickens as his tractor and worms as his plough!” says Rose.

We can’t wait to celebrate his first flourish of crops this summer.

Mighty mulchers Volunteers are the beating heart of Woodoaks Farm, sharing their precious time, skills and energy in return for an invigorating workout in what Rose calls ‘nature’s most glorious gym’.

On a sunny Friday morning in March, this merry crew took on the vital job of nourishing the new hedgerows with woodchip.

A warm welcome for small businesses Carpenter Steve Rolfe has been honing his craft in his workshop at Woodoaks Farm for 25 years. The stunning new entrance sign is one of Steve’s latest

commissions: he made it using offcuts from the oak used to refurbish the farms old barn.

Steve is part of a growing community of small businesses at Woodoaks, including The Teashack café and Creative Juices Brewery. Over the coming years, we hope to support a range of enterprises at Woodoaks, all led by people who share our vision for the farm.

Hedgerow heroes Thank you so much to everyone who donated to our hedgerow appeal last year. Back in November, staff and a wonderful team of volunteers lovingly planted two kilometres of mixed hedgerow: field maple, hazel, hawthorn, beech, crab apple and more. Each hedge was donated by you, our generous Soil Association supporters. Thank you again!

Woodoaks Programme Manager Rose Lewis describes the first day of planting: “It was a significant and poignant day, one that marked our commencement of farm regeneration, hand in hand with the incredible community that surrounds us. What a joy it was to witness teams aged 15 to 75 working together, investing their time and energy to restore the hedgerows, protect nature, improve the soil and boost biodiversity.”

Living Earth Spring 2022

In February, the team was delighted to welcome their very first regenerative market gardener to the Woodoaks community. Rickey will be using naturefriendly farming techniques to grow nourishing food on his 5.2 acre plot.

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The world’s breadbasket at war Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a humanitarian catastrophe and an ominous challenge to global order. It also poses a major threat to global food security.

Living Earth Spring 2022

You’ll have heard Ukraine being referred to as ‘the breadbasket of the world’. The country is home to a third of the world’s most fertile land. Its rich black soil – known as chernozem – is high in organic matter, offering prime conditions for arable farming. As a result, Ukraine is a leading producer of wheat, barely, maize and sunflower oil, with the Black Sea region exporting 12% of calories traded worldwide.

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The invasion struck at a crucial time in the farming calendar: right at the start of the planting season. The routine sowing schedule has been severely disrupted. And with many fields threatened by aerial attacks and artillery bombardment, farming in certain regions is no longer safe.

This spells chaos for Ukrainian farmers and rural livelihoods, but the ripple effects will be felt across the globe.

Against the backdrop of the climate crisis, the pandemic and soaring fertiliser prices, the conflict threatens to destabilise global food systems even further. Food prices are already at their highest level in decades, and lower yields of staple crops in Ukraine will only exacerbate inflation – just this month wheat prices have risen by 40%. Food security is therefore under threat around the world, particularly for countries that are heavily reliant on imports.

In response to looming shortages, there have been calls for the loosening of environmental restrictions to intensify agricultural production.

The European Commission is being urged to abandon the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies in order to maximise food production. But we believe these arguments are highly problematic. While the need to improve the resilience of our supply chains is clear, lowering our environmental standards would only weaken that resilience in the long run.

Instead, we need a broader shift towards agroecological farming practices, such as organic, which can ensure long-term food security by simultaneously tackling the nature, health and biodiversity crises.

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Living Earth Spring 2022

Organic | Plant Based | Refined Sugar Free Supporting Artisanal Producers | Creating a Sustainable Future

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Plant

share good food within your community

Living Earth Spring 2022

2,912

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community organisers across the UK bring their communities together at over 2,146 food activities.

This spring, community groups from across the UK are digging deep and sowing the seeds of good food for Plant and Share Month.

Plant and Share Month runs 20th April – 20th May and is Food for Life Get Togethers’ celebration of growing. It aims to encourage communities to sow, grow and share veg with their local groups. Everyone can get involved – whether you’re growing in yoghurt pots for the first time or you’re a group of seasoned growers with allotments.

Created in 2019 Food for Life Get Togethers (FFLGT) are regular community activities that connect people from different ages and backgrounds through food.

Right now, it’s more important than ever to stay connected with one another and food is a great way to do this.

Funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, Food for Life Get Togethers are part of a bigger movement, supported by the Soil Association, to make good food the easy choice for everyone.

