A visit to a Natural Agriculture farm by Pippa Rosen I spent an interesting day last August at Yatesbury Farm in Wiltshire. The farm is for vegetable production and is run on the principles of Shumei Natural Agriculture. It is managed by a small group of Japanese farmers and their families who live on-site. The crops grown are carrots, lettuces, parsnips, leeks, sweetcorn, beetroot, onions, kale, tomatoes, green shiso, burdock and pumpkins. The farm has three open days throughout the summer when individuals may book to visit the 5-acre site. As always, when being shown something new, it is good to go with an open mind – I went with the attitude of ‘let me try to understand what goes on here’. By the end of the day I had much food for thought, and felt inspired by the commitment and integrity of the farmers who work this land. The day started with the farm manager, Shinya, guiding the visitors round the growing areas and polytunnels, explaining their vegan organic growing methods and answering questions. The farm has organic certification with the Soil Association, but there are quite significant differences when compared with other organic farms, or even with other stockfree organic enterprises.
[See front cover photos] No bought-in hybrid seeds are ever used as these would not maintain their parents’ qualities in subsequent generations. They mostly grow one variety of each vegetable to avoid any cross-pollination, thus keeping the seed pure. Crops that will not cross-pollinate, such as potatoes, which are grown from their collected tubers, are grown in more than one variety. The actual vegetable varieties chosen are excellent choices for this part of the UK. In spring some seeds are started off by using plugs, the soil used in the plugs being from their own ground. So the seeds are germinating in the same type of soil in which they will be grown on. Weed seeds may already be growing among the crop seedlings from this early stage. Some seed is sown direct – again in immediate ‘competition’ with weeds. Minimal weeding is carried out through the summer on this particular farm, although other Natural Agriculture farmers may choose to weed between their rows of crops. My own view is that this association with weeds is not a hindrance but may serve to strengthen the resilience of the crop plants. For the rest of the growing season, right up to harvest, the crop plants mature alongside the weeds, ie the wild plants, or companions, that have chosen to grow there and in that area. I suspect that the high quality of the vegetables produced is due to this wild-element. After all, there is a general public acceptance that foraged food, which is in constant competition for nutrients, light and water with all neighbouring companions, is highly prized for exceptional nutritional quality and flavour. Natural Agriculture farmers can, if they wish, choose to use a no-dig system although on this farm the soil is turned over in September when the weeds go into the ground. In the spring it is turned in again ready for sowing/planting. A no-dig method, where the ground is undisturbed apart from hand weeding, may give a larger harvest per metre or per acre, but here quality clearly takes precedence over quantity. Possibly less food is needed for the same health benefit when crops are this well grown.
Continuous cropping
Firstly, apart from the initial purchase of organic seeds in the very first year, they do not thereafter buy anything in. Every year they grow on some of each of their crop plants to the seed stage. They collect their own open-pollinated seed and are now in their 5th to 7th year of seed collection, depending on variety. The pumpkin seeds are actually in their 20th generation, having already been collected for ten successive years in Japan. Future crops grown on the UK site from all of their yearly collection of seed varieties therefore have the opportunity of adapting to their soil.
Secondly, the same crop grown in the same plot every year – commonly known as ‘continuous cropping’ – is encouraged in Natural Agriculture. Some farmers do employ rotation of crops if, for instance, they only have limited space for producing year-round crops. Here on this farm continuous cropping is employed and yet disease for any particular family of vegetables does not seem to build up, given that over time, and with minimal intervention, the soil will self-regulate. Once everything is in balance, natural insect predators in the surrounding areas prevent pest damage to the crops. Also, most importantly, the relationship between the soil and the crop gets stronger each year, and if the soil and the seeds are not contaminated in any way, the crop eventually grows strong enough to combat pests and diseases. On the rare occasion when there has been a problem, the farmer worked with the soil in the following way. Shinya explained that from his own saved tubers he had been getting a good harvest of potatoes (160kg) on the same plot since 2010,
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Shinya Imahashi
GGI 36 Winter 2015/16
Healthy kale and that this weight had increased the following year. Then in 2012 – a year when potato blight was rife – his harvest was reduced to 100kg as he had had to dig them up one month early. They were smaller than usual but still good for marketing. Still grown on the same ground the following year, again from saved tubers, the yield went up to 180kg, and in 2014 increased remarkably to 230kg, all fine, disease-free and dug up at the usual time.
No animal manures and no green manures Obviously in a stockfree system, no animal manures or by-products are used, but here green manures – plants with nitrogen-fixing properties like clover – are not used either. Unlike other arable farming, where high output is a target, here we have a system which is not nearly so exploitative and yet the harvest from each plot is actually generally increasing year on year. So how is this happening? Natural Agriculture relies on the soil’s innate ability to replenish its own needs. The twice-yearly turning in of weeds, and the presence of the right number and type of natural soil bacteria, ensures that the soil finds its own balance in terms of fertility, just as it does in terms of disease/pest resistance. The crop residues in the soil, like all organic matter, maintain sufficient moisture in the soil, and for this reason some straw is used in the polytunnels. Shumei is a worldwide spiritual organisation which enhances health, happiness and harmony for all, and promotes the appreciation of art and beauty. People care about each other, they work with nature and take care of the environment, the soil, seeds and plants that feed us. Pure soil, pure seed, pure mind are fundamental tenets of Shumei Natural Agriculture. Appreciating this leads to a better understanding of how this is a completely sustainable system and that the methods used are key to our future. More than food production per se, it is a way of life. Living in harmony with nature, rather than trying to control and dominate it, is clearly the aim. None of a country’s energy needs to be wasted in manufacturing and transporting artificial fertiliser, and in hybridising seed which is not necessary. Part of the day on the farm is given to explaining the work of Natural Agriculture introduced into Zambia, where a women’s co-operative was set up and help was given to GGI 36 Winter 2015/16
move away from their previously high-dependent system of buying in expensive fertiliser and seed. A great many more families there are now enjoying self-sufficiency and have been laying down sound agricultural practice for their future. There was also time in the day to talk to other visitors, eat a nutritious lunch, enjoy our hosts’ hospitality at a Japanese tea ceremony, and learn a little of the history of this. Then back outside we were all treated to a wonderful Taiko drumming session. These farmers are also talented musicians! After this there was an opportunity to buy their seasonal vegetables, of which I have never tasted the like for delicious flavour. The lifestyle and respect of the farmers for the soil that feeds us is refreshing and inspiring. There are links from this farm to similar growing projects in other parts of the world, and the farmers themselves are always learning. Their connection with nature is immediately obvious. On the farm they have created areas of beauty – African marigolds line a path to their very own Mount Fuji where ‘World Peace’ as an ultimate aim is written in flowers. A warm welcome awaits visitors to Yatesbury Farm, and the promise of a fascinating learning experience. So to the farm manager Shinya, and the rest of the team who improve our lives with their ethically-produced harvest, who take care of the soil, and who explain their work and philosophy to others, I say ‘Arigatou’ (I learnt the Japanese for ‘thank you’!). ▒ For more information see www.shumei.eu/yatesbury (there is a short video on the ‘About us’ page) Pippa runs Beans and Herbs, an organic seed business in Wiltshire, see her article in GGI 35
Carrot going to seed
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