Hens on traditional free range poultry organic farm grazing on the grass

Organic is a system of farming and food production. Organic farmers aim to produce high-quality food, using methods that benefit our whole food system, from people to planet, plant health to animal welfare.

Organic farmers work to a strict set of standards, which must legally comply with strict EU regulation, to ensure that their farms sustain the health of:

  • Soils
  • Ecosystems
  • Animals
  • People

These standards are built on the key principles of organic agriculture:

  • Health
  • Ecology
  • Care
  • Fairness

Certification is legally required to grow, process or market organic products, and all organic farms and companies are inspected by a certification body, at least once a year. 

Share here useful resources for organic farming

 

Soil Association

Organic Research Centre

National Organic Combinable Crops (NOCC22) event - 5 July 2022 at the Cholderton Estate in Wiltshire.

OF&G Organic

Organic Arable

OF&G Organic and ADAS Organic Bulletin

Related Organisations

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Are there circumstances when AD digestate can be classified as "organic"? 

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Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is based on a diversity of pest management measures (prevention, non-chemical control, best practices for optimizing pesticide efficiency, etc.). These are combined at the farm level to enable reduced reliance on pesticides, and therefore a decrease in the exposure of the environment and people to pesticides.

Regenerative farming looks to optimise the use of the ecological system and environment, in order to benefit from the natural ecosystem services that they provide.

The Farming and Land Use Team at the Soil Association have a specialist knowledge of all UK agricultural sectors as well as in depth understanding of organic and agroecological food production systems. Our goal is to support organic and non-organic farmers alike to transition towards more sustainable practices.

Practical sustainable farming regardless of labels.

The intricate web of relationships between physical, chemical and biological soil components underpins crop and livestock health and productivity.

This topic refers to the whole food supply chain, from farm fork, and all the products and services that contribute to food production.

The Organic Research Centre (ORC) is the UK's leading independent organic research organisation. Changing the future of food and farming.

Join renowned UK farmers, tech developers, and agri-tech sector representatives for a day of on-farm discussions, networking, and demonstrations at the innovative Shimpling Park Farm in Suffolk for Agri-EPI's Annual Conference 2022 on 27th October.

An event to discuss how will we secure the plant varieties needed for more sustainable UK agriculture How will we secure the plant varieties needed for a more sustainable and resilient UK agriculture? Can the plant breeding community rise to the challenge, and what is needed to achieve this?

Guide from FIBL and Organic Research Centre giving the fundamentals of soil fertility.

Five organic farmers in North East Scotland have launched a pilot project with a comm

Exchange knowledge, enhance organic farming.  Organic Farm Knowledge is a web platform dedicated to sharing practices on organic farming.

Crop modelling is a useful tool in agriculture to improve our understanding how a crop grows in interaction with all external factors, including environmental interactions and the crop management practices in place. The idea is that by modelling cropping system factors as a mathematical representation, and incorporating real past data to 'calibrate' the model,  you can then simulate various scenarios and predict the impacts of certain changes on crop growth. One example of this would be a simulation of predicted environmental conditions under various climate scenarios to predict the impacts of climate change on crop growth and yields. Whilst models are oversimplifications of reality and can never capture all the complexity of agricultural systems, modelling has been a vital tool underpinning key agricultural developments and models are constantly being developed to be more dynamic, complex and sensitive. One particular application of modelling is in weed control. This page highlights the application of modelling in weed management and introduces a case study of a weed model from a DEFRA report.       

The phrase “Non-Inversion Tillage” (NI) as used in this review first requires definition. Any system which does not seek to substantially invert the soil profile is regarded as NI.

Big changes are coming to the UK Organic industry, and you are invited to join!

Shaping our relationship to the soil.

This manual provides an in-depth review of the applications of crop rotation-including improving soil quality and health, and managing pests, diseases, and weeds.

Dr Emma Davies: IBERS, Aberystwyth University.

Creeping thistle has become an increasing problem especially for organic arable farms with soils of higher organic matter content.

Stephen is a first generation farmer who has been farming organically for over two decades. This resource is from Agricology.

This guide provides a good basis for achieving high-quality products.

A mixed farming system, based around livestock and cropping, is a fundamental part of organic, agroecological and regenerative farming.

Value chains with close collaboration between actors, both from the supply chain and wider society, enable direct, dynamic and innovative, relationships that better facilitate management and sales of smaller volumes of diverse products.

Organic Management Techniques to Improve Sustainability of Non-Organic Farming.

Natural & Organic Products Expo is the source for the latest eco-friendly and sustainable products you cannot find anywhere else

The traditional cultivation of maize is accompanied by numerous mechanical cultivations and the application of herbicides.

This OGA webinar will give an overview of mechanised tillage, from bed preparation to weed control, looking at cultivation tools and their use in various contexts.

Learn about organic fruit production with this podcast

A webinar for Organic, low input and in-conversion farms to highlight changes in farming support payments.

Nathan Richards of Troed Y Rhiw farm, Ceredigion, will talk to us about a particular aspect of agroforestry under cover, using stone fruit.

This document from SRUC summarises scientific and practical information on characteristics to consider when selecting varieties for organic farming. The information is based on variety trials.

There are lots of tools and resources online, designed to help agricultural and forestry advisors support good farming and forestry practice. Many of these resources can be found using search engines – but this will not find everything, and may not represent current best practice. That is why we are creating a new digital service bringing together current best practices in forestry and farming from across Europe – the EU Advisory Platform.

Guidance for farmers, growers, advisors, and agricultural contractors on how to maximise the benefits of using digestate and compost as renewable fertilisers. 

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