If Nature Could Talk...It Would Ask Us To Choose Organic

 

If nature could talk…it would ask us to choose organic. The overuse of artificial chemicals and pesticides are disrupting our natural world. Organic works with nature, to support healthier soils, more wildlife and our world. So, this #OrganicSeptember, let's listen to nature, and choose organic.

That’s the message of this year’s month-long Organic September campaign. The team here at The Organic Butchery organic are delighted to be getting involved in this year’s campaign, an all-industry campaign to grow the organic market, co-ordinated by Soil Association Certification and the Organic Trade Board.

The key messages of this year’s campaign encourages citizens to listen to nature and choose organic. Organic businesses support nature, protect wildlife and safeguards healthy soils by shunning industrial, chemical inputs in favour of natural cycles; working in harmony with nature, not against it.

“For a long time, organic has had a reputation of being a luxury product. We talk of non-organic as “conventional” but, in reality, industrial production is a far cry from our farming and craftsmanship heritage. However, in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic and when the climate crisis was hitting headlines like never before, the UK saw the highest level of growth in organic goods in over a decade. An increasing number of people are seeing organic for what it is intended to be: a way to produce the products we need, while respecting people, animals and the planet’s boundaries.” - Lizzie Rivera, Live Frankly (read full article here).

Nature’s keyworkers

The all-industry campaign’s creative approach this year will hero nature’s very own “keyworkers”, the all-important wildlife that is essential to a thriving organic farm, those hardworking bees, ladybirds and earthworms that act as nature’s builders, pest controllers and pollinators. Using striking nature photography, and harnessing the mechanism of protest via placards, the aim is to give the featured wildlife a ‘voice’, combining a strong message about nature in crisis with an engaging call to action. Nature’s keyworkers want us to listen to them and reach for organic this September, to help protect their dwindling ecosystems and safeguard nature and the planet.

How you can support

As well as choosing organic this September, you can support the campaign by signing a new petition aimed at the new prime minister, requesting they take drastic action to save nature in their first 100 days of government.

The Change.org petition asks whoever comes to power to protect wildlife in any policies - and commit to representing the UK at the crucially important UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in December.

Not only are insects a vital part of a balanced ecosystem, providing food for other animals and recycling nutrients, they also play an essential role in our global food system. One in three mouthfuls of food depends on pollinators and without pollinators we wouldn't have potatoes, strawberries, tomatoes, coffee, chocolate or cotton.

Renowned children’s author and illustrator, Kate Pankhurst, who is also a relation of Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, was the first person to sign the petition. She has thrown her support behind the campaign, also creating an illustration to depict insects holding placards in protest against the harmful pesticides and fertilisers that are being sprayed on crops - which is ultimately leading to their decline.

Kate Pankhurst commented: “As a mum of two, and author and illustrator of children’s books, I’m passionate about preserving nature to ensure the next generation has a beautiful and thriving planet to enjoy in the future. I hope other people around the UK will join me in signing this petition to help give nature a voice.”

Organic farming works with nature, not against it, encouraging natural predators like ladybirds and pollinators like bees and butterflies rather than spraying harmful pesticides. As a result, on average, plant, insect and bird life is 50% more abundant on organic farms. There are up to seven times more wild bees in organic grain fields. So if nature did have a voice - it would choose organic.

If pesticides were substituted for more sustainable farming practices (like organic), this could slow or reverse the decline in insects. The hope is that even tiny insect-sized steps can make a big difference when it comes to keeping nature’s crucial keyworkers thriving.