Allerton Project Research Blog

Joe Stanley shares his transformative journey at the Allerton Project, advocating sustainable farming practices, addressing obstacles to adoption, and emphasising the need for greater support across the food supply chain.

I recently returned from the biennial EURAF European Agroforestry Conference in the Czech Republic. My train from Vienna was cancelled because of exceptionally severe flooding in Austria and southern Germany so that I arrived home a day late. It was a relatively minor inconvenience. The flooding resulted in fatalities, river levels rising to their highest level in a century, and the Danube being closed to shipping.

We all have vested interests. Sometimes they can be a driver for good. There are some opportunities to be realised through adoption of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, but we need to accept that there are sacrifices too, and individuals vary in their willingness to embrace this for the greater good.

Farmers are experiencing a period of considerable change as area payments are withdrawn, global market pressures reduce income, climate change introduces unfamiliar challenges, and new agri-environment schemes are rolled out. Chapter 8 of Farming with the Environment explores these issues from the farmer’s viewpoint, based on our collaborative working with local farmers on various initiatives over the years.

Politicising climate change is dangerous. There are numerous examples of how forcing complex environmental issues into binary choices doesn’t turn out well. Understanding the science, accepting the complexity, and acting on the best evidence available at the time is the only way out of the considerable challenges we currently face.

There’s a row broken out in the Garden of Eden. Apparently, we must cease our assiduous nurturing of our horticultural havens and allow nature to do a Brexit and “take back control”. Yes, you’ve guessed, the Rewilders have your lawns in their sights!

Chapter 6 of Farming with the Environment covers the aquatic side of things. Some of it is about how nutrients behave in water and how aquatic invertebrate communities are affected by them. But the fact is that what goes on in water is influenced massively by the management of the land draining into it.

Nationally and globally, the abundance and species diversity of wildlife has declined over the past decades. In Farming with the Environment, I describe the steps we have taken to reverse this decline through the development of practical evidence-based habitat creation and management.

On 4th May the Allerton Project hosted our inaugural Agricultural Biochar Knowledge Exchange event, bringing together stakeholders from across the industry with an interest in this exciting and rapidly evolving field. 

The BEESPOKE project is hosting an open day at the Allerton Project to discuss the benefits of encouraging pollinators, provide advice on the countryside stewardship options available to do so, and help outline the kind of outcomes you might see as a result.