Along with fellow members of the English Organic Forum, Sustain is calling for a national target to increase organic farmland to 10% of the farmed landscape. 

Across Europe Organic Action Plans have led to significant increases in organic market and land share. Denmark’s 2011 Organic Action Plan set the target of doubling organic land area, sales and exports by 2030. By 2020, sales had doubled and organic land area had grown by 57%.  

Meanwhile in England, organic land share has remained low over the last decade at just 3% of the country’s farmed area.   

In a joint letter to Daniel Zeichner MP in December 2024, Sustain, along with organisations from across the UK food and farming sector, called for an Organic Action Plan for England in support of a “decisive shift to a more nature-friendly food and farming system. The letter states: 

“Experience from the previous Labour government’s Organic Action Plan, announced in 2002, highlights the role such a framework can play in boosting the sector: the targets set out in the plan led to a peak in organic farmland in England in 2008. Since then, it has decreased by around 30%,1 partly due to policy failings of subsequent governments. A new plan is urgently needed to support the growth of the sector moving forwards.” 

Why Organic? 

Last year Steve Reed OBE, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and rural Affairs set out his priorities for government, among them food and nutritional security, restoring nature and cleaning up our waterways and mitigating climate-induced flooding. In the face of the climate emergency the government needs to support farming systems, like organic, that have been shown to deliver on 

  • Biodiversity: increasing species richness by 30% and abundance by 50% when compared to conventional practices. 
  • Water quality: farming organically reduces the runoff of chemicals from synthetic pesticides and fertilisers into our waterways, and higher levels of coverage reduce soil erosion. 
  • Soil health and climate adaptation: the healthier our soils the better they can adapt to shocks to the environment. Organic systems enhance microbial abundance, activity in soils and soil carbon, ensuring healthier and more resilient soils. 
  • Animal welfare: with some of the highest standards for animal welfare of any UK farming system. 
  • Financial resilience: with lower levels of reliance on inputs, such as fossil fuel-derived fertilisers, which can be subject to external price shocks. 

This week IFOAM Organics International published “Elevating Truly Regenerative Agriculture – Statement from the Organic Movement” welcoming the increased focus on regenerative principles and practices, while expressing alarm over the misuse for “regenerative” where  

“highly degenerative practices like pesticide and synthetic fertilizer use continue, and where claims are based on minor changes to farming that don’t address the urgent crises of our times, yet divert attention and resources from whole-farm and wholesystems solutions.” 

With clear standards organic certification offers certainty to all those in the supply chain and to government around the practices being deployed and benefits being delivered. 

It’s time for England to catch up with its neighbours not only in Europe but as close as Scotland where an Organic Action Plan is already committed to doubling organic farmland. 

The letter to the minister has been signed by: Soil Association; Wildlife and Countryside Link; Greenpeace; The Wildlife Trusts; National Trust; Sustain; Compassion in World Farming UK; British Dragonfly Society; Bat Conservation Trust; Organic Farmers & Growers; Buglife; River Action; ClientEarth and the RSPB.  


Bridging the Gap: Bridging the Gap to climate and nature friendly food for all.

Sustain
The Green House
244-254 Cambridge Heath Road
London E2 9DA

020 3559 6777
sustain@sustainweb.org

Sustain advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, promote equity and enrich society and culture.

© Sustain 2025
Registered charity (no. 1018643)
Data privacy & cookies
Icons by Icons8

Sustain