In the last three years Get Togethers has motivated, inspired and engaged 2,912 community organisers across the UK to bring their communities together at over 2,146 food activities, reaching around 120,000 people.

Plant and Share Month The first Plant and Share Month took place last spring, with over 200 community organisers taking part.

With life beginning to feel more normal again, we’re hoping that even more community groups, faith groups, libraries, youth centres, housing support groups and more will get involved.

The benefit of growing your own food extends beyond the potato patch, herb pot or windowsill. Sowing seeds and harvesting the crops is not only great for health and wellbeing but also helps boosts biodiversity in local ecosystems.

Growing your own produce is a simple, easy way to eat organically. Even if groups and individuals don’t have access to an outdoor space, small steps like growing one or two herbs indoors can make a real difference.

In action at Greave House Farm Trust Greave House Farm Trust is a smallholding on the outskirts of Sheffield that supports adults with learning disabilities or autism through farm work. The food they grow on their land is sold locally.

Greave House Farm Trust received £150 as part of the Get Togethers small grants programme in 2021. With this money Barbara Bristow, the co-founder, was able to run a Plant and Share Day. The Plant and Share Day welcomed a diverse mix of local people with a wide range of growing skills. The setting was perfect for skill sharing, friendships to form and confidence to grow.

For more information and free growing resources, visit fflgettogethers.org

Living Earth Spring 2022

Bringing People Together through food - Food for Life Get Togethers

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Organic Health & Beauty

Living Earth Spring 2022

If you’re as concerned about the environmental credentials of your soap and shampoo as you are about your meat and veg, we have good news for you: the organic beauty sector is blossoming. We chatted to Katie Hill from sustainable lifestyle website My Green Pod to find out more.

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2021 was the 11th consecutive year of growth. Why do you think this is?

that are less environmentally damaging.

From this ‘awakening’ of sorts, there’s a direct route to organic products.

This is such an exciting time for the sector! Awareness around health, wellbeing, the environment and sustainability is snowballing, with people getting more clued up about how the different areas are interlinked.

The climate and nature crises are now mainstream topics. As more and more people look for ways they can make a difference, I think it’s natural they are looking to their own immediate sphere of influence.

Why do you think organic certification for beauty and wellbeing products is so important?

So what are people doing to make a difference?

Many people are putting their subconscious shopping habits under the spotlight and shifting towards products

It’s really important for everyone. It helps shoppers to identify authentically organic products in a sector that is still rife with greenwash and false – or at best misleading – claims.

It helps producers undertake due diligence to ensure their operations are squeaky clean. And at the other end of the supply chain, it guarantees fair treatment and pay for workers, and essentially ensures all the ethical practices customers expect are firmly in place.

People are putting their subconscious shopping habits under the spotlight.

Katie Hill, My Green pod

It’s getting much easier. The number of available organic products is on the rise and those products are getting more and more effective and sophisticated.

People can now choose an organic version of an everyday product whether it’s a face oil, a shampoo or a body wash - and it will be an absolute joy to use, with zero compromise when it comes to performance.

We’re seeing more and more beauty and wellbeing brands claiming to be ‘eco-friendly’.

It doesn’t help that terms like ‘organic’ and ‘natural’ aren’t legally regulated in the beauty sector. How can we make sure we’re buying truly sustainable products?

The ‘plastic free’ movement has made a lot of people change their buying habits, but it’s no good buying toxic products in sustainable packaging.

Any beauty and wellbeing brand that’s serious about sustainability should be using natural ingredients that are produced fairly and organically. If they’re not, I would question their integrity and their intention. Organic is the only way to produce authentically sustainable products. It’s that simple.

Likewise it’s maddening when

companies flaunt plastics reduction stats yet continue to fill their products with synthetic polymers - or ‘liquid plastics’. We need to keep talking about the wider picture as we know some companies will try to dupe shoppers with quick wins that are easier to turn round.

According to our latest Organic Beauty & Wellbeing Market Report, many consumers are more convinced of a brand’s environmental claims if they have third party certification.

Are you seeing more demand for certifications like Soil Association COSMOS Organic at My Green Pod? A lot of people come to My Green Pod because they know we’ve done the legwork to ensure the products we sell and recommend have sound sustainability credentials. We have a filter that allows people to shop by values, and we have seen steadily growing demand for certified organic products. Interestingly, this trend has gone hand-in-hand with a rise in searches for plastic-free products, which indicates a wider shift towards more environmentally friendly products. What I’d really like to see is growth in searches for products that are both organic and plastic free. To me, this will be evidence that people are joining the dots and shopping with a more holistic mindset.

