Nature Friendly Farming

June 2010

Recent focus in the media on the decline in pollinators, especially bees, is of great interest to me.

To farmers like us who practice Nature Friendly Farming it is not a surprise.  The UK has lost 97% of its herb rich meadows since the second world war.  This has led to a decline of more than 70% of farmland birds.  They got the headlines but of course the humble pollinators, epitomised by the iconic bumble bee suffered a similar fate.  It’s just that they are harder to see and less people were worried – until now when food production itself may be threatened.

Conservation Grade was set up to address this woeful decline in biodiversity and the Nature Friendly Farming it promotes is designed to put things right.

We accept that we are pioneers here – the only leafy salad growers so far – and that not all farmers will join us.  But the scheme is smart, based on decades of conservation science.  It is designed to try to create a kind of patch work of farmland that is managed for wildlife, eventually linking up to form wildlife corridors across the country.

All of  Steve’s Leaves, whether grown in the UK or on our winter farms in Portugal and Spain, are farmed with nature in mind. What Nature Friendly Farming means is we devote 10% of our farmed area to growing biodiversity. On that land we literally grow wildlife, following a detailed and science based protocol that is site specific and pretty well guaranteed to get results: namely a population explosion of bees, butterflies, bats and barn owls – and that’s just the Bs!

Still on bees, we had great excitement a while back on one of our Hampshire farms when we were audited as a part of Nature Friendly Farming compliance.  The auditor was a bee expert and was staggered to find among the profusion of bumble bees in our specially cultivated habitat one that was thought extinct – Bombus ruderatus no less! So remember when you buy Steve’s Leaves you are not only getting tasty, health packed leaves. You’re also helping to put wildlife back into the countryside.