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Biodiversity refers to the amount of biological variation that exists. It can be applied at various different levels – the number of different niches or ecosystems in a particular place; the number of different species in a particular ecosystem; the amount of genetic variation in a particular species. Generally speaking, the greater the biodiversity the more robust and resilient a given level of biological organisation is likely to be to the challenges it faces, although some biologists take issue with this view.
In farming, we can probably think of biodiversity most usefully at two levels – the whole farm level and the level of individual crop species. Farming has seen a great decrease in biodiversity at both levels in recent years. At the whole farm level, woodland, hedges, orchards and ponds have been lost, and the advent of silage-making and intensive cereal production has resulted in the decline of many animal and plant species that thrived in the old hay meadows and cornfields. At the crop level, old local varieties of vegetable seeds have disappeared at an alarming rate, to be replaced by the more genetically uniform products of the biotechnology industry. Although these new varieties are often higher yielding and more disease-resistant than the old ones (though rarely in our experience better tasting), the reduction in genetic variability makes us worryingly vulnerable to crop failures caused by emerging pests and diseases (and, of course, more dependent upon the biotechnology industry).
At Vallis Veg, we strive to preserve and promote biodiversity as much as possible. So far we’ve probably been more successful at the whole farm than the individual crop level. We’ve planted hedges and native woodland, including coppice woodland which is one of the most diverse and nature-friendly of human managed ecosystems. We’ve sown wildflowers, created wetland habitats and preserved meadow wildlife by late mowing – this already seems to have increased the number of bird species on the land (we regularly see buzzards, kestrels, owls, finches, meadow pipits, stonechats, skylarks, finches, robins, wagtails and wrens, not to mention the ubiquitous crows, magpies and pigeons), as well as other species such as grass snakes.
At the crop level, we’ve planted diverse tree species of local provenance, and also quite a number of good old-fashioned garden varieties of seed like scarlet emperor beans and gardener’s delight tomatoes. But we do buy in most of our vegetable seeds and make use of modern F1 varieties because their superior performance can make quite a difference to the financial viability of our business. In the longer term, though, we’re keen to work with other local gardeners and growers on seed-saving and plant-breeding projects to try to enhance the local biodiversity of our seed banks. |
