Patrick Holden

Patrick Holden is one of the pioneers of the modern sustainable food movement who, during his period as Director of the Soil Association, between 1995 and 2010, played a leadership role in developing the UK organic market. Closely involved with standards development, producer cooperation, Patrick’s extensive engagement with the public through successive media campaigns, played a key role in winning public trust in the products from sustainable agriculture.

In 2010 he stepped down from the Soil Association to address a newly emerging challenge – the need to develop strategies for sustainable food systems which have wider application, for the whole of agriculture.

The mission of the resulting organisation, The Sustainable Food Trust, is to promote international cooperation between all those involved in sustainable food production.

organic cattle

Paying a proper price for milk: What dairy cows deserve

Everyone should have the right to high quality, health promoting milk from ethical and sustainable dairy farms.

February 28, 2022

soil

Homage to soil

I believe this situation is applicable to the majority of the world’s farmers – in front of us is a monumental task, we need not only to maintain but to build soil fertility, which we must and can do by commencing a new relationship of the soils under our management, harvesting and growing the body of experience and evidence of the pioneers of soil building both historic and living.

October 22, 2021

cows

Feeding Britain one farm at a time

Namely, if we switch from chemically dependent agriculture to biologically based farming systems operating in harmony with nature and within planetary boundaries, how much food could we produce on an acre, from a region, a country or the entire planet? And would this be enough to nourish us all?

October 12, 2021

Holden Dairy Farm

Using farms as educational platforms

If it is true that we only have 10 years or so to bring about the great transition towards regenerative and sustainable farming systems, then our need to create an informally coordinated network of beacon farms, hopefully working collectively to become more than the sum of their parts in the educational process, becomes absolutely imperative.

June 9, 2021

Patrick Holden cows

Why the Climate Change Committee have got it wrong on land, food and farming

I gained the impression, perhaps unfairly, that none of the so-called experts who were presenting had any practical knowledge of, or insights into, regenerative farming.

January 8, 2021

butterfly

Farms – the new frontline for restoring biodiversity

I have the feeling that we are on the threshold of a transition to more sustainable practice which, if it could be made economically viable, could quite quickly become mainstream.

September 30, 2020

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