Our Ethics - The Community Farm

Nature-friendly farming

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We farm organically because we believe it’s the best farming system for our health and the health of all other life on Earth. On average, there is 50% more plant, insect and bird life on organic farms. Amongst the wildlife we see on The Farm are tawny owls, skylarks, song thrushes, linnets, woodpeckers, buzzards, kestrels, swallows, hedgehogs, badgers and deer.

As well as avoiding the pesticides and fertilizers that are used in conventional farming and can have negative impacts on ecosystems, we also grow food in a way that supports nature. We manage our hedgerows, field margins and buildings in a way that encourages biodiversity. We plant pollinator-friendly plants and wildflowers, put up owl boxes and mammal homes and ensure we allow our hedgerows to fruit to provide food for birds.

Working here, you get to marvel at the joys of the wildlife across the seasons. From the birdsong in the mornings, to seeing swallows swooping outside your window catching flies, or the deer running across the field in the evening.

And this all really does matter. With around three quarters of land in the UK in agricultural production, the way we farm has a huge impact on the overall biodiversity in this country.

Beyond our own fields, we make sure we source from other farms that share our values. For fruit and veg, we only buy certified organic produce, meaning our boxes are 100% organic. On occasion we stock extra items which are not certified as organic, but meet very high environmental standards in their production. We do this so that we can support local enterprises that have environmental and ethical practises similar to our own, but are not able to gain organic certification for some reason. If we have sourced from a non-certified supplier, we’ll always let you know.

Globally, the food we eat is the number one source of greenhouse gas emissions but by switching to organic production we could drastically lower our food’s impact on the environment. If Europe’s farmland all went organic, agricultural emissions could drop by up to 50% by 2050 and still provide enough healthy food for everyone.

By buying from us, you can rest assured that the food that is nourishing you, is working hard to nourish the natural world, too.

Healthy food

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We sell the nourishing, whole foods which should form the basis of a healthy diet. Nothing we sell is ultra-processed.

Whether you eat meat regularly or are a staunch vegan, we believe that we should all be eating a veg-led diet, which is why we focus on veg boxes. All of our boxes are loaded with variety, helping you keep up a mix of plants in your diet, each full of different nutrients. A great way to fill your fridge every week.

We always prioritise veg from our own fields and from local producers who grow with the seasons. That’s because, as well as being better for the environment and supporting local businesses, eating local and seasonal means eating fresher, more nutritious food. For example, imported veg can have up to 50% less vitamin content than local equivalents because nutrients start to deteriorate from the moment the veg is picked.

We also believe that organic produce is better for our health. Regardless of the ongoing debate about the use of glyphosate and other synthetic herbicides and pesticides used in conventional farming which may harm our health, there's a growing body of research demonstrating that food grown organically has a greater amount and variety of antioxidants and micro-nutrients, as well as being better for your microbiome and gut health.

Local first

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Our sourcing policy is local-first. We start with the produce grown on our own fields and then work our way out until we can deliver a great variety of produce to all of our customers. Beyond our 15 acres, we prioritise other small farmers in the South West, then small businesses from further afield in the UK, and only when we’ve exhausted all of the great options in this country will we look to import produce. When we do have to import, we follow the same logic and source it from as nearby as possible and never fly it in.

This approach helps us keep our food miles as low as possible, reducing our carbon footprint. But it also means our produce tastes better as we’re able to deliver fresher and more nutritious food.

Local-first sourcing also means supporting local businesses, providing a route to market for small enterprises and keeping your money in the local economy. In fact, studies have shown that towns surrounded by small-scale community or family farms have a significantly positive impact on local economies: from increased rates of employment to more local businesses and better infrastructure and services. Even the schools perform better.

A thriving local economy with farming at its heart can provide jobs and futures for many people.

When buying your produce from The Farm, know that your money is going directly to the producer at a fair price, helping to sustain small, local farms that might struggle to exist without our support. But it goes beyond this, even: our approach benefits people all the way through the supply chain to include drivers and labourers, waiters and chefs, retailers and, we hope, you.

Ethical trading

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From suppliers to staff to customers, we do our best way to operate in the most ethical way possible.

This is how:

We only work with suppliers who share our values of honesty, respect for the living earth, fairness, openness and kindness.
We work closely with our local suppliers to ensure we pay a fair price for produce. We crop plan together, setting prices and, where possible, committing to buying set quantities. Our joint planning enables us to allow different growers to supply items throughout the year, supplementing our own field produce, whilst providing them with the security of income.
We are proud to pay all of our staff the living wage, from field workers to delivery drivers.
We believe that access to good, nourishing food should be a right, which is why we do all we can to keep our produce affordable.
Food production should never be about maximising profits. Invariably, when people look to maximise profits, something falters: whether that’s environmental standards or human rights. That’s why we will always be a not-for-profit, and invest any surplus that we make from our veg boxes, back into our own Community programmes.
Our organisational structure, with a volunteer management committee and over 500 shareholder members, make sure we stay true to these principles and values.
Our promise to you is that when you buy veg from The Community Farm, you know you are contributing to a vibrant and healthy food system. A system that’s having a positive impact on people and the planet, and helping farms to thrive in an adverse marketplace that has been engineered to favour a false economy of putting cheap produce over our future.

Waste not

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Wasted food is the cause of a whopping 8% of all global greenhouse gas emissions! As a food producer and retailer, we recognise that we have a role to play in reducing our waste: on our fields, in the warehouse and by working with our customers.

