Exploring the impact of crop diversification on workload and quality of life of farmers
2nd Jul 2021
Crop diversification results in a fundamental change in activities: production, management, processing, crop sales and new relationships with the value chain all need to be re-assessed. The Organic Research Centre led an explorative study using…
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Living mulch field lab on Farming Today
30th Jun 2021
The No-till with living mulches field lab was featured on BBC Radio 4's Farming Today programme on 29th June 2021. Listen to the feature with Rebecca Rooney talking to James Alexander, Mark Lea and Jamie…
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Farmers collaborate to find hop varieties for the growing organic beer market
30th Jun 2021
Innovative Farmers field lab is bringing organic hop growers, breeders and brewers together with the Organic Research Centre to co-design practical on-farm research Brewers and hop merchants say demand for organic beer and locally-sourced ingredients…
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New report explains why UK farmers still aren’t planting trees on their land
29th Jun 2021
A Defra-funded systematic review by a team of progressive UK farming and woodland advocacy organisations points the way to increased adoption of agroforestry by farmers post-Brexit. An influential new report written by researchers at the…
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Organic Research Centre strengthens Board with the appointment of three industry leaders
28th Jun 2021
Appointments will bring senior experience in food policy, agricultural economics, rural policy and food retailing to ORC’s Board. The new appointments – Janet Dwyer, Honor May Eldridge and Jake Pickering – will bring a breadth…
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New Pacific free trade agreement could bring 119 banned toxic pesticides to UK
11th Jun 2021
The UK could be opening the door to 119 pesticides banned for health and environmental reasons, warns a new report looking at implications of signing up to a Pacific free trade agreement. The deal with…
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What are weeds? What can they tell us about our soils? Do they have any other benefits?
7th Jun 2021
The Centre for Agroecology Water and Resilience and the Organic Research Centre are looking to recruit farmers near Shropshire (16th June) for a participatory study on the use of bioindicators in arable farming systems. Bioindicators…
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Agroforestry for the transition towards sustainability and bioeconomy
3rd Jun 2021
The fifth European conference on agroforestry, EURAF 2020, was held online recently (17th - 19th May 2021) and ORC was represented by Colin Tosh, Will Simonson and Lindsay Whistance. This conference was postponed in 2020…
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Could living mulch be the ‘holy grail’ of arable farming?
27th May 2021
A team of six farmers is trialling growing a living mulch under cash crops – if they’re successful, they say the practice could eliminate the need for artificial inputs, cut costs and boost productivity. The…
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Organic Agriculture at the Heart of Agroecological Transition - call for submissions
27th May 2021
ORC's Ambrogio Costanzo is a guest co-editor of a forthcoming special issue of Agronomy entitled Organic Agriculture at the Heart of Agroecological Transition. The deadline for manuscript submissions is 15 September 2021. "Agroecological transition is…
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Cereals 2021: A Healthier Path to Profits
27th May 2021
Cereals 2021 returns to Lincolnshire on Wed 30 June & Thurs 1 July 2021. Amongst many interesting workshops and demonstrations, ORC's Lucy MacLennan will be chairing the It's all about Biology session on Thursday 1st July…
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A clear option space for expanding organic agriculture despite nitrogen limits - new INRAE led study
27th May 2021
A new INRAE led study has been published looking into a clear option space for expanding organic agriculture despite nitrogen limits. Recognising that one of the limits of widespread organic farming is the limited nitrogen…
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European database for organic seeds
27th May 2021
The European database for organic seed has been developed within the EU project LIVESEED. Its objective is to create more transparency for the EU member states and for seed suppliers regarding available offers of organic…
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New GM field trial consultation - help oppose the planting of experimental GM wheat
27th May 2021
Rothamsted Research has applied for permission to plant a field trial of GM Wheat and a statutory public consultation is now open. Field trials always carry a risk of escape and wheat is a staple food in…
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Regenerative Agriculture: Farming with Benefits
17th May 2021
A new book Regenerative Agriculture: Farming with Benefits by Marianne Landzettel is reviewed by ORC's Senior Agroforestry Researcher Colin Tosh. I approached the book with a few misgivings. The cover said ‘textbook’ while the text…
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Ten minutes with Lisa Arguile
22nd Apr 2021
What is your job role at the ORC? Sustainability Researcher How long have you worked at the ORC? Just over two and a half years Where are you from/ where are you based? I grew…
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Silvopasture field lab on Farming Today
22nd Apr 2021
BBC Farming Today visited Andy Gray one of the farmers participating in the new Innovative Farmers Silvopasture field lab. " A field lab being run by Innovative Farmers - a not-for-profit group which links up…
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InfoHub on intercropping launched
20th Apr 2021
A new DIVERSify legacy website http://plant-teams.org/ has been launched. It includes the Farmer Guide ‘InfoHub’ “for practical information on intercropping agronomy, resilience and ecosystem service provision, on-farm experiences and innovations” and a Policy Toolbox that…
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Making hedgerows pay their way: the economics of harvesting field boundary hedges for bioenergy
20th Apr 2021
A new paper on our hedgerow work as part of the SustainFARM project has been accepted for publication in Agroforestry Systems and is now online: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10457-021-00631-9 Smith J, Westaway S, Mullender S. et al. (2021) Making…
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The organic route to a resilient future
9th Apr 2021
An article by ORC's Head of Research Will Simonson has been included in the March/April edition of e-law, published by UKELA (United Kingdom Environmental Law Association) as part of an issue focusing on the Agriculture…
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New paper on managing understoreys in agroforestry to promote natural enemies
31st Mar 2021
A new open access paper 'Management to Promote Flowering Understoreys Benefits Natural Enemy Diversity, Aphid Suppression and Income in an Agroforestry System,' co-authored by Jo Smith (now ex ORC) with the University of Reading and…
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Ten minutes with Colin Tosh
29th Mar 2021
Would you like to get to know the ORC staff, learn more about what they are working on at the moment and find out what inspired them to pursue a career in organic research? To…
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