There’s no escaping it: whether you’re struggling to sleep at night or wondering how to water your dry garden in the face of a hosepipe ban, all of us have been affected by this summer’s extreme weather. As we enter this year’s fifth heatwave, with drought declared in many parts of England and Wales, farmers and landworkers are some of the most challenged, working hard to keep crops alive and care for livestock.
Employing organic, low-input systems and nature-friendly practices, many growers across the UK are striving to create resilient farming landscapes. ORFC Communications Coordinator, Carla Hill, caught up with three farmers across the UK who are using alternative methods to produce food. In the face of continued heat and low rainfall, can agroecology bring hope?
Under the weather
James Robinson, a 5th generation dairy farmer in Cumbria, doesn’t hesitate when asked about his biggest challenge this summer. “Climate; it’s hard to escape that. Last week it was 33 degrees, the hottest I’ve ever known. Cattle get heat stressed at the low 20s.”
Equally, horticulture depends on water and stable temperatures. Peni Ediker is market gardener on a One Planet Development Smallholding in West Wales. “The high temperatures have forced our succession sowings to all catch up at the same time,” she reports. The dry hot weather has also brought in the aphids and we have lost brassica seed crops as a result.”
Meanwhile, for arable farmers like Leon Wise in Kent, the absence of rain necessitates fundamental changes. “After the last two years of putting seed in the ground and not having rain for 60 days, I’m not spring cropping again. It’s like the rain has just disappeared: how are you supposed to deal with that?” No matter how you farm, climate change – and the extreme weather it brings – is a trial for all.
Doing things differently
Leon and Peni agree that soil health is the key to managing erratic weather conditions. While fertilisers and pesticides degrade soil structure, healthy soils – minimally disturbed and rich in sponge-like organic matter – are higher in aggregates with pores for infiltration and water retention. Leon is “really trying to focus on improving soil organic matter to store more water rather than washing it off.” Peni explains that heavy, deep mulches on all her garden beds keep soils healthy and moist. When planting out, she adds inoculated biochar – carbon rich, porous charcoal for the soil which increases crop yield and supports water retention; the first Soil Association-led biochar trial in horticulture is currently under way, aiming to provide evidence of the soil amendment’s value to growers adapting to a changing climate.
Luckily, doing things differently is the nature of organic and agroecological farming. Leon is a third-generation farmer who took over a small section of his family farm and transitioned it to organic; he explains this is “madness” to his grandfather, who took on the farm at the cusp of the Green Revolution and grew it into a high input operation selling onto the global commodity market. Likewise, James transitioned to organic farming in response to higher organic milk prices at the time. He explains the importance of regenerative as an approach as an invitation to go further and find solutions at unpredictable times like this summer.
“We’ve been certified organic for 20 years, which is really good because consumers get to buy something that’s trusted,” he says. However, he likes that regenerative is not certified. “With organic certification, the temptation potentially is to not go further. A truly sustainable way of farming has to be more than just that; that’s where regenerative can come in because it’s limitless.” In extreme weather, that has meant creating a landscape in which his cattle can function, which naturally brings benefits to other species which share the farm. “Creating shade and shelter in the form of a hedge or a wood pasture also benefits wildlife in terms of habitats and corridors,” says James. “Whatever we do, we have in mind that it’s a potential habitat. I’m not pessimistic about biodiversity decline, because I see through farming that things can change quite quickly.”
As such, farming agroecologically inherently results in holistic solutions to extreme weather which benefit the whole system. For James and Peni, this looks like a circular, local farming economy that gives more power and autonomy to food producers. Moving away from high-input farming, Leon has stepped off the “treadmill” of selling to global commodity markets and agribusinesses which profit off the economic instability of climate change. “I can build a really short supply chain,” he shares. “The miller, baker and I can discuss what it costs me to grow, and what it’s going to be worth at the other end, to find something that works for all of us. What gives me hope is that there is so much work to be done in terms of re-localising supply and rebuilding local economies.”
For Peni, spraying biofertilisers like Lactic Acid Bacteria Serum (LABS) weekly on the soil and as a foliage spray is an alternative to chemical fertilisers that is better not only for the soil but also the local farming economy. “All my preparations are made on site,” says Peni. “I believe it is empowering to make your own fertilisers using local resources and teaching others to do so, keeping cost down, and fertility in your own hands.”
Time: a precious resource
Maintaining hope is nonetheless challenging. “There’s a lot of theory about heterogeneous grains and heritage materials, but if there’s no rain, there’s no rain,” says Leon. Climate change is a problem of such a scale that farmers cannot tackle alone. “If there’s no support through government schemes or from DEFRA, then it’s hard for us to maintain [nature recovery],” explains James. “We also need the public to understand that their buying choices have such an impact on the landscape around them.”
James, Leon and Peni’s stories are those of a community of land stewards working tirelessly in extreme conditions to ensure the success not only of this year’s harvest, but those of years to come. Retirement is not easy for farmers: James’ 78 year-old father is still farming and Leon’s grandfather is still “driving around the farm on his mobility scooter, checking that we’re doing something useful.” Battling heatwaves and drought only adds more to a long summer to-do list, and farmers urgently need support if they are to continue to care for their landscapes.
In difficult times like this summer, small moments give crucial confidence. “If I had more time, I’d love to go around the farm and see the little stuff that you don’t always get a chance to look at,” says James. “The other day I was showing someone round from Natural England and I said, ‘I think that’s a grasshopper warbler’. I’d only ever heard one once before on the farm. Given the time of year, it’s probably been breeding. I’m hoping that they’ve come in because we’ve allowed these big scrubby hedges, changed the grazing rotation, and included some wetter areas of land. We all need a bit of assurance sometimes that what we’re doing is right. Nature gives us that assurance.”