Re-defining bad: waste and energy crops are essential ingredients in the farm recipe

Government Chief Scientist, Professor John Beddington, was interviewed by John Humphries on BBC Radio 4 on the morning of 24th September and they discussed world food prices (especially wheat), climate change and farming. As a result of recent global events that have once again highlighted the fragility of the global food system, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) are meeting in Rome today to discuss what can be done.

Whatever the rest of the world is doing, farmers in the Land Network group are already thinking several steps ahead. Their alternative approach to recycling municipal and industrial “wastes” to produce food and fuels safely, successfully and sustainably could be an essential ingredient in a much needed recipe for solving global challenges such as being discussed in Rome today.  Take two farms in particular:

1:9 Fuel Land to Food Land Ratio
A 330 hectare farm in the Land Network farmers’ group (Land Network Gainsborough) has delivered taking a range of municipal and industrial “wastes” to make compost, so eliminating the use of mineral fertilisers, to grow good crops safely. These include oil seed rape which is used to produce biodiesel to the European Standard EN14214.  They calculate that taking 1 hectare of oil seed rape grown this way will produce enough energy to run 10 hectares, including all the field work and all the houses of the families who work that land. 

Also, by pushing up organic matters on their heavy clays, they have cut cultivation energy cost by around 20%.  Despite the bad press biofuel crops get these days, every hectare of land planted by this farm to oil seed rape (to produce biodiesel), removes 69 tonnes of Carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and pumps 73 tonnes of Oxygen back in.

One Million Loaves of Bread
Another farm in the Land Network group (Land Network Melton) does, again, use “wastes” to make compost to fertilise their land and eliminate groundwater pollution. The river Eye runs through their 330 hectare (800 acre) farm and the two farming brothers are involved with the river authority including conservation of water voles, freshwater crayfish and otters, plus the RSPB with avian biodiversity (76 bird species) and 18 butterfly species on the whole of their farm. They grow several crops and the wheat they produce would make one million loaves of bread.

There is probably around 150 million tonnes of waste in the UK which could be recycled to land and reduce, possibly eliminate, farmers importing £2.4 billion worth every year of mineral fertilisers, and eliminate the associated pollution of groundwater.

The only limit on this is over-regulation, which restricts recycling and the contribution that these farms prove can be made to reversing global warming.
 
More examples of farmers adopting enterprising approaches to the multiple challenges of sustainable farming can be found at www.landnetwork.co.uk.

Bill Butterworth is a Chartered Environmentalist and was originally trained as an agricultural scientist. He is General Secretary of the Land Network farmers' consortium.