Living Earth Spring 2022

How easy is it to find an organic version of an everyday beauty product, like, say, a body wash?

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Growing Better Together:

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Healthy and sustainable diets and living for all

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Diets and lifestyle

U T I O S DI E RI

The last few years have been extraordinarily unsettling. With the climate crisis, the pandemic and now war in Europe, we are facing uncertainty on a massive scale.

Helen Browning, CEO of the Soil Association Now, as a charity, it’s time for us to take back some control. It’s time for us to focus - to gain clarity around what we want to achieve over the coming decade. We’ve been working on a new organisational strategy to help us do just that, and we’re proud to share it with you below.

Working with you, our loyal members, we will draw on the wisdom of nature to restore our world. With our new strategy, we will reinvigorate the movement and turn the tide.

Why do we need a new strategy?

We are the charity joining forces with people and nature to transform our future from the ground up.

But we know that nature has the answers. And if we work with nature instead of against it, the future of our planet doesn’t have to be daunting.

We can reclaim it as a time for positive renewal.

For too long, the world has viewed nature and society as separate entities. Nature has been something to dominate - something wild that we need to control. But the simple truth is that nature will outlast us all.

Its determination to adapt and survive through adversity is its most powerful source of strength.

The natural world has been navigating crises for millennia. We have so much to learn from it.

Over time, how we grow, eat and live our lives has become more and more intensified. It’s been driven further and further away from what nature intended - and it’s time to set that right.

To achieve regeneration, we must deliver transformation across three key areas by 2030: 1. Farming and land use Changing how we work with our land and what we produce.

Supporting nature-friendly methods like agroecology and regenerative forestry.

2. Diets and lifestyle Changing how we access food and reduce consumption footprints.

Supporting healthy and sustainable diets and living for all.

3. Connections Changing how we connect with nature and each other.

Living Earth Spring 2022

The ice caps. The Amazon. Obesity.

Every day we hear about new crises, piling on top of old ones.

What does our new strategy look like?

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Our vision is a future of regeneration. We see a world with good health, in balance with nature, and a safe climate.

A restored Earth with: Thriving wildlife

Everyone eating and living well

Good lives for farm animals

Better health and a safe climate for future generations

By joining together, we can make it happen.

How will we make it happen?

The Soil Association will influence large-scale system change by helping everyone build natural solutions together.

Using our 75 years of experience in pioneering solutions, we will work across the whole food, farming and forestry system to drive action:

Living Earth Spring 2022

1. In the field and forest We will work with farmers, growers, foresters and all businesses, helping them to thrive while stewarding the land in nature-friendly ways.

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We’ll support climate, nature and health by: • Growing support for agroecology • Making agroecology a practical option • Supporting the growth of naturefriendly markets 2. In kitchens and communities We will work with caterers and businesses, guiding them to source from sustainable producers and help put nutritious food on menus everywhere.

We’ll support climate, nature and health by: • Growing support for the good food movement • Using food to tackle climate and nature emergencies everywhere • Connecting our programmes and services to make good food available to all 3. Everywhere We are fortunate to work across a range of sectors, which gives us opportunities to hear many different views and experiences. Every voice is important if we are going to shape inclusive, holistic regeneration. So a crucial part of our role is to bridge connections between people and ideas.

Taking our learnings from industry to policy makers, we will encourage the development of policies and standards that deliver for climate, nature and people. We will also remind everyone of the link between the health of our soil and the food we eat. The more we feel connected to the natural world, the more we can look after it, and in turn, each other.

We’ll support climate, nature and health by: • Building an inclusive movement • Creating meaningful connections between businesses, farmers, policy makers, communities and nature In summary, we will – • Connect people - to nature and each other • Work on the ground to show nature-friendly practice is possible • Use this experience to popularise nature-friendly solutions • Campaign for change that will support climate, nature and people

Joining forces with you Every single one of us can make a difference and help restore our planet at this crucial crossroads.

You are part of a community of people taking action to ensure we enjoy a brighter future, and we have already achieved so much together. Thank you!

Our new strategy will build on the progress we’ve made over the last decade and lift our ambitions even further in support of climate, nature and health.

Together, we are a force for nature.

Support the Soil Association

Live naturefriendly

Join in with our campaigns

You are already making a big difference by being a Soil Association member. Thank you!

With you behind us, we can work even harder to support sustainable food, farming and forestry.