We are also always working to minimise the environmental impact of our packaging. There’s constantly new packaging options in development and we do our best to keep up to date with the latest thinking, by keeping our processes and suppliers under constant review.

Wasted Food

By choosing to sell veg boxes, we’re able to make a big dent in the wasted food that most retailers have to contend with. That’s because we can work with local producers to choose what goes in the boxes each week, and ensure we sell everything they’ve grown, as well as making sure food is never just sat on a shelf waiting for someone to buy it. Careful crop planning for the fields, and good communications between the growing team and warehouse team means we minimise waste from our fields.

If there’s anything that’s grown and not fit for sale, our volunteers often eagerly take it home too! But we don’t let ugly produce go to waste. We take pride in the fact that some of our vegetables are wonky. We still sell them, as they are perfectly tasty! On the few occasions where we have surplus we call on food projects or food banks to help us find the produce a new home. We even have business customers who make soup, jam or preserves from surplus or damaged fruit and vegetables. And our website is also bursting with recipes to help all of our customers make the most of the seasonal produce in the boxes.

Packaging

Currently, our boxes are made from 98% recycled materials and are 100% recyclable. Each box can be reused dozens of times.

Sadly, food and farming rely heavily on the use of plastic to maintain freshness and product quality. Without plastic, greens like chard and spinach will wilt and rot at a fast rate. The use of paper bags are prohibitive as they dry the produce, and loose greens in veg boxes are not practical because they suffer from atmospheric changes. There is a balance to strike in minimising food waste and packaging waste.

First and foremost we don’t buy in, wrap or package products unnecessarily. Our shorter supply chain, both locally and abroad where we work directly with growers, allows us to minimise the need for wrapped vegetables and fruit, such as peaches, nectarines and cucumbers.

Then there’s the choice of materials. In terms of production, the carbon footprint of producing petroleum based plastic bags is actually smaller than both paper bags (recycled and unbleached) and rubber bands. In fact, this can be up to five times smaller when looking at the CO2 emissions. Plant-based plastic brings a different set of problems. The energy needed to convert plants to plastic is significantly more than normal plastic, increasing their carbon footprint. Also, many plant-based plastics are made from GM plants in a bid to make them more affordable – a practice we do not want to endorse as an organic farm.

The problem with plastic when compared to the alternatives is not the production, but what happens to it once it has been used.

Alternative plant-based “plastics” have been produced to reduce this impact on the environment. These claim to be biodegradable or compostable. However these claims do not solve the problem of end of life treatment. “Plant based” can be up to 80% non-plant based, and isn’t necessarily fully biodegradable or compostable. “Biodegradable” doesn’t define how quickly it degrades and is not recyclable. “Compostable” could require industrial composting (or anaerobic digestion); it’s not just going to rot down in your back garden.

Unfortunately, UK waste systems aren’t set up for biodegradable or compostable plastic. If any biodegradable plastic gets into the recycling chain it can cause entire pallets of plastic to be contaminated and thrown away. Compostable bags that are put into the food waste destined for anaerobic digesters will be removed from the process and sent to landfill because the system cannot tell the difference between these alternatives and petroleum based plastics and composting cannot occur in landfill because there is not enough air circulation. When biodegradable waste rots in landfill without air, harmful greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide are released. Methane is 21 times more harmful as a 'greenhouse gas' than carbon dioxide.

The other challenge we face is that some produce we receive from other suppliers (like mixed salad bags) comes pre-packaged. If we transition to plant-based alternatives, that could mean a mix of materials in the boxes for our customers, increasing the risk of contamination in the recycling or composting processes.

At The Farm, we are currently using plastic which can be reused or recycled. As innovation and research continues to develop, we’ll keep reviewing our approach, and in the meantime, please work with us to reduce our waste. You can ensure we’re able to reuse boxes by returning them to our drivers. And any plastic bags you receive from us can be put back into the box for collection, too. It’s important our cardboard boxes remain dry, so on damp days, it’s necessary to deliver our boxes covered in a recyclable, plastic protection. If you receive a bag, please place your folded box inside and leave both items out for pick-up on your next delivery day.

If you are reading this as a plastic or packaging expert, please do get in touch with us, we’d love to hear your point of view!

Community hearted

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The Community Farm was started by local people responding to a local need for nutritious, locally grown produce and a desire for increased social connection. Community-oriented agricultural projects like ours have the power, not only to grow food, but also to create strong social links in their local area. Links that change lives by providing face-to-face social contact whilst filling bellies with healthy, organic food.

Encouraging people onto The Farm is one of our core aims and we’re proud to have become a real hub of local activity, bringing people together for education, work and play in an environment that is inclusive, welcoming and supportive. As we’ve grown, so have the numbers of volunteers, and we now welcome over a thousand people onto The Farm every year.

People come here for many reasons. As well as our volunteering programme, local school visits and nature inspired activities (such as owl prowls, bee counts and bat walks), we also run wellbeing courses provided by Ecowild and our own weekly therapeutic horticulture course, Grow and Make, and our nature connection course, Wild Steps.

In 2020 we also launched the COVID Fund to help those disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Thanks to your generous donations, we managed to reach over £10,000 in the first year of fundraising! All of those funds went back into our Community. You can read more about how the money was spent on our COVID Fund webpage.