Local Greens joining the Organic Trade Board
Local Greens has just joined the Organic Trade Board (OTB) community, an organisation set up in 2009 after the financial crisis to make organic an everyday choice forever. The OTB is member-funded, and its membership includes farmers, veg box schemes, brands, independent and multiple retailers, all working together to raise awareness and increase sales of organic.
OTB achieves this through its consumer website: GoOrganicUK.com where you can find information about organic, along with recipes, and updates and over the coming months there are plans to add offers and competitions from OTB members. The OTB are also on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and will be sending out regular newsletters in the coming months, which you can sign up to at the bottom of the page here.
Organic and the planet
In recent years, whilst media, campaigns, government and policy have focussed on climate change and sustainability, within the debate, organic has been missing. Much of the discourse has been fear-inducing and disempowering for individuals.
The team at OTB are working to educate and inform people that they can make a difference. By investing in buying organic, you are supporting farmers and producers who work with nature, helping it to restore itself.
Organic farming works from the bottom up, using methods that enrich the soil and support biodiversity, so nature and organic farming have a synergistic relationship. This is evident through the whole system of organic.
Earth Day, 22 April
To celebrate Earth Day today, GoOrganicUK published a blog post talking about this year’s Earth Day theme, “To Restore our Earth,” and how organic farming plays an important role in contributing to this restoration.
Carbon
Organic farming can help in terms of storing carbon in the soil as organic farmland stores more carbon (on average 3.5 tonnes extra for every hectare); soil carbon increases on average by 2.2% per year after converting to organic; and organic soils are around 25% more effective at storing carbon in the long-term, report numerous studies collated by the Soil Association.
Biodiversity
Since 1970, 41% of the UK species have declined, with 15% sadly likely to become extinct. The UK ranked at an alarming 189th out of 218 countries for the mass extinction of species. The main cause of this decline is agriculture and intensive farming.
Organic farming, with its rotation methods and fertility-building leys, supports biodiversity with organic farms being home to up to 50% more organisms and 30% more species.
Over the last year we have seen people connecting more with nature, appreciating their food and wanting to eat food produced in a way that’s good for the environment and nature. We’ve seen sales of organic increase – by 14% – more than for non-organic, and we know 51% of people think that organic is better for the environment.
OTB is working to harness this sea change, and to help people, campaign organisations and the government to make the connection and understand that farming organically can help the current crisis. Nature already has the answer and the answer is organic.