The government has set an ambition to increase the share of English land farmed organically to 10% by 2036, but concerns remain over how the transition will be funded.
Currently, just 3.4% of England’s agricultural land is farmed organically, one of the smallest shares in Europe. France, for example, farms 10.4% of its land organically, and aims to increase this to 18% by 2027.
Rob Haward, the chief executive of organic veg box company Riverford, said it was a reflection of organic farming having political backing in the EU. Whereas in England, the last organic farming plan was published more than two decades ago.
The government’s new plan, which has been more than three years in the making, sets out a vision for growth in the organic sector, with public procurement – in schools and hospitals, for example – cited as a significant opportunity. The government already has a long-term ambition for 10% of public sector food spend to meet higher environmental production standards. The plan states that the organic sector can play a vital role in achieving this.
The environment secretary, Angela Eagle, said the plan was about “opening up opportunities across the sector, from backing farmers already producing organic food to helping others decide whether it could work for their businesses”.
She added: “Organic farming should not be treated as a niche. More people are looking closely at where their food comes from, how it is produced and whether it meets standards they value.”
Haward said public procurement was “impenetrable” for small organic farms, but hoped the plan would be a “catalyst for growth”. However, he said the sector now needed proper backing from the government, including grant funding.
In September, thousands of farmers were left empty-handed after the government’s sustainable farming incentive 2026 (SFI) funding was spent in just six hours. This meant that some farmers who might have been planning to use the funding to transition to organic farming may have missed out.
“SFI needs to be reliable, successful and secure to enable this transition,” said Haward. “It’s hard for any farm to invest in their business if things change, we need some consistency.”
Gareth Morgan, the head of farming policy at the Soil Association, said there had been a lot of discussions with Defra about funding, but in the end “there has been a compromise”.
“There is now an urgent need to reopen SFI to enable farms to move to organic farming,” he said.
Morgan added that increasing the share of land farmed organically could bring down the price of organic food for consumers. “Currently the price of food is subsidised and we don’t pay for the environmental impact. If organic food becomes more mainstream, the price difference will become less,” he said.
Martin Lines, the chief executive of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, said farmers could not rely on government funding alone to make this transition, and said there needed to be “real investment from the supply chain and the private sector, along with fairer prices for farmers for their goods and stronger domestic markets for homegrown produce”.
The National Farmers’ Union, whose members include organic and non-organic farms, said the plan signified a “really positive step forward … for the wider supply chain”.
“Supporting domestic production will strengthen the resilience of our food supply chains and ensure British farmers and growers benefit from opportunities, rather than increasing our reliance on imports,” said Paul Tompkins, the deputy president of the union.
In the plan’s foreword, Eagle said: “Across England, organic farmers, growers and food businesses play an important role in producing high-quality food while caring for soils, wildlife and the rural communities they are part of. In doing so, they also help advance wider goals for nature recovery, cleaner water and greater climate resilience.”
This year has been challenging for farmers because of crop-destroying heat and drought alongside soaring fertiliser costs tied to the war in Iran. Organic farms have been found to be more resilient in the face of these extreme weather conditions and are also not affected by rising fertiliser costs.
“Organic farmers are much less exposed to these risks,” Morgan said, adding that the plan was a sign that the government was thinking hard about the pathway for food security.