Back the businesses and communities working to protect nature. Source from them where you can and spread the word about the good they do.

By adding your voice, you will help us get practical, nature-friendly solutions heard.

Thank you so much for being part of the Soil Association.

Now, working together with nature, let’s restore all life on Earth.

Living Earth Spring 2022

How can you help?

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HORTICULTURE CORNER

Growing Without Peat A useful list of Soil Association certified composts can be found on our website.

Living Earth Spring 2022

Peat-based composts will no longer be available for sale to gardeners by 2024, and to the wider horticultural sector by 2028. Our Horticultural Advisor, Hugh Blogg, explores some of the alternatives to peat for both farm-scale and garden growers.

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Peat has been a particularly hot topic recently with numerous campaigns calling for the extraction and sale of peat to be banned for horticultural use.

It is well established that peatlands have significant potential for carbon storage and biodiversity. Perhaps less well known is their ability to mitigate flooding by slowing water loss and that they provide naturally high-quality drinking water. On 23rd February the Organic Growers Alliance (in partnership with the CSA Network UK, the Seed Sovereignty Programme and the Landworkers’ Alliance) hosted an insightful and much needed workshop on peat-free growing media. Renowned organic grower Iain Tolhurst presented, alongside eminent researchers from the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR).

When it comes to peat-free alternatives, woodchip is the big thing. Preferably woodchip that has been properly composted down for over 18 months.

Iain Tolhurst (Tolly) has refined a method of sieving the composted woodchip and mixing it together with vermiculite (and sometimes animal-free fertilisers based on the crop) in a cement mixer.

This produces a fine growing media which, inclusive of the extra labour and additional materials, is comparable to other products on the market. Crucially the end product is well suited for plant propagation in modules, the primary culprit in peat usage.

Water retention, the same property that makes peat valuable in its natural habitat, is what has made peat so popular in plant propagation. Tolly

This is the research question posed

by Dr Margi Lennartsson and Dr Francis Rayns of CAWR. Francis has been trialling a woodchip compost without vermiculite that surprisingly outperformed all other mixtures in raising lettuce transplants. As part of Organic-PLUS, a research project that aims to phase out contentious inputs in organic agriculture, the extrusion and composting of many alternatives have been studied. These include olive and grapevine prunings, hops, poplar, crop residues, and biomass collected from forest floors. Everything has a footprint exerting different levels of stress on the complex web that is our environment.

Luckily we have this year seen the launch of the Responsible Sourcing Scheme for Growing Media which will help consumers to make sustainable choices at the garden centre.

The scheme assesses the impact of raw materials in the compost mix against seven criteria: energy use, water use, social compliance, habitat and biodiversity, pollution, renewability, resource use efficiency.

This takes the leg work out of weighing up all the pros and cons with accredited products receiving a rating that will be clearly visible

on packaging. Dr Lennartsson, who has helped to develop the tool, also pointed out the scheme and accompanying downloadable calculator could also help inform growers who wish to make their own mix to assess its credentials before fully committing.

For the amateur growing sector we are seeing more peat-free ranges becoming available – Blue Diamond garden centres for example now stock 22 peat-free growing media, up from 7 in the past few years. A useful list of Soil Association-certified composts can be found on our website.

Successful peat-free alternatives include Dalefoot’s potash rich blends of wool and bracken and Fertile Fibre’s coir-based composts. Although having a water footprint and incurring large transportation distances, coir scores well on the Responsible Sourcing Scheme as it is generally a waste product from coconut plantations and can be highly compressed making it lightweight. Whilst strictly not peatfree Moorland Gold’s compost could be seen as recycling peat containing moorland deposits sourced from Pennine filter beds.

It was heartening to see such interest in the peat-free debate with over 200 attending the CAWR webinar.

The Soil Association’s Innovative Farmers Network is in the process of setting up a field lab on peat-free growing media. Please email info@innovativefarmers.org if you are field-scale grower interested in participating.

Living Earth Spring 2022

has come up with a broader growing media checklist: nutrient content; moisture holding; lightweight; no weeds; renewable; cheap; available.

As woodchip does not hold water very well, vermiculite is added; but are we simply replacing one contentious input with another given that vermiculite is a finite resource?

23

Why don’t we care more about chickens?

Living Earth Spring 2022

Rob Percival, our Head of Food Policy, recently published a book exploring our relationship with eating meat. The Meat Paradox: Eating, Empathy and the Future of Meat was published in March, and we’re pleased to share this extract with you.

