Agriculture plays a key part in the solutions for nature loss and climate breakdown. Farmland accounts for around 70% of the total land use in the UK, so there is a huge opportunity for positive change in UK agriculture to secure nature and climate recovery – but it requires a system change towards a model of regenerative agriculture.
Discover how regenerative farming is already working across the UK in our inspiring examples below. If you are already making progress towards this action, jump here if you want to do something bigger.
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Regenerative farming
System change
A growing number of farmers in the UK have begun to consider longer-term changes to their farm systems. Over the last five years, higher input costs of the three Fs (fertiliser, feed, and fuel) have added significant financial pressures; and record heatwaves, droughts and wet winters have made farm resilience a much greater priority. On top of all this, traditional area-based subsidies will be phased out by 2028, making way for new schemes that prioritise sustainable and nature-friendly land use. In England, the government is expanding a new payment scheme (the Sustainable Farming Incentive) which will pay farmers for actions that not just protect but improve the environment. Against this background, ‘regenerative farming’ is increasingly seen as the big solution: delivering a net-positive impact on nature, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building farm resilience while cutting the use of expensive inputs.
Soil regeneration
Regenerative farming works with natural systems to improve the environment, taking a more holistic, ground-up approach to farming practices where natural soil function plays a key role. Healthy soil is the foundation, for growing healthy crops, our nutrition and food security. Regenerative agriculture seeks to protect the soil – by minimising soil disturbance, keeping living roots in the soil and the soil covered, maximising crop diversity and integrating livestock. Through a combination of these factors, poor soil can be transformed in just five years with improvements in a single growing season. Better soil fertility, water retention and soil biodiversity not only boost crop yields and promise more resilient harvests in the long term, but also provide quick environmental benefits – which is crucial given the urgency of the biodiversity and climate crises.
Beyond sustainability
Regenerative agriculture promotes tried-and-tested conservation farming practices, such as low- or no-till, crop rotation, cover cropping and composting. Other farming practices – agroecology and organic – also fit within the regenerative farming spectrum and when combined with regenerative practices, they go ‘beyond sustainability’ (sustaining the status quo) to positively repairing our eroded soils and polluted rivers.
If we want to see a big uptake of regenerative and other nature-friendly farming practices, farmers need room and support to figure out what works best for their specific conditions. There are no hard-and-fast rules to regenerative farming, which is both its strength and weakness. For peer and expert advice, try the Nature Friendly Farming Network for farmers from a range of backgrounds to join the growing movement for farming with nature. Or there’s Regenerative Farmers of UK for regenerative farmers and consumers to connect, share learning and scale up the change.
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Inspiration listen
Farm With Nature
Is your food produced on a farm that’s putting nature first? Learn more about sustainable agriculture, with WWF UK & the Nature Friendly Farming Network.
Do something bigger
Farmers are highly skilled in adaptation and we can make a world of difference by working collaboratively with regenerative farmers to tackle some of the other big local actions for climate and nature.
Connect with farmers
Whilst so much of the UK’s land is managed by farmers, the majority of people (over 80%) in this country still live in towns and cities. Often our only awareness of the people who produce our food is through media coverage – which rarely celebrates those farmers that putting nature and the environment at the heart of their businesses. By reconnecting with the people who manage our land and produce our food, we are able to make informed choices about how we eat – and we can create a stronger mandate for policy change. Shopping at farm shops or farmers markets is one way to meet the producers near you; Local Food Britain is a great resource to explore what’s available in your area. You can also arrange to visit a farm in person. Many farms across the UK participate in Open Farm Sunday in June every year, or Countryside Classroom has some great tips about arranging a school visit to a farm.
Protect the soil
By protecting the soil, regenerative farmers do something bigger for all of us. They can help us take flood action, as healthy soils with good porosity play an essential role in limiting the wider impacts of extreme wet weather. They can also help clean up our rivers and prepare for heatwaves, as the runoff from excessive use of fertiliser and pesticides is minimal (farming pollution is currently responsible for 40% of our total water pollution) and clean river water can be abstracted to top up reservoirs. And they can help in our collective effort to plant more trees, as agroforestry creates healthier soils and higher yields by planting trees, shrubs and hedges alongside crops (it’s one of the most promising systems for the ‘sustainable intensification’ of farming).
Procure sustainable food
Local authorities can show support for farms that are looking after nature through procurement. East Riding of Yorkshire Council has produced a local food guide, to help procurement teams source food from farms and growers nearby. Greater Brighton Economic Board, which brings together local authority and public sector representatives in East Sussex has developed a Food Resilience Action Plan exploring how to ensure all the parts of the food system work together sustainably in the region. In Gloucestershire the Food & Farming Partnership is working to understand the barriers to local procurement. The Partnership is collaborating with procurement teams in the public sector and private hospitality sectors to influence buying behaviour to incorporate more local produce, and to reduce carbon in menus.
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