Eating our way to a world richer in nature

Author: Rupert Masefield. This blog post originally appeared in Let’s Talk.

Food, glorious food! Is there any aspect of our lives and the world we inhabit that is not touched in some way by food? It’s everywhere: at work, at home, at school, in our fridges and freezers, on supermarket shelves. Social rituals are built around the meals we share with our families, friends and colleagues, and what we eat is becoming more and more central to our ideas about healthy living.

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of food in our lives, but how we consume it is just one side of the story. Just as our eating habits have a huge impact our personal health, how we grow the food we eat has an impact on the health of the countryside and the wildlife that lives there. It’s generally agreed that a healthy diet is a good start when it comes to improving our personal health, so can we also eat our way to having a healthier natural environment in the landscapes where our food is grown?

The edible landscape

Three quarters of the land area of the UK is used to produce food, making the British countryside a truly edible landscape. Outside of our towns and cities, almost everywhere you might care to look you will see evidence of food production in action: fields of wheat and corn in the spring and summer, pastures being grazed by sheep or cattle, sugar beet growing in neat rows. We’re not the only creatures depending on the countryside for sustenance though.

Photo credit: Ben Andrew

The rich wildlife of the British farmed landscape is one of the great joys of living in or visiting the countryside. No-one who has listened to a skylark in full song, or watched a barn owl quarter a field as it hunts, or seen a kestrel hovering over a ditch, can fail to appreciate just how special the wildlife of the countryside is. Unfortunately many of our most iconic farmland birds are finding life in the modern farmed landscape difficult, due to loss of habitat, food plants, and increased herbicide and pesticide use. Turtle doves, for example, have declined by more than 96 per cent since the 1970s, and urgently need us to take action to save them.

Photo credit: Andy Hay

Eating for nature

Agricultural and environmental policy plays a big part in how nature-friendly our farms are, but we can all make a difference by supporting farmers who are already helping wildlife. Many farmers work hard to look after wildlife on their farms, and the more consumers can do the support them and encourage others to follow their example, the better.

Here are some top tips for how you can help nature through the food you eat:

• Try to buy organic foods where you can – it is often great for birds and the environment.

• Reduce the amount of meat and dairy in your diet – not only is it healthier to eat less meat, it helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation.

• Look out for meat from 'Conservation Grazing' schemes when you shop – cattle grazing is extremely important for maintaining many areas of wildlife rich habitat.

• Buy direct from farmers at farmers markets, farm shops and box schemes. You can even speak to the farmer about wildlife on his farm, and buying direct from a wildlife-friendly farmer will give them a better return on their produce.

• Look out for wildlife-friendly food labels like the LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming) marquee, or Conservation Grade ‘Fair to Nature’ (used by Allison Flour, Steve’s Leaves and the RSPB amongst others).

For more ides for how you can help nature through your food choices, visit www.eating-better.og

Four farmland birds to look for in the countryside this summer

Turtle dove – more than half of the UK’s remaining turtle doves are now found in the East of England. Loss of arable weeds that turtle doves feed on has seen their numbers fall drastically, but farmers and conservationists are working to replace these lost plants and provide turtle doves with the food they need to successfully breed. Listen out for their purring turr-turr call coming from area of scrub and thick hedgerows.

Photo credit: Andy  Hay

Skylark – renowned for their distinctive song flight, to establishing their territory males fly vertically upwards from the ground singing continuously as they go until they reach their pinnacle and descend back to the ground. The whole display can last five minutes. Farmers are helping skylarks by providing them with bare plots on the ground where they can nest.

Photo credit: Chris Gomersall

Yellowhammer – males are unmistakeable with their bright yellow head, breast and belly. Look for them singing from the top of a hedgerow on the edge of fields. Their distinctive song is often described using the phrase ‘ a little bit of bread and no cheese’!

Photo credit: Andy Hay

Lapwing – one of the most distinctive birds in flight and with amazing aerial courtship displays, lapwings can be seen in many parts of the countryside, including arable fields and wet grazed pasture. They are known colloquially as peewits after their high-pitched whistling flight calls.

Photo credit: John Bridges

Visit a farm to find out more about farming and farmland wildlife

Every June, hundreds of farms open the gates to welcome visitors on Open Farm Sunday, giving people the chance to see what farming is all about. This year, on Sunday 11 June, the RSPB will be holding an Open Farm Sunday event at its wildlife-friendly demonstration farm, Hope Farm, in Cambridgeshire.

Find out more about Open Farm Sunday on Hope Farm at www.rspb.org.uk/hopefarm

Find an Open Farm Sunday event near you, visit www.farmsunday.org