Speciality-Food-Magazine-March-2025

specialityfoodmagazine.com 41 guided by and learning from the regenerativemovement.” He sees a combination of organic and regenerative as the ‘gold standard’ for farming. “I’mupset by the polarising of techniques. It’s all about harmony and being nature-led. The fantastic thing is organic is amature process with some great minds and really fantastic practitioners that’s been in place for manymany decades. But there’s been some quite good research that shows regenerative practices could take this one step further.” An example is that organic standards don’t insist youmove your livestock frequently. “Wemove ours daily, even though the organic system doesn’t demand it. Also agroforestry, bringing trees into the farm, is not a requirement for organic.” Something that would have to be addressed for the two forms of farming to bond in future though, Barnes admits, is the issues of chemicals, which are not off-limits in the regenerative system. “We fundamentally oppose the use of glyphosate,” he says. “Our position is that it’s deeply, deeply harmful. It’s not something we do on farmor advocate for.” On the topic of chemicals, Martin addsmany farmers within the regenerative systemare looking to reduce their reliance. “Some will say they need glyphosate to terminate cover crops and can’t do without it. I point to organic farmers and say, ‘they’remanaging without them’. Using pesticides is a sticking plaster and there needs to be a focus that glyphosate isn’t the solution.” If this can be resolved, and organic farming adopted alongside regenerativemeasures, Barnes says there are wholesale benefits throughout food growing and supply chains. “We have to stop quibbling over which is best and bring customers with us on this urgent journey to galvanise around what is a helpful way to produce food. We need to unite. I feel strongly we need to do that, rather than pick holes in definitions.” What are the benefits of farming regeneratively? There is no food security without a workable, sustainable system, says Martin. “If we continue to degrade soils, where is the food security for future generations?” In an ideal world, he expresses, we’d eat lessmeat, growing less high-input cattle feed (such asmaize and beet) and adopting a grazing approach, moving animals regularly, and relying on their manure as natural fertiliser. “Where animals are outside we find more birds and insects, more flora and fauna under their hooves. Whenwe put sheep in the fields the swallows are flying around eating the bugs, the birds eat pests, and we find we need to use less wormers. It’s that nature- friendly approach.” For Barnes, adding regenerative agriculturemethods into the existing systems at The Garlic Farmhas delivered, despite themonly having been applied for six years. “We’ve already found that our garlic can be givenwhat it needs fromanimal integration rather than something out of a bag,” he says. “And in the pastures in the surrounding areas where we can’t grow garlic, there are a lot more plants, grasses and legumes. More diversity. Interestingly, moving livestock dailymeans the farmcan hold three times the amount of cattle on the same land. “If you get fully nerdy and go to forums and events, this is what works. This is how farming was. It’s how farming is.” Niels says farmers are often surprised at the outcomes from adopting regenerativemeasures. “Those could be significant uptakes in organicmatter in the grazing sector, for example, or reductions in the cost of productionwhile being able to carry more animals on the same area of land because it’s healthier andmore productive. I think the systemhas significant opportunities to deliver on farm income, without being at the expense of the natural environment.” For LeonaMcDonald, director of Golden Hooves, regenerative farming is imperative to helping tackle the climate crisis and challenge of food ‘FARMING THIS WAY WILL BRING GREATER FOOD SECURITY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS’ WHAT DOES REGENERATIVE MEAN TO YOU? It’s my turn to run the business and, at 33, I’m probably still going to be doing this job in 40 years’ time. Like my father, I have the luxury of being able to take a long-term view of the future, with time to deliver on our plans. For us that means supporting tangible change, because we want to be supplied by farms in the local area for the next 10, 20 and 30 years. In order to secure that supply chain, we need to start investing in the thing that makes all of our food, which is the soil. For us, regenerative agriculture is a farming model that is moving the ball forward. We’ve been organic for a long time (since the 80s) and are supplied by conventional farmers as well. In 2019 we started (regenerative agriculture) in earnest, and built a set of deliverable standards, working with some of our farmers who are quite far down the regenerative road. As well as the benefits of the system on-farm, with a reduction in inputs making themmore sustainable, we give them a premium plus for their delivery. Slowly this flour is going into more and more of our products. We’d like 10,000 acres of our farms to be regenerative by 2030 and I’m convinced we can do that and improve it by 20,000 to 30,000 acres by 2040. WHAT IMPROVEMENTS HAVE YOU NOTICED? All the farms we work with have increased soil fertility, which means it’s more drought resistant. A lot of people worry about the yield, but it’s within 10 to 15% of what you’d get in conventional farming within five years. That’s longer-term security for our children and their children. WHAT WOULD BE YOUR ADVICE TO OTHER PRODUCERS? If we all understand why regenerative agriculture is vital to our future, tying that to our personal and business motivations and strategy, while learning from and listening to the experts, that would be the key. Whether you’re a farm, a flour mill, a baker or a retailer – everybody has a part to play, and we’ve all got to do this together. The conversation we’ll be having in 10 years’ time will be why are we calling it ‘regenerative agriculture’? It will just ‘be’ farming. Bertie Matthews is the eighth generation of his family to run the 100-year-old Matthews Cotswold Flour business, with a bold vision for the future The conversation we’ll be having in 10 years’ time will be why are we calling it ‘regenerative agriculture’? It will just ‘be’ farmin BERTIE MATTHEWS, MATTHEWS COTSWOLD FLOUR IN DETAIL ● Improving and nurturing soil health ● Promoting the sequestration of carbon ● Supporting and enhancing biodiversity ● Integrating livestock ● Conserving water ● Supporting the livelihoods of farmers ● Having a long-term mindset THE 7 PRINCIPLES OF REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE