Meat Need Not Be Bad For The Planet
As it’s Easter we thought we’d better have a picture of spring lambs, and these were duly presented to us by the Purdey family at the farm which Holly, in the centre of our photograph, runs in the picturesque village of Horner, near Porlock.
Holly and her brothers Gabriel and Fraser (also pictured) are head-lining this article, not only because of the Easter lamb theme, but because there’s another big occasion coming up next week. Earth Day is an annual event staged every April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held in 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EarthDay.org including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries.
Holly Purdey and her brothers Gabriel (left) and Fraser
The Purdey family heartily approves of events that underline the importance of looking after the environment - which some people might find a little odd because their farm-shop and online retail concern is very much focused on the selling of meat. And let’s face it, we are constantly being told by the media that all carnivorous products are bad for the future of the planet.
However, Holly says that, by using regenerative and nature-friendly techniques on the National Trust owned land she and her husband Mark rent, the farm has become carbon-negative - as well as productive and profitable - in just four years.
So there is meat, and there is meat.
Holly with the goats which help with the mixed grazing regime at Horner
The “all meat is bad” tag-line has, alas, been all-too-readily adopted by lazy journalists and others - you will even hear newsreaders on national TV and radio nowadays saying something like: “We all know that eating meat is bad when it comes to climate change…”
Not if you eat the meat sold by the Purdeys under their Ruxtons brand it’s not - as you will see if you visit https://www.ruxstons.co.uk. Nor will you be harming the planet if you buy meat from the other small mixed farm featured today - the organic Daynes Farm in South Devon, which you can visit online at https://daynesfarm.com.
We will hear more from the Purdeys and the Camp family of Daynes Farm in a moment, but first let us say how heartening it is to report that such enterprises are springing up across this region, partly thanks to the fact that nowadays they are able to sell to an extended audience through their websites.
Forward-thinking agricultural writers such as Exmoor’s Graham Harvey have been claiming for years that small low-input mixed farms which incorporate traditional grazing are the way forward for a more food-secure and environmentally friendly future.
Graham Harvey strolls across his own fields inside Exmoor National Park
“For as long as there have been farmers in Britain, the people of these islands have flourished on foods from grazing animals,” says Graham who for many years was agricultural story editor of the BBC’s Archers programme. “Small mixed farms kept this nation fed for centuries. Our meat, butter, cheese – even eggs and poultry – came from animals and birds running on flower-filled pastures. Grasslands and grazing were part of a farming system that not only produced healthy foods, it maintained the fertility of our soils decade after decade.
“The grass field acts as a natural solar panel,” adds Graham. “It uses the sun’s energy to trap atmospheric carbon and store it safely in the soil. Soil microbes use this energy to supply the nutrients that enrich our foods and keep us healthy. It’s a truly sustainable farming system that once supported flourishing rural communities and a countryside rich in wildlife.
“Today the grass fields and grazing animals have vanished from much of lowland Britain. Instead farms grow vast acres of wheat, heavily reliant on pesticides and chemical fertilisers - both of which are rocketing in price.”
His book Grass Fed Nation claims that meat from animals which have been intensively reared and fed is not so good for our health. “By insisting that our meat and dairy foods come from grass-fed animals we can improve our own health and fix many of the countryside’s most intractable problems,” he told me. “And we will begin to re-stock soil carbon reserves ensuring a healthier environment for the generations to come. Grass-fed foods are our heritage foods, the foods evolution intended for us. By returning to them we’ll help fix the planet for all of us.”
Holly Purdey and family
Holly would agree: “We want to connect people with the idea of good food, which is why we have the farm shop here in the barn-yard and why we do things like wood-fired pizza-evenings. We like to say there are no air-miles with our food.
“The phrase regenerative farming is just one way of describing a system,” she explained. “I think of every farm as unique - there is no one way of doing something that’s suitable for every farm. I like to view the whole farm as an eco-system - so we look at all those integrated elements. It is how we farm with our environment rather than how we change the environment to suit the farm.
“I came from a conservation background and felt a negativity towards farming - but, from my childhood growing up on an organic farm, I knew we could marry the two together and produce food that is sensitive to the environment - or rebuild something that was degraded. We’re only four years in here, but the difference is incredible. Within a short time we are seeing such a complete eco-system change across the farm which is wonderful to witness,” she said, mentioning various owls and other species which now exist on the farm.
