We've all heard of greenwashing, the term used to describe deceptive eco-marketing that convinces us things are more environmentally friendly than they are. Yet sustainability experts suggest farmwashing is a greater threat.
In her monthly column, HELLO!'s Planet Positive Green Coach, Lucy Johnson, explains exactly what 'farmwashing' is and why it's a major problem for British farmers.
The rise of farmwashing
If you have ever picked up a packet of sausages in a supermarket and noticed an image of a happy pig and a Union Jack emblazoned on the front, you'd assume those sausages were from a British farm. I know I did, but this isn't always the case.
Several UK supermarkets have launched their own budget range of 'own farm brands' based on British-sounding but fictitious names.
Much of the fresh produce bought from this range is imported from abroad but made to sound like it has been locally sourced. These industrial mega-farms are driving down food prices and putting local farmers out of business.
This is what British farmers are calling 'farmwashing'.
What is the problem with farmwashing?
As a Green Coach, people sometimes ask me whether it matters. What’s the problem with cheaper food? Surely that is a good thing. We all like a bargain so why not have cheaper sausages, bread or milk from made-up farms?
You could argue they have a point. The cost of a family food shop has gone from nearly half of what a family spends to less than a tenth in the last 80 years. But farmwashing is disguising a darker side of our food system.
I spent some time with British farmers this summer and they told me it’s not just squishy strawberries and overly expensive olive oil they're worried about. They explained how our entire food system is under threat.
For decades, farmers have been spraying nitrogen fertilisers on their fields to guarantee bumper harvests. It’s had explosive results, creating bounteous amounts of food, and explains why we spend so much less of our yearly wage on food nowadays, compared to our grandparents.
But what farmers couldn't predict is how this generous use of fertiliser has been harming the soil underneath by destroying the rich, organic matter in the earth.
If you pick up a handful of soil on a farm that’s had too much fertiliser poured onto it, it’s so loose it will blow away through your fingers. It’s getting harder and harder to coax crops out of this soil.
That’s why more small farmers are turning to regenerative farming, a way of farming that puts organic matter back in the soil.Peter and Henri Grieg bought Pipers Farm more than 30 years ago.
Inspired by the Slow Food Movement in Italy, they have been taking care of the soil in their little patch of Devon ever since. I went to visit, and spent a fascinating morning soaking in their wisdom, meeting their herd of Ruby Red cattle and having my first ever cowpat lesson.
The future of regenerative farming
I learnt how, with no steroids or antibiotics in the gut microbiomes of their pasture-fed cattle, the cowpats are a healthy feast for insects. As the cowpats sink back into the soil, they feed the bats, the birds and the soil itself, packing it with rich organic matter, and turning the grass into a lush, rich field of goodness.
The Grieg family farm cattle but hundreds of farms up and down the country are applying the principles of regeneration to their crops.
The techniques they’re using are the ones I studied in my Medieval History GCSE many years ago: cover crops, crop rotation, less frequent tilling and swapping fields between arable and animals. But this time mixed with cutting-edge technology to monitor levels of organic matter.
This dense compost of rotting plants and roots not only makes the soil rich again, it helps stop flooding and draws our ballooning carbon emissions back into the earth in a natural cycle, which slows down climate change.
So what’s the catch? The food is pricier because, like organic food, it costs more to farm this way. But, while it might not suit every food budget to buy regeneratively grown food every week, even occasionally buying from smaller farmers who farm this way makes a major difference.
It's not all bad news for British farmers. Despite the cost of living crisis, sales of organic food alone have grown by over 25% in the three years.
By selling us fantasy farms, farmers argue that the supermarkets are threatening their ability to repair our soil, at a time when climate change is making it trickier to farm and they need all the help they can get to keep the food coming from farm to fork.