Blogger - Aggie Rothon, Communications Officer

I have fallen in love with keeping chickens. They are quirky, personality filled creatures and I can fill hours in a day watching them. We now have five in total, including Colin the cockerel, but with the cold weather and drawn in nights we still have very few eggs. I can do without the scrambled egg suppers until spring time though if it means letting the chickens lead a natural day-night cycle and an outdoors life.

This wouldn’t work commercially however. Consumer demand doesn’t allow for seasonality. We seem to appreciate quantity over quality. However, this hasn’t been possible without a considerable environmental impact. Cattle produce huge amounts of methane in their belches and farts. We burn fossil fuels to produce fertiliser to grow cattle feed and use vast amounts of water (990 litres!) to produce one litre of milk.

All this information should perhaps make me leap towards a vegetarian diet but actually I am proud to maintain an element of meat eating. Farm animals are part of a traditional British landscape and it could be argued have become part of our ecosystem. We wouldn’t have our vast Breckland heaths without grazing animals, nor would we enjoy the grazing marshes of the Broads. 

So I am more than happy to be an orator of the benefits of farmland animals. As such I have been intrigued by the recent news that extensive systems of grazing animals might actually hold great advantages for the environment. Researchers have realised that there is increasing evidence of the critical role that grassland soils play in storing carbon. Restoring agricultural grassland to a wildlife-rich state can lead to it storing over three tonnes of extra carbon per hectare per year.

I would glory in a return to more traditional, mixed farming. Wildlife would benefit, our climate would benefit, the cows would benefit and we’d still be in for a joint of beef on the occasional Sunday. What’s not to like?

Actually, I can already tell you. How can we feed a growing population on small mixed farms?  Perhaps we need to start farming not for wealth and maximum production but instead to ensure we feed ourselves, and others. For any of you who find something in this idea, I thoroughly recommend looking up Colin Tudge, a biologist and writer on agriculture.  He states with great clarity that ‘basic principles, common sense, a certain amount of empirical data—and the entire history of humankind—all indicate that lots of small environmentally friendly farms can feed us all, and well.’

Until someone persuades me otherwise I’ll stick with this common-sensical approach too. Natural and traditional is the way forwards for me.

Featured in EDP, Saturday 4 Feb