Organic farming is bucking the downward trend in UK agriculture by creating more jobs and attracting a younger workforce, according to a new report.
At the launch of the Soil Association report Organic Works last week, policy director Peter Melchett said the research shows organic farming delivers proportionally 32 per cent more jobs per farm than conventional farming.
“If organic farming, currently practised on four per cent of UK farmland, was adopted by all UK farmers, it would produce an additional 93,000 on-farm jobs - 16 times more people than were employed by the Rover car company when it closed in April 2005,” added Soil Association policy officer and report co-author, Michael Green.
The survey, undertaken by researchers at the University of Essex, found organic farmers were comparatively younger, on average 49 years-old - seven years younger than their non-organic counterparts.
According to Green, the upward turn in recruitment is a rebuttal of the government’s commitment to “shedding labour” which has increasingly switched attention away from the “biodiversity” of people in the industry, towards other concerns, such as wildlife.
When asked about horticulture specifically, Melchett admitted some producers would be more enthusiastic than others about their future prospects.
“We found a significant optimism and a feeling of greater certainty among farmers in general although I think it would be fair to say farmers growing for box schemes and farm shops would give a more positive response than those supplying the multiples,” he said.
