This week saw the annual BioFarm conference, organised by the National Organic Training Skillset (NOTS) return to a public venue at Adare in Co. Limerick, where participants could once again meet and greet without resorting to a computer screen.
The organisers had arranged a busy schedule with the emphasis on promoting a more biologically-based approach to agriculture that encompasses organic and regenerative farming, both of which have sustainability as their key objective.
Sustainability can be a vague term that is applied by many within the industry to whatever idea or product is being promoted.
This was not lost on the first speaker, Dan Kettridge from the US who has been farming organically for over 30 years and is now a leading light in the organic world.
Dan is a fellow who likes to get to the very root of an issue, so rather than launching into a lecture on various cropping patterns and the importance of biodiversity, he simply posed the question – how did nature evolve its systems to work?
His answer was to explain that microbes make up the vast bulk of life on the planet and humans, as a species, are just the tiniest tip of the iceberg.
He also noted that 90% of the cells contained within, or carried on the human body, are not actually human in origin.
We are, he pointed out, our very own ecosystem; relying on a vastly bigger ecosystem to function, and once we adjust ourselves to thinking in those terms, then organic farming starts to make a lot more sense and becomes easier to implement.
Common themes at BioFarm 2023
Adjusting the mindset was a common idea among many of the speakers at the event, and for most, it was a growing unease with a particular feature of their conventional farming operation which motivated them to seek a different route.
These common themes ran through all the presentations at the conference and Dan Kettridge returned to the idea of looking after the microbes within the soil as the key to growing healthy crops and reducing the pest and disease burden above ground.
Just like us, he noted, they require air, food and water to live and reproduce, therefore the maintenance of these three essentials within the soil is the key to robust plant growth.
Sufficient aeration of the soil is a well established prerequisite for healthy soil, but Dan went further in suggesting that any gains brought about by building up a healthy soil structure are lost by ploughing and heavy cultivation, which breaks it down again.
Deep rooting crops such as chicory appear to be his preference when working to aerate the soil, but what is just as important is that the ground is always green.
He believes having a crop growing in a field at all times brings great benefits, as does feeding the soil in the winter with straw or other organic matter.
Minerals matter
Minerals are another important aspect that is often ignored. Many important elements have been drained from the soil by decades of conventional farming and they need replenishing if the soil microbes are to grow and replicate.
He cited cobalt, found at the centre of vitamin B12, as one example.
In essence, the soil must be treated as a stockman will treat his cows. Feeding the rumen to feed the cow equates to feeding the soil, which in turn, feeds the crop.
Both recognise microbes as the real engine of nutrient delivery and crop health, and if all is well, then his recommendation is that once the crop is planted, leave it alone until the harvest.
Selling the crop
Converting to organic is just one part of the equation, the produce has then to be sold and the money brought home to keep the farm viable.
To do so successfully requires a dedicated distribution system, something that has been achieved in Denmark, where organic produce comprises a large part of the food market, according to Paul Holmbeck, formerly of Organic Denmark.
It was not an overnight task, but now that it has been achieved, he points to one particular lesson learnt and that is that trust in the product built the brand, not vice versa.
He also noted that organic produce need not be exclusive, and his marketing organisation found that the discount chains paid the farmer the same as all the other retailers.
The savings were made within their own organisations rather than by pushing down the purchase cost.
BioFarm as a concept
NOTS is a body that was created to support a transition to organic farming, but that remit has widened to embrace the promotion of soil-friendly practices as a whole.
Rather than loudly beating the organic drum, it takes the view that there is much to commend organic practices and should a farmer wish to make a full switch, then NOTS is there to help as well.
There were two farmer panels, one tillage and one stock.
These presentations made it clear that taking the more subtle approach appears to work well, with several of the panel members relating how they had eased themselves into fully organic systems, rather than converting overnight.
Knowledge transfer
A notable feature of these discussions, and the conference as a whole, was the challenge presented to the present top-down, prescriptive system of farming that makes up the bulk of our food production.
Organic growers have taken to the lateral spread of knowledge between participants, rather than a cascading model of ideas and practices tumbling down from research institutes, governments and commerce.
It was often repeated at the event how each and every farm, soil and season is different and there is no such thing as a single solution for all cases – an idea that does not sit well with those championing a mechanistic fix for plateauing yields and narrow margins.
Biofarming as a route to change
Yet it is all part of taking on board the organic mindset, which is very much one of understanding the soil, and working with natural processes rather than beating it over the head with inputs and attempting to grow healthy crops in the resulting medium, which is how organic farmers often view the situation.
It is not for everyone though. Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Pippa Hackett, an organic farmer herself, stressed the point that it was a matter of personal choice.
She said her department was not setting out to force farmers into it, as it does require a shift in approach that not all will want to implement.
The organic farming movement has come of age; as a system it has always been with us but it was displaced by the advent of scientific method.
The BioFarm conference successfully sought to return a more holistic approach of modern day farming.