24

Chicken is the world’s favourite meat. In the UK we consume roughly one billion poultry birds each year, and the majority are intensively farmed in crowded and miserable conditions. Public opinion polls have repeatedly found that people care about animal welfare, but chickens seem to sit low in the pecking order for moral concern.

animals whose bodies resemble ours.

We identify more closely, for example, with gorillas, white rhinos and common cranes, than with iguanas, catfish and beetles. When we see animals in cages and in distress, our bodies react more strongly (by sweating more in empathetic concern) when the animal is phylogenetically similar.

Intriguingly, it appears that an antichicken bias might be written into human psychology.

These responses are shaped by ‘mirror neurones’ in the human brain. These are neurones which fire both when we perform an action, and when we see an action being performed. Watching someone grasping a cup of coffee, kicking a football, or struggling against

Scientists have observed that we empathise more readily with phylogenetically similar animals –

It appears that an anti-chicken bias might be written into human psychology.

This ‘mirror system’ helps us to empathise with others, creating reverberations in our neural network which reveal the similarity between the observer and observed.

But chickens, scientists suggest, are at a disadvantage. Their movements – their strut, cluck, peck, and jilt – are so unlike those of a human body we do not respond in the same way.

Our mirror system is not activated as loudly or consistently, and we are less

inclined to recognise that they are mindful or sentient.

We consequently find their mistreatment less concerning than that of other animals.

This neurological bias against dissimilar bodies helps to explain why rising levels of public concern for animal welfare have translated into ever-escalating chicken consumption. The more we care about the plight of animals, the more we might be inclined to swap red meat for white.

The ‘psychology of meat’ is a new and emerging field of research, but it potentially has lots to teach about the dynamics of dietary change, and how to encourage people to choose organic and higher welfare produce as part of a more sustainable diet.

You can order a copy of The Meat Paradox: Eating, Empathy and the Future of Meat by Rob Percival at: linktr.ee/rob_percival_

Living Earth Spring 2022

the bars of a cage, activates the same neurons of our brain that would fire if we were doing the same.

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Zero-Waste Allotment Veg Pasties

These rustic, meat-free pasties take their lead from Greek spanakopita (spinach & feta cheese filo pies) and are the perfect treat for picnics. They can be made with any combination of greens you like – it’s all about using up whatever you’ve got lurking in your fridge.

Living Earth Spring 2022

Ingredients

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• 1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling • 1 red onion, thinly sliced • 1 garlic clove, crushed •2 slices of preserved lemon, deseeded and finely chopped or grated zest of ½ unwaxed lemon • 250g mixed greens (chard, spinach, watercress, kale) and soft herbs (lovage, parsley, dill, basil, tarragon) • 1 tbsp lemon juice • 75g fresh curd cheese, ricotta or cream cheese • 100g feta, camembert or mozzarella, diced or roughly chopped • 1 tsp Fermented Green Chillies or Shop-bought pickled green chillies (optional)

• Nutmeg, for grating 1 egg, beaten • 1 tbsp za’atar •S ea salt and freshly ground black pepper For the Pastry • 1 80g light spelt (or plain) flour, and 20g wholegrain rye flour (or 200g spelt or plain flour) • 1 00g ricotta or full-fat natural yoghurt • 1 tsp fine sea salt •½ tsp ground cumin 20ml olive oil • 1 –3 tbsp iced water To Serve Simple tomato salad

Soil Association ambassador Rosie Birkett came up with this recipe after a meagre and rather random haul of greens from her allotment - a mix of spinach, chard and kale along with some window-box herbs. The cumin in the pastry adds a pleasing earthiness, while the za’atar brings a bright blast of herbaceousness.

Method ricotta, salt and cumin in the food processor and blitz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

2 Add the olive oil and the iced water, a tablespoon at a time, sprinkling it all across the crumb and blitzing between additions until the dough clumps together (you may not need all the water).

3 Tip the dough out into a bowl

and mould it into a ball. Wrap it in greaseproof paper (rather than cling film, which makes it sweat) and leave it to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

4

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and slide in the onion, garlic and preserved lemon or lemon zest with a pinch of salt.

Cook for about 5 minutes, until softened and fragrant but not colouring, then add the greens.

5 Season with salt, pepper and a

little lemon juice, put the lid on and let them wilt down for a couple of minutes.

6 Remove from the heat and transfer

the greens to a sieve to drain, pressing down on the greens to get rid of any excess moisture. Roughly chop them, then tip into a bowl.

