Ingleby Farms Sustainability Report 2018-19

Page 55

NATURE

55

TAKING NATURE SERIOUSLY Healthy natural environments support healthy farms. Interactions between biological communities and their physical environments build soils, cycle nutrients and water, sequester carbon, purify water and air, mitigate pests and pollinate crops. We constantly monitor and assess if our farming practices are affecting our environments. One example is monitoring birds on our farms as indicators of biodiversity. Changes in bird populations are useful indicators of our farms as habitats, but also of broader environmental changes. We identify land that is unsuitable for production and can be returned to natural habitat. Our Farming with Nature project guides us in this process. In the last years, we have focused on how to better use the valuable natural resources present in our ecosystems. By using natural fertilisers and biocides as well as releasing native predatory insects to manage pests, we eliminate the environmental and economic cost of chemical pesticides. These practices also help us achieve our goal of producing high quality products with zero chemical residues.

NATURAL HABITATS

PORTION OF LAND IN NATURAL HABITATS

PORTION OF LAND IN WATER BODIES

hectares

percent

percent

30,663

30%

2%

INGLEBY FARMS // FARMING WITH NATURE


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