Britain’s countryside may look green and beautiful but this hides a different reality. Many areas are devoid of wildlife and managed in a way that threatens all of our futures. Farm Wilder gives you the power to change this.

Farm Wilder selects and labels produce from farms that do things differently. These are farms where wildlife still thrives – birds like Cuckoos that have vanished from much of Britain. Or rare butterflies like the Marsh Fritillary. We work with charities including Butterfly Conservation, The Wildlife Trusts, RSPB and the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group to help these farmers nurture endangered species and restore biodiversity.

We help our farmers to adopt regenerative farming techniques that improve sustainability across the whole farm, restoring soil health, increasing soil carbon, reducing pollution and making the land more resilient against droughts, flooding and other impacts of climate change. For livestock farms this means transitioning over 3 years to being 100% pasture-fed as part of the Pasture For Life certification scheme.

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Q: Shouldn’t we be just giving up meat completely?

A: Of course, giving up meat and dairy entirely is an approach taken for a wide range of reasons, but going vegan doesn’t suit everybody. Meat is a valuable source of protein and nutrients. Attaining these nutrients requires careful attention in a 100% vegan diet. In many parts of the world it’s difficult to grow much apart from grass (the west of Britain falls into this category), so it makes sense to use livestock to turn this grass into food that people can eat. But many wild plants and animals also rely on being grazed by ruminants, which have evolved in conjunction with the flora and fauna of the temperate world, first in the wild and then in their domesticated forms. The intensification of farming has meant this relationship has largely been lost, and as a result many of our most threatened species are grassland species. It’s vital to restoring Britain’s lost biodiversity that we maintain grazing on our few surviving wildflower meadows, extensively and within a mosaic of other habitats, and that we start to create new meadows on some degraded farmland.

​Q: Wouldn’t it be better to re-wild these upland areas instead?

A: Re-wilding can be a great way to create habitat for many species, and hopefully there will be opportunities for the re-wilding of more upland areas in the near future. But in an island as small as Britain, re-wilding isn’t a simple solution. For a start, communities, local culture and rural economies have evolved over the centuries with agriculture at their core, and this continues to be the case today. If that was to fall away, it is hard to overstate the impact that would have on these areas and their inhabitants. Even if farming was removed from the uplands, there is no guarantee that natural succession would lead to increased diversity – where livestock has been removed or greatly reduced on Dartmoor, dominant species like European gorse, molinia and bracken have largely taken over, dramatically reducing bird populations. If re-wildling is to work in the uplands, it needs careful management and monitoring, and the consent of local communities. In the meantime, we need wildlife friendly farming to allow endangered species to recover while supporting the rural economies and culture.

Q: How does Farm Wilder meat help reduce greenhouse gas emissions?​​

​A: Ruminants emit methane as they digest their food, and methane is a potent greenhouse gas. There’s no getting around that, and the way we produce beef and lamb needs to change if we are to combat climate change. But beef and lamb farming can be as much a part of the solution as the problem, depending on how it is managed.

Soil holds vast amounts of carbon – indeed there is far more carbon in the world’s soils than there is in atmosphere. This carbon is in the form of organic matter, deposited there by plant roots and decayed plant matter, and it has huge benefits not just for the climate but also for soil fertility and biodiversity. But carbon oxidises when exposed to air, meaning that these carbon reserves have been massively depleted over the years through cultivation, which most farmers now practice on grassland as well as arable land. Yet this can also work in reverse – where animals graze, especially in rotational systems on diverse, uncultivated pastures, these carbon reserves can be quickly restored, and a number of peer reviewed studies show that this carbon sequestration can outweigh the emissions from the grazing livestock, making beef and lamb carbon negative.

To try and achieve this, Farm Wilder is working with the Pasture for Life (PfL) certification scheme, and our farmers have committed to moving to this 100% pasture-fed system over 3 years. In coordination with PfL, we request that wherever possible farmers don’t plough, but instead over sow pastures with deep rooting grasses, herbs and legumes which quickly increase organic matter right down through the soil strata. Herbs and legumes such as chicory and birds foot trefoil contain condensed tannins, which means they also reduce methane emissions from the livestock. And legumes can eliminate the need for artificial fertiliser, which itself has a high CO2 footprint. Trees are also a crucial carbon stores, which is another reason we are asking farmers to plant more trees and increase the size of their hedgerows.

https://www.farmwilder.org/faqs 

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