7 To the bowl, add the cheeses and

fermented chillies (if using) and toss to combine, grating over a little fresh nutmeg and salt and pepper.

Leave to cool.

8 Remove the pastry from the fridge, unwrap it and divide it into four equal balls, pressing the balls into discs. Dust the surface with flour and roll each ball out to a circle about 20cm in diameter and just a little thinner than a pound coin.

9 Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6 and line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

10 Fill each circle of pastry with the

cooled greens and cheese mix, leaving a 2cm border around the edge of the filling, drizzle over a little more olive oil and fold the pastry around the filling to seal.

You can either fold one half of pastry over the filling, seal to the other half and crimp like a pasty, or you can fold the edges up into the middle like a little bag.

Once formed, place on the lined baking sheet and chill for about 10 minutes, until firm.

11 Remove the pies from the fridge and brush them with the beaten egg. Scatter over the za’atar and bake in the oven for 35–40 minutes, until the pastry is golden.

Living Earth Spring 2022

1 Make the pastry. Place the flour(s),

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Notes from the farm...

In this issue we’re bringing you the second instalment of ‘Notes from the farm’. Sally Morgan has been with the Soil Association for many years and balances her Soil work with running Empire Farm in Somerset.

Living Earth Spring 2022

After a wet and windy winter, we’re all looking forward to the new growing season.

28 26

Thanks to avian flu, all the poultry have been locked up since November. They have had to be restricted to barns, hen houses and netted runs so that there is no contact with wild birds.

This lockdown has been particularly rough on my geese. Geese are free ranging birds that feed on grass.

Confining them to a barn is impossible on welfare grounds, so we have constructed netted runs for them, just like those used on pheasant rearing farms. At least they can get outside and graze, but the grass doesn’t last long and after a period of rain it gets very muddy. We have an added problem as it’s their breeding season and the ganders really like to pick a fight. My breeding pairs are fine in

their own pens, but my retired flock is housed together and its mostly ganders. If a gander gets picked on regularly, he has to be moved but annoyingly the top ganders just find another one to bully. Normally it’s not a problem as they are outside in a large field and can get away from each other, but in a restricted run, it’s not possible. You would think that after 17 years of living together they would all get on! Come May, they will all be back together as if nothing happened. On the positive side, the breeding season means loads of goose eggs which are simply delicious and far superior to other eggs in my opinion!

I use one goose egg to make the perfect Victoria sponge.

Back in February, Storm Eunice made her mark. The downside of netted pens is that they catch the wind so the storm took out most of the nets while the wet ground meant that the panels were left at a jaunty angle. The next few days were spent repairing all the damage. I can categorically say that I do not like working with nets, while being buffeted by high winds.

Fortunately, my veteran oaks and the polytunnel survived but there were lots of fallen branches and many of the dead elms in our hedgerows came down. One upside to this is that we had plenty of woody material to do some more dead hedging. A dead hedge is simply a long pile of branches and twigs that forms a hedge-like barrier. It’s created by driving two lines of stakes into the ground and tightly packing the woody material between them. Not only does it mean we can tidy up all the fallen material on the farm, but it creates a valuable habitat and wildlife corridor. The material rots down over time, so we keep it topped up each year with fresh material. If you have a lot of hedge prunings or similar in your garden that you might be tempted to burn, why not create a dead hedge instead? Not only is it great for wildlife, but it provides a useful wind shelter too.

Last year, we were lucky to get funding to create two newt ponds on the farm to help the conservation of great crested newts. It was part of Natural England’s District Level Licensing where the funding comes from developers to provide suitable habitat elsewhere. After a lengthy delay caused by our local authority requiring us to apply for planning permission (!) the digger arrived on site last October.

The ponds are quite substantial, around 20m long and a range of depths from shallow to more than one metre deep. They are now full of water and hopefully they will soon be colonised by aquatic life. We have also constructed a couple of hibernacula near the ponds for amphibians to overwinter. They were constructed from a pile of logs which were covered by woodchip and topped with turfs.

One of the requirements of the project was that the nearby footpath was fenced to prevent walkers wandering near the pond, so the new dead hedge will fulfil that need.

And fast approaching is the time of year that I love most on the farm, when our hedgerows spring into life, butterflies and other insects appear, the orchard is in blossom and the vegetable beds start filling up.

Sally

Living Earth Spring 2022

A dead hedge is great for wildlife, but it provides a useful wind shelter too.

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Living Earth Spring 2022