“While all that is going on, we are still growing really good nutrient-dense food. So, agro-ecology is a good word to use. All the parts are equal inside the system. Your local community, your nature, your animals… And your own welfare. What we do is look at all those elements and make sure they are balanced.
When it comes to the soil, Holly says: “We had really poor soils when we took on the farm but incredibly, by using rotational grazing, rest-periods, multi-species animal grazing (cattle, sheep, goats, chickens) we have increased that. And we know that because we do an annual measurement of the carbon on the farm. In the first year we produced or emitted 70 tonnes of C02 - and this last year we sequestered 550 tonnes!
“And that is because of the soil improvement, alongside sylvo-pasture planting, alongside wood pasture - allowing this farm to just breathe again.”
But what about the cost? Is the food the Purdeys are selling terribly expensive because of all this nature-friendly farming? No, it’s not… The family say their lamb, for example, compares favourably with prices at one of the lower cost supermarkets.
“Because we run a really low-input system, we are able to keep costs low - as well as have a sustainable income. We don’t want to just be supplying wealthy families - we want the whole of the local community to come to the farm and buy our meat. It’s important that everyone has access to nutrient-dense food - not just the wealthy.”
You can listen to the fascinating interview with Holly in a podcast which will be available at https://www.rawfooddrink.news - in the meantime let’s hear from the Camp family at the organic Daynes Farm near Halberton in the South Hams. Here again, you begin to understand the benefits of low-input farming - especially in these times when the price of artificial fertilisers has gone through the roof..
The Camp family at Daynes Farm in Devon’s South Hams
“I grow just as much grass as people can with their fertilisers - remembering that they are paying something like £800 a tonne at present, which I do not have to pay. This year is really showing that growing things ‘out of a bag' is not sustainable,” says Dave Camp.
“Rotation is key. Building up that fertility. The key is to maximise the sun and rain as much as you can in order to grow and graze as much as possible. Grass-fed meat is where you are simply using energy from the sun to create grass which the cattle eat. As simple as that. You are not harming anything in the process. Yes, cattle do emit methane - but by farming and grazing well you can sequester more carbon than you emit by locking it into the soil.
“Whenever you plough land it is going to release carbon - so some of the veg and cereals people talk about consuming rather than meat is going to release a lot more carbon.”
The family and the cattle at Daynes Farm
Dave and wife Helen have a mantra: “We believe we are just custodians of the countryside. We want to farm in the most sustainable way, produce the best produce. We want to improve the land, soil, environment so that we can pass it on to the next custodians in a better condition. All our cattle, sheep and goats graze outside for the majority of the time and fed only produce we have produced.”
Dave told me that the industrialised farming model, which requires massive machinery and other fossil-fuel hungry elements, is harmful to the environment. “We must reduce our use of historic carbon. Things like fossil fuels which were laid down millions of years ago, you cannot put back. We worry too much about methane - but it is part of a short cycle in carbon use. We can do something about it by improving the soils the cows live on, which in turn will lock away the carbon. Once historic carbon is released, you can’t put it back into the earth - whereas the carbon from cattle is part of a cycle.”
Daynes Farm already sells meat and other produce locally, but the good news is that the Camp family will be opening the farm’s own butcher shop this summer - see https://daynesfarm.com/ for more details.
And yet more good news is that it’s not just small family-run farms which are seeking to make a big difference. Several of our clients at RAW Food and Drink PR are making huge strides in changing the way their basic materials are raised or grown. Farm Wilder, mentioned several times in these pages in recent months, is the obvious example - all the West Country farms which supply its popular first class meats are run in a way that proactively helps nature and “results in fewer greenhouse gas emissions, healthier soils, and less flooding and pollution.”
The guys at FarmWilder discuss soil health
Trewithen Dairy is also actively engaged in a journey towards more nature friendly forms of milk production - and much the same could be said for Matthews Cotswold Flour, which is spearheading the move towards regenerative farming in the cereal world.
Regen’ farming expert Tom Tolputt (left) with Trewithen Dairy CEO Francis Clarke in Cornwall
And our latest client, the multi-award-winning Quicke’s, has long been famed for its environmentally sensitive cheese-making operations in the Creedy Valley.
No single business or industry which produces food from our landscapes will ever be able to fix the planet’s climactic or pollution problems on its own, but thousands of entities - great and small, all pulling together in the right direction - could help make the Earth Days of the future causes for celebration rather than concern.
Sheep graze the rich fields at Horner in Porlock Vale
