Currently, we define this as certified organic or biodynamic, sustainably harvested from the wild or home-grown without the use of artificial fertilisers or pesticides.
Our own urban market gardens and patchwork farm are organically certified with the Soil Association. We want to support, and be seen to support, only those practices which do not increase the amounts of artificial chemicals, fertilisers and pesticides in our food and the environment, but which rely on sound soil and wildlife management and involve the highest standards of animal welfare.
We are not just concerned with the build-up of toxic chemicals and the degradation of the soil that result from industrialised farming; we are concerned with finding ways of producing food which do not emit large amounts of greenhouse gases. The role that conventionally produced food has in increasing greenhouse gases is well documented. Artificial fertilisers are synthesised using natural gas as a feedstock as well as requiring large amounts of energy to drive the process. When fertiliser is applied to the ground, nitrous oxide – a gas hundreds of times more powerful than CO2 in global warming terms – is emitted. Artificial pesticides are made largely from oil.
Organic systems, therefore, have an important role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and our reliance on fossil fuels as well as enhancing carbon sequestration in soil. However, organic certification with the Soil Association is expensive and time-consuming, so for micro-scale production in urban areas we are open to the idea of certification with the Wholesome Food Association – a low-cost/open-gate based certification scheme – or with Climate Friendly Food. See ‘Producer Certification Criteria ’ for more details.
We are also particularly interested in supporting small-scale producers.
>> Go on to the next key principle: mainly plant based
