Buy organic
Instead of maintaining a rich traditional landscape, farming has become an industry where fields become huge, bland, and so inhospitable that much of our wildlife is joining us in the towns!
- Unlike many ‘green’ marketing claims, such as ‘natural’, ‘farm fresh’, and ‘traditional’ – which sound lovely but mean nothing – an organic label means that food must comply with strict, legally recognised standards.
- Organic standards are a guarantee of naturally produced, pesticide-free food. By buying organic you are also supporting high environmental standards of countryside management.
- All organic food is GM free, and the organic movement is active in campaigning against the introduction of GM foods and crops.
- Organic farming standards guarantee high animal welfare standards, as well – whereas ‘free range’ guarantees very little, and ‘farm fresh’ guarantees nothing at all.
- Organic farming is based around care for the soil. Healthy, humus-rich soils are able to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to reduce global warming. Bad soil and fertiliser management, on the other hand, is a major source of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 310 times more potent than carbon dioxide. So organic farming helps combat global warming!
- The UK’s leading organic certification body is the Soil Association, which also provides information on supporting locally grown organic food producers.
- See online shops for suppliers of organic products.