Organic Farming

Organic Farming magazine is the UK's leading magazine on organic farming and growing. Published three times a year by the Soil Association, each edition keeps readers up-to-date with the latest news, policy issues and market information. There are technical features and reports on the latest field labs and research, covering all aspects of organic farming and growing.

Typical content includes:

· latest organic news

· features on livestock, horticulture and general farming topics

· research

· technical articles on soil, livestock, horticulture and arable topics

· interviews

· case histories

· business and market news

· update on the research and field labs carried out under the Innovative Farmers banner

Welcome to 2023. Let’s hope the challenges of 2022 are behind us. Looking back, we saw many conventional farmers and growers embrace regenerative farming and its really encouraging to see them take this approach. By their very nature, organic farming principles and standards have been developed with the premises that they result in outcomes that regenerate the health of our soils, human health and our environment. However, in the public discourse about the meaning of regenerative farming, is organic being overlooked? Regenerative organic goes back to Robert Rodale, who established the Rodale Institute. Robert came up with the term in the 1980s to distinguish a kind of farming that goes beyond sustainable, one that describes a holistic approach to farming, which encourages continuous innovation and improvement of environmental, social and economic measures. Sarah Compson has written our cover feature (page 22) that takes an in-depth look at regenerative agriculture, its principles and goals and what separates it from organic. Congratulations go to two organic farmers who were amongst the winners of the Farmers Weekly Awards 2022; Ian Boyd as Grassland Farmer of the Year and Simon Cutter as Beef farmer of the Year. You can read Julie Cleijne’s interview with Ian Boyd on page 20. Her second interview with Simon Cutter will be published in the next edition of this magazine. Spiralling costs, especially of fuel and feed, are putting a lot of licensees under pressure, including The Community Farm outside Bristol. Last summer, the future of the farm was uncertain when sales of their veg boxes fell by a quarter. Tom Richardson explains the actions that The Community Farm took to mobilise their supporters and secure their future in the short term (page 36). When there is pressure on profits, producers have to maximise the value of their products, so I took a look at two by-products, hide and skin, and how they can bring in extra income (page 33). Amber Brown writes about mental health and burnout affecting growers (page 40), a topic that was discussed at the recent Organic Matters Conference. Another topic featuring at the conference was perennial vegetables. The speaker at that conference, Mandy Barber has written about the potential of these vegetables and the wide range of choice that is available (page 44). With poultry in ‘flockdown’ across the country, more producers are looking to invest in future proofing their systems. Beth Kelsey and Megan Lee give some timely updates on coping with housing restrictions (page 42). And we end with an interview with Tia Cusden and Nick Ross of Wild Garden in Somerset (page 56).