Category: News

Agroforestry webinar, led by the Soil Association, as part of the WRFFC Conference which was held from 16-19th Nov 2020. Speakers include Tim Pagella (Bangor University), Dr Lindsay Whistance (Organic Research Centre) and Gareth Davies…

ORC welcomes Defra's roadmap for a transition to deliver a better, fairer farming system in England. We strongly support the participatory approach and are involved in three of Defra's Environmental Land Management 'Test and Trials'.…

The EU Commission has approved a regulation to recognise all six of the UK organic Control Bodies as certifying to an equivalent EU standard until 31 December 2021, for the purpose of trade in organics.…

Complete our survey and win a bottle of wine! At the ORC, we are always looking at ways to strengthen our communication and make sure you as a reader receive the most interesting and relevant…

New paper published in ‘Livestock Science’ this month. The article assesses how Flock Health Clubs improve farmer-vet relationships and measures of flock health & welfare. The paper's authors include ORC's Marion Johnson and Nicola Noble…

The Organic Research Centre (ORC) has announced the appointment of Dr Will Simonson as the new Head of Research.  Dr Simonson replaces Dr Bruce Pearce, who stepped down from the role last month after 21…

Charity’s evolving strategy aims to reach more farming people http://www.rabi.org.uk/kooth With 2020 bringing ever greater levels of uncertainty and unexpected changes, pressures on the farming community continue to grow. As part of a new package…

This week we sadly bid farewell to two long-serving members of our team - Bruce Pearce and Anja Vieweger - with more than thirty years of service between them! Dr Bruce Pearce joined Elm Farm…

ORC researchers and advisors are now at the halfway point of one of their Environmental Land Management scheme: Test &Trials (ELMs T&T). Led by the Soil Association, this project is looking at the capacity of…

The NFU is calling all organic farmers and growers to write to their MP to express their concerns about securing mutual equivalence between UK and EU organic standards. This is following a letter written to…

Greenpeace, together with other non-governmental organisations, non-GMO food associations and a food retailer, announced that the first-ever public detection method for a gene-edited crop has been successfully developed and published. The new research refutes claims…

The DIVERSify project has produced a web series about various aspects of intercropping. Three episodes are now online covering the subjects of ecosystem services, tools and techniques, and innovation and gaps. Episode 1: from the…

Glyphosate levels in children and adults drop dramatically after one week of eating organic.
Research breaks new ground in tracking. Roundup pesticide contamination in American families’ diets

Agricology has been awarded a Defra ELM Test in partnership with the University of Reading to research how effective videos and podcasts are as tools to learn about farming practices. As part of this study…

'The first major review of our food system in 75 years' ORC welcomes the launch of the independent National Food Strategy, led by Henry Dimbleby, which was published on Monday (29th July 2020). We applaud…

This is a critical time for the future of organic farming in the UK; Brexit requires a new agricultural policy and environment grants are being fundamentally reformed. It is now widely recognised that there are…

The booklet, translated from the original Danish by Lindsay Whistance, as part of the OK-Net Ecofeed project, focuses on designing free-range areas for laying hens in order to: Increase the farmer's satisfaction in his/her work;Improve…

The original Public Goods tool (PGT) was designed by ORC as an on-farm assessment tool for monitoring public good delivery and sustainable practices. It incorporated 11 themes representing holistic sustainability, with each theme containing a…

Talk of rewilding and corridors for insects is all well and good, but what we do with our farmland is more important Mark Measures' (ORC Senior Adviser) letter addressing the need for integrating wildlife management…

Agriculture Bill debates on Agroecology, Agroforestry, Organic farming and Soil Health in the House of Lords The Agriculture Bill is currently going through the Committee Stage in the House of Lords. Debates on the 9th…

The Perdix Partnership have a client who is looking to start a joint venture on his 800 acres farm in Warwickshire UK, it has been a arable farm intensively farmed for many years but he…

Make your voice heard on Defra's new proposals for Environmental Land Management Defra have reopened the Environmental Land Management (ELM) Policy Discussion Document (PDD) on CitizenSpace. The PDD sets out Defra's initial thinking for ELM…

Opportunities for farmer involvement

How do we encourage people to value heritage breeds?