Pathways to phase-out contentious inputs

Workshop "Pathways to phase-out contentious inputs" with the following three inputs: • Replacement of Contentious Inputs in Organic Farming Systems (RELACS) – a comprehensive Horizon 2020 project, Veronika Maurer, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), CH • Pathways to phase-out contentious inputs from organic agriculture in Europe – Research overview and preliminary results, Ulrich Schmutz, Coventry University, UK • Lessons learned from phase-outs – the case of the peat phase-out in the United Kingdom, Judith Conro

Pathways to phase-out contentious inputs

Workshop "Pathways to phase-out contentious inputs" with the following three inputs: • Replacement of Contentious Inputs in Organic Farming Systems (RELACS) – a comprehensive Horizon 2020 project, Veronika Maurer, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), CH • Pathways to phase-out contentious inputs from organic agriculture in Europe – Research overview and preliminary results, Ulrich Schmutz, Coventry University, UK • Lessons learned from phase-outs – the case of the peat phase-out in the United Kingdom, Judith Conro

Measuring your Garden Footprint

The work reports on a Garden Organic (working name of Henry Doubleday Research Association, Coventry UK) members experiment in 2007. Garden Organic members were surveyed with a detailed paper questionnaire to calculate an average gardening footprint of committed (self-selected) organic gardeners in the UK. This was used to develop a garden footprinting methodology and to create a benchmark of committed organic gardening in the UK. This was then compared to commerical orangic growing and to other household activities with their respective footprint and potential for improvement. Summary findings: (116 responses 85% reponse rate). o The average UK food and drink ecological footprint is around 1.4 gha/ha o About a quarter of this (25% =0.35 gha/ha) is due to fruit and vegetable production and consumption o Our members taking part in this survey produced about half their own with an average ecological footprint for their gardening activities of 0.15gha/ha o This equates to a ‘saving’ of around 0.02 gha/ha, or a saving of 13% on the average UK footprint attributable to fruit and vegetables o This equates to about a 6% savings in total food and drink footprint which is on a par with double glazing, replacing an old boiler or reduced car use o Our members could take measures to reduce their gardening footprint by: - buying ‘good quality’ tools that last a long time - using manual tools where possible - buying ‘good quality’ power tools and keeping them well maintained to reduce relative fuel consumption and embedded energy costs - by being wary of substituting long ‘food chains’ for long ‘supply chains’ of products that they use in their gardens - by trying to close nutrient cycles; e.g. producing amendments at home (e.g. comfrey), fixing N in situ (e.g. green manures), composting biodegradable materials - using protected cropping only where necessary and in an ‘environmentally friendly way’ e.g. reuse of materials, second hand strucutures etc. - reducing fridge and/or freezer use; e.g. turning them off when not in use and buying new A++-rated energy-efficient appliances o It is still uncertain what positive contributions waste and recycling can make in reducing gardening footprint as some of the issues are quite complex. Many are the subject of ongoing research. o Producing food at home leads to other ecologically efficient habits as witnessed by the low overall ecological and carbon footprints of our members. o It is important to realise that as you reduce your personal footprint the proportion due to services and infrastructure spent on your behalf becomes much more important. Solutions to this are likely to be collective and political. Many are likely to revolve around community based activities

The Social Return on Investment (SROI) of the Master Gardener Programme

Background Garden Organic’s volunteer mentor network team coordinates and manages a number of programmes each designed to promote the core principles of organic horticulture and the benefits that composting and growing your own produce can bring

A comparison of two models to predict nitrogen dynamics in organic agricultural systems

Two publicly available crop/soil models were compared. These were the EU-Rotate_N model (www.warwick.ac.uk/go/eurotaten) and the NDICEA model (www.ndicea.nl). Each simulation was also compared to measured data from an organically managed site in the English Midlands. Results showed that, overall, EU-Rotate_N gave a better estimation of soil mineral nitrogen, particularly after the incorporation of a long-term fertility-building crop. This model has a lot of flexibility but is aimed at researchers and requires more work before it is ready to be used by farmers or advisors. The NDICEA model is much simpler to use with a user-friendly interface

The development of the organic vegetable market and supply in the UK

The vegetable market is one of the largest sectors within the UK organic food market. This market has grown by 30% p.a. over the last 5 years, although it is now slowing down to a rate of 10-15% p.a. The production of UK organic vegetables increased rapidly from 1999 -2001, as growers responded to economic and policy incentives, and now the UK is 57% self sufficient in organic vegetables. Many new UK farmers have converted to organic production, although this process has involved high costs, largely due to having to take land out of production in the conversion period. However, once converted, farmers have in many cases, experienced overall financial returns that have been comparable or higher than conventional returns, although these good returns are highly dependent on high prices for organic vegetables. In comparison with conventional systems costs of organic vegetable production can be high, especially for organic seeds and for increased casual labour required for hand weeding. The resulting larger workforce, often required for organic vegetable production, can pose new management challenges. In the future, market growth and the numbers of farmers converting, will be slower and any market growth will depend on broadening the customer base, expanding different market channels and increasing home production especially at the beginning and the end of the season, thus enabling a substitution of imports