King Charles III (then Prince Charles) visits Honeydale Farm in the English Cotswolds region on June 2, 2021. The king is known as a supporter of sustainable agriculture.
Toby Melville | Getty Images
When King Charles III visited Honeydale Farm in the English region of Cotswolds, one of his first remarks was: “Monaculture. That’s our problem.”
It is the memory of Ian Wilkinson’s farm owner, while almost four years ago he walked with the then Prince Charles.
“And I nodded and thought,” Well, absolutely, “Wilkinson told CNBC via video call.
The monoculture refers to the usual practice of growing one crop on a piece of Earth, sometimes from year to year. Crops are grown in this way for efficiency but Critics say In this way, it exhausts nutrients of soil and increases the risk of disease.
King – longtime supporter Organic breeding – He visited Honeydale to find out about his focus on the growth of a wide range of plants, a technique aimed at regenerating the soil.
Wilkinson studied agriculture in the 1970s when the monoculture encouraged after a less food and became more self-sufficient after World War II for the UK.
“We are trained to produce more food and cheaply – and we didn’t look much about the environment, according to nature,” Wilkinson said. Farmers relied on fertilizers made of petrochemicals, he added, and today only about 3% of agricultural land in the UK is grown organically, according to the latest government statistics.
A long career in the Cotswold Seed company, which deliver farms to the seeds for wild flowers, grasses and root crops, meant that Wilkinson heard from many farmers, some of whom emphasized the need for self -sufficiency and for a diverse crop range.
A “demonstration” farm was grown to explore regenerative agricultural practices, such as plant legs, a method of adding nitrogen back to the soil.
Grown
Wilkinson and his wife Celene bought Honeydale of 107 hectares 2013 and turned it into a demonstration farm-known as Grown – This would investigate how regenerative agriculture could be, not the exhaustion of the country.
When they bought it, cereals and lawns made up most of the farm, and Wilkinson presented lambs and wild flowers area and planted 20,000 trees for nesting birds. Orchard Farm Grows Weritage Apple varieties, including one called “Blenheim Orange”, dating in natural floods. The farm sits in the Evenloda valley, where the river even floods regularly, and the new scheme collects rainwater in a series of ponds connected by ducts with the aim of preventing floods.
Soil – carbon trade
“Excessively extrauctive system in terms of soil health is a big problem,” Wilkinson told CNBC. “And the health of the soil, of course, is associated with water quality and pollution,” he said. The soil also sequels – or shops – carbon, and 2023 British government noticed This “intense agriculture caused arable soil to lose about 40 to 60% of their organic carbon”.
“We have to develop into the next iteration of agriculture, still producing enough food for … the increasing world population, but to do so in a way that is not so extraordinary and actually renovates natural systems,” Wilkinson said.
For this purpose, a grown, non -profit organization, “renewing” the soil on the farm, focusing on the rotation of the crop using what is known as herbal lying, a mixture of plants, grasses and clover that add nitrogen – natural fertilizer – in the soil. The plant like chicory has long roots that can “minimize” the soil for minerals, improveing its health, while grasses like penis is resistant to drought.
The inherited wheat and rye are grown during an eight-year rotation that does not use artificial fertilizers or sprays, compared to the “control” of wheat plot grown in a traditional way-used by artificial fertilizer-so that the grown soil health over regenerative parcels. There are indications that the soil is regenerated, with a improved structure and more earthworms, Wilkinson said.
The co -founder of the grown Ian Wilkinson shows King Charles III (then Prince Charles) soil sample on Honeydale Farm, June 2, 2021.
Toby Melville | Getty Images
Ley “managed” cattle using a method called “mob pasture”, where several animals graze a different, small area of the ground every day. In doing so, they trample some plants back into the soil, creating a natural fertilizer along with their manure.
The method also means that no plant becomes dominant, which improves variety, and after soil fertility has improved over four years, wheat and oats are grown on Earth.
About 20% of agricultural visitors are farmers, some of whom have added plant lenses to their farms, while other visitors come from food or related industry or are public members. People can attend conversations on topics such as beekeeping, feeding and processing of wood, while the next session is entitled “Beginner Boys.”
Wilkinson said that people from different origins visit, including those from Pesticide or those who “feel very strong about the world.” “Some companies are trying to find out what regenerative agriculture means to them,” Wilkinson said.
“We just say we’re not here to judge. We just know that agriculture has to move to the next era,” he said.
