Jun 11
I spent the day yesterday with the Soil Association at Highgrove. There was a mixed bag of guests, mostly Soil Association members. I was surprised at some of the products certified by the organisation, not just agricultural goods but toiletries and clothing too.
We spent the morning touring some of the 900 acres of farm owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. The Highgrove Estate gained full organic status in 1996; the impressive turnaround aside, in an industry perceived to be traditional the forward thinking attitudes were marked; sustainability and innovation going hand in hand.
Sustainability in agriculture is not just about ‘being green’, it’s about survival. Even those farmers who aren’t as forward thinking as those at Highgrove are turning to organic as a cheaper way of life. They can ill-afford the rising prices of oil and pesticides and are contacting the Soil Association for help.
How long will it be before other industries feel the pinch and look for an alternative way of doing things, and realise that sustainability is a viable way forward? The day really emphasised not only that sustainability should be and can be on everyone’s agenda, but that it demands innovation.
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 9:17 am and is filed under Green Issues, Sustainable Innovation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, trackback from your own site or share this post
2 Comments to “Live From The Field”
Organic production - a sustainable solution ? Or an inefficient way of producing food, against a backdrop of global population growth and poverty ? Let’s use innovation to take us forwards, not backwards !
I can’t see why organic production is a step backwards. All you need to do is look at the yields and profit ratios from farms producing the organically and inorganically and you see than an organic approach can be far more efficient than regular agricultural production. Innovation needs an open mind, not a closed one.