Happy April Fools’ Day
As much as we’d love to send you some soil, the vegetables would never forgive us.
Happy April Fools' Day
As much as we’d love to send you some soil, the vegetables would never forgive us.
In fact, protecting the soil on our land is one of the most vital principles of organic farming. Keep reading to find out why soil is so important, and how you can help look after it.
We all depend on fertile soil; it’s where 95% of our food comes from. But intensive agriculture is degrading this natural resource faster that it can be replenished. One third of the world’s arable soil is now unsuitable for growing crops.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom. Here are just a few simple steps we can take to protect our soil:
This is one of the best ways to support the world’s soil. Scroll down to learn more about how organic farmers are protecting soil.
You can start your organic journey today by ordering a seasonal organic veg box, delivered for free, from our fields to your door.
1. Choose organic and eat with the seasons
2. Look out for compostable packaging and create fertile soil at home
You may not be able to buy a box of our Devon earth (sorry for the disappointment!), but if you have a garden you can get composting and create your own fertile soil at home.
Plus, all our fruit and veg packaging is now home compostable (where packaging is needed at all). Can’t compost at home? Return it to us, and we’ll use it to grow more veg.
2. Look out for compostable packaging and create fertile soil at home
You may not be able to buy a box of our Devon earth (sorry for the disappointment!), but if you have a garden you can get composting and create your own fertile soil at home.
Plus, all our fruit and veg packaging is now home compostable (where packaging is needed at all). Can’t compost at home? Return it to us, and we’ll use it to grow more veg.
3. Spread the word
If you’re keen for your friends and family to know more about the importance of protecting the soil on our land, please share – together we can make a difference.
No plastic, no punnets, no bags, not even a rubber band – just veg! You’ll get a colourful mix of 8 seasonal organic veg every week.
This weeks veg: Potatoes, Onions, Carrots, Beetroot, Broad beans, Pointed cabbage, Aubergine, Cos lettuce
Love seasonal homegrown vegetables? It is packed with a selection of 8 homegrown veg.
This weeks veg: Potatoes, Carrots, Cauliflower, Wild garlic, Leeks, Purple sprouting broccoli, Mixed salad leaves, Chestnut mushrooms
Our classic seasonal organic veg box bursting with 8 varieties of freshly picked veg.
This weeks veg: Potatoes, Onions, Carrots, Asparagus, Courgettes, Baby spinach, Batavia lettuce, Tomatoes
We don’t treat our soil like dirt
Growing vast fields of a single crop (monocultures) every year, heavy machinery, artificial fertilisers… These intensive farming practices are severely degrading soil at a rate of 24 billion tonnes every year.
Organic farmers never use artificial fertilisers. Instead, we use crop rotation and companion planting; each field is cycled through various crops over time, designed to keep the soil naturally fertile and healthy. That’s why the soil on organic farms contains, on average, 20% more organic matter.
Fighting climate change with healthy soil
If all the cultivated land in the UK was farmed organically, we could save 64 million tonnes of carbon over 20 years – equivalent to taking nearly a million cars off the road.
The land beneath our feet is also one of our most important weapons against climate change: healthy soil sequesters carbon underground, preventing it from being released into the atmosphere. There are 2500 billion tonnes of carbon stored in the world’s soils! That’s more than in all plants, trees and the atmosphere combined.
Organic farmland sequesters around 3.5 extra tonnes of carbon per hectare, and is around 25% more effective at storing carbon for the long term.
© 2019 Riverford Organic Farmers Ltd, Buckfastleigh, Devon, TQ11 0JU, UK. Registered in England No. 3731570. Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions
