The Dirty Dozen and a special Christmas nudge…

by Kenneth Keavey

We like our veg dirty, we harvest them fresh from the ground and we leave the dirt on.

This dirt, good clean dirt we think is amazing, it is a natural preservative, none of those artificial waxes or fungicides required here. But there is other dirt hidden in/on conventional food that we don’t think is that amazing.

The dirty dozen is a list which is compiled both in the  UK and the US each year based on measured chemical residues in and on conventional crops. It is a resource to allow us as consumers to make informed decisions about foods to potentially avoid or buy organically if possible.

It is a no brainer that removing synthetic pesticides and herbicides from our diet can only be a positive. 

There are certain crops that seem to make the list each year, you may be surprised to learn that apples regularly feature on the list. In 2020 according to the PAN (pesticide action network report) 67% of samples had pesticide residue and one sample had 13 different types of residues!)  This is I guess a little disturbing as apples are one of the most consumed fruits in the world.

Right here in Ireland based on a report by the dept of ag in 2014 (the most recent data I could get), the chemical Captan, which is a fungicide and classified as a probable human carcinogen was applied to 252 Hectares of land, and over 1.2 tonnes of the stuff was sprayed on apple trees.

For the life of me I can’t understand how kale makes it onto this list (in the US).  Kale of all the crops is hardy and tough and at least in our experience on our organic farm performs amazingly well. In fact, if we leave our brassica crops uncovered (we cover our crops with netting to prevent birds eating them) then the pigeons will eat everything else before they have a go at the kale!

Maybe it’s the healthy organic matter rich soil, maybe it’s the lack of forced nitrogen nutrition that pushes growth of crops on and can cause them to be soft and disease prone, maybe we are just lucky. Whatever it is we are grateful and happy that we have amazing crops that rarely suffer from pest or disease affliction. 

Spinach another relatively hardy green features regularly in the UK and the US list.  

When all is said and done, the production of food is hard, and the pressure to produce food at rock bottom prices, controlled and forced on farmers by the supermarkets will always lead to compromises, such as intensification and the use of chemicals.

It is a pity that the supermarkets are so concerned with how our food looks, rather than with how it is produced and what goodness is on the inside. Take a look at just how shiny some of the conventional apples are next time you are in a supermarket; many are coated in a shellac and/or carnauba wax to prevent them drying out or rotting.

We are lucky that we have a fantastic supply of organic apples from Richard Galvin, from Waterford, grown right here in Ireland without the use of chemicals, again proving the point that indeed it can be done, the apples are amazing, fresh with no coatings and no chemicals!

Thank you for supporting a food system without chemicals.

Kenneth

PS We are in full Christmas mode now.  Please get your order in next week to guarantee delivery the week after.

We are excited for all the lovely Irish produce that is jammed into our Christmas boxes, such as Battlemount organic farm potatoes (Kildare), Philip Dreaper’s organic carrots and Beetroot (Offaly), Beechlawn organic farm’s brussel sprouts, red cabbage and savoy cabbage (Galway), Mcardles amazing chestnut and portobello, mushrooms (Antrim), Leeks, parsnips, Celeriac, swede and Kale (right here on our own farm); apples from Richard Galvin (Waterford) and finally our very own handmade organic Cranberry sauce (with fresh organic cranberries) made by Rachel in Dunmore! PLACE YOUR CHRISTMAS ORDER NOW

 The Christmas is meal is the ultimate seasonal meal and we have definitely got you covered on this one, so please get your orders in soon!

Wow, a lime not suitable for vegans, how can that be…?

by Kenneth Keavey

I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry when I discovered earlier this year, that one major supermarket is now, at least, at times, highlighting the chemicals on or in some of its citrus fruit.

I guess it is not a laughing matter, the issue of chemicals in our food chain is serious, it is important as it has a knock-on effect for our health and biodiversity.

It is my belief that agriculture can be a force for good in our world, an endeavour that can produce safe wholesome food whilst enhancing our locality and planet. But that will require a change of mindset and policy when it comes to the fair pricing of food.

All the things that are good about agriculture are slowly being sucked dry by the loss leading of fresh produce by supermarkets and the race for intensification and the lowest possible price. Like any business if there is not enough money in the pot you cannot invest for the future, you cannot survive, it is no different for farmers, getting a fair price for our crops is not too much to ask, and if we don’t then how can we invest back into the land.

Anyway, I digress, back to the case at hand, chemicals on our food. The last few weeks we have been talking here about the test for the 870 chemicals on our kale that came back clean (This test was part of our organic certification spot check) and how maybe conventional foods should be labelled with what they include, rather than the organic farmer having to prove that his/her food is clean and good.

I wonder though as this large supermarket chain has marked the inclusion of chemical products in two of its citrus fruit did it forget about all the other fruit and veg it sells? I can only assume that they too have offending chemicals present.

One of the products on sale, a conventional lime, is labelled “not suitable for vegans!” (Without, the exclamation mark obviously, I just added that in for effect) the offending lime in question contained a mixture or some of the following…… wait for it…

Imazalil/Thiabendazole/Pyrimethanil/Orthophenylphenol & wax E914, E904, E914

Another product and one that is in season right now: ‘Naturally Sweet Leafy Clementines’ Contained: E904, E914 and Imazalil.

(Incidentally E904 is shellac. Shellac is a resin secreted by female lac bugs, and this is what makes the limes non vegan. You may also be interested to know that imazalil and thiabendazole are two hormone-disrupting fungicides, one of which is also a likely carcinogen.)

Do your own research, check it out. Having mulled this over for some time I think it is a good thing that this information is displayed.  Do you think it should also be printed on the pack in the supermarket aisle? Then you and I could make an informed decision or at the very least we would know what we are getting for our money.

Of course, these chemicals are labelled as safe once used below the MRL (the maximum residue limit). These limits are set to protect you and I from ingesting too much of these chemicals. However, as I have spoken about in the past the setting of these limits can be questionable and, in some cases, seems to have been set in relation to the level of application required rather than in relation to whether the product is safe. I refer to the research on the increased MRLs for glyphosate that have been increased 300-fold between 1993 and 2015 in the US. Is it safer now to eat 300 times the dose? I think probably not. 

I will finish on this note: farmers are doing the best they can, we all are, we are working to survive in a system that is fundamentally flawed, but for all its issues, it is the system we have, and it provides our food, we cannot do without it, not when there are so many of us on this planet. But there is no question that step by step we must and can introduce more positive ways of producing food and we can support this transition by deciding with who and on what we spend our money.

Thanks as always for your support.

Kenneth

The EU has granted a further 10 years to Glyphosate…

by Kenneth Keavey

On Thursday 16th of November, The EU commission decided to extend the licence for the use of Glyphosate for a further 10 years.

Using chemicals to fight nature will never work. In the short term it may give a temporary reprieve from a certain disease or pest, but that pest will come back stronger and more resistant next time. It is in a way a self-perpetuating industry. It is not the way to produce food and IT IS CERTAINLY NOT OUR WAY.

I imagine that lobbying bodies and Bayer will be rubbing their hands together in glee at the thought of another ten years of sales.

In the meantime, you and I must be content with ingesting glyphosate in the food we eat.   A recent study showed that more than 80% of urine samples drawn from children and adults in a US contained glyphosate, a finding scientists have called “disturbing” and “concerning”.

Right here in Galway another analysis showed glyphosate was detectable in 26% of samples, AMPA the byproduct when glyphosate is broken down was detectable in 59% of samples. 

The Agri industry will stipulate that the chemical is safe and provide evidence to corroborate this, of course they design and pay for these studies, so the results generally will cast their products in a favourable light.

Aside from the obvious health related issues of continuously consuming a chemical we do not want in our food and the destruction of habitats and all the associated biodiversity, there is the key question of why, why use this stuff, we didn’t always need it so why now? There is the argument by the agroindustry that banning glyphosate would introduce a whole host of food production problems, including further increases in prices of food.

There is no denying that as with any major change a transition period would be necessary but as organic farmers have demonstrated the world over there are alternatives to the use of chemicals in our food system and these alternatives are better for our health and for biodiversity.

This year our work apart from one or two mishaps has kept pace with the weeds. But our approach to weed control is not one of total dominance, quite frequently once you get the crops to a certain size the weeds are no longer a problem.

In fact, they can provide a basis for a wide variety of life: flowering weeds that bees come to, the lush green undergrowth, a haven for a myriad of tiny creatures that would not be there otherwise.

Thus, in turn providing food for the birds, and at times, the necessary predators such as ladybirds and hoverflies that feed on aphids. A natural ecosystem living below the giant shading leaves of the broccoli plants or cabbages develop. Each plant brings something different to the fray and generally none are unwelcome.

Now please do not misunderstand me, if we did not take a pragmatic approach to weed control and utilise all the tools at our disposal there would be no crops, no food, and no farm. We have worked extremely hard to ensure the crops are healthy and weed control is part of the process. No, our approach is just different, less harsh and embraces the idea that yes, we can work with these other plants, and they too have a place on our farm.  

Organic agriculture is much more than saying no to the use of chemicals, it represents a holistic approach to working with nature, to our land and to our food. It means no chemicals, but it also means no artificial fertiliser, it means tree planting, it means hedge planting, it means allowing nature its place to thrive while also producing food. It means taking care of the soil and it means producing food that tastes fresh and good and crucially is good for us and for the environment.

Here’s to fresh organic chemical and glyphosate free food.

Kenneth

The little things that run the world

by Kenneth Keavey

Kenneth ran a webinar for Green Schools Ireland on Our Food, Our Health, Our Planet this week, you can watch it below!

One in every three species of bee in Ireland is threatened with extinction and 75% of insect biomass has disappeared in the last 30 years.

I remember as a child driving on the very few motorways that were present in Ireland back then and the windscreen of our car being covered in insect splatters.  Sometimes it was so prevalent you could hardly see out, contrast that with a motorway journey by car today, you will hardly notice a splatter.

The decline in insect biomass is well documented and these small insects described by E.O Wilson, 1987 as “the little things that run the world”, (E.O. Wilson, 1987) seems to be as result of a myriad of reasons, from climate change to intensification of agriculture and the use of insecticides.

Last week I highlighted the 870 chemicals that were tested for in a sample of our organic kale, again to reiterate our kale came back completely clean and safe as you would expect on an organic farm (Again I wonder at the requirement of us an organic producer to have our food tested for chemicals….) , but the fact that they test for 870 chemicals suggests that it is possible that this number of chemicals is in circulation in conventional agriculture.

Bees are the poster child of the pollinator insects, and they are beautiful and amazing, and a conversation the other day with Gerry, who is the beekeeper looking after the bees on our farm just shows how special and fantastic, they are, he clearly loves and respects his bees. 

Standing in one of our fields during a summer’s evening when our three acres of clover and wildflowers were in full bloom the buzz of the bees was mesmerizing, they were busy and active, and it was amazing. But many of these bees were the solitary bumble bee and they come in all shapes and sizes. The Irish Bumblebee Monitoring Scheme shows population index declines of 14% over six years.

Early in the season all bees benefit from the amazing dandelion and also from the little flowers on sycamore and willow which provide so much food. Native pollinator-friendly trees include Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Willow, Rowan, Wild Cherry and Crab Apple, which also support other native Irish flora and fauna throughout the year. 

Another great reason to plant native trees and to protect the trees we have.

Biodiversity, this mix of plant and insect and animal live is a critical and interwoven system which we need to survive, anything we can do to create and protect habitats for all these living creatures will enhance our local biodiversity.

The groundbreaking All-Ireland Pollinator Plan has had such a positive impact on our perception and protection of biodiversity. It just goes to show you what can be accomplished when people come together for a common cause, or in the famous words of Margret Meade,

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Our farm has forestry, and wild Irish native hedgerows, and wild flowers strips, and natural areas left to rewilding, and no chemicals, and of course we safe, clean organic produce food too.

Maybe just maybe we will get back to the days in the not-too-distant future when once again our car windscreens are covered in insects and the bees are thriving and happy.

Your support for our farm and business and farms like ours is a thumbs up for biodiversity, thank you.

Kenneth

PS Don’t forget our farm shop is open every Saturday 10am-5pm, H91F9C5 and of course that you can now book in your Christmas delivery for delivery on Christmas week!

Christmas shop and 870 chemicals..

by Kenneth Keavey

870 possible chemicals. This is the number of potential, pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and bactericides a recent sample of our kale was tested for.

We had our organic inspection a few weeks back and this is a routine test that is carried out on a random crop grown on our farm by our organic certifying body every year. The kale came back perfect, no chemicals present as expected. But I can only surmise that they test for 870 different types of chemical products because these are the chemicals that could be used at varying points in the conventional food system.

Many moons ago I use to listen to a song by a band called “Alice in Chains” called “Junkhead”, (not a song for the faint hearted!). It popped into my head again when we got these test results back, there are some striking similarities between the song’s lyrics “What’s your drug of choice?” when it comes to the repertoire of chemicals a conventional producer can choose from: “what’s your chemical of choice?”. There is a chemical for every problem and even for problems that have not yet occurred.

Here in Ireland, there is relatively high accountability for our conventional food producers. There has over the last 10 years been some good news as the overall pesticide usage has declined by 16% which is heading in the right direction. But a word of caution here this still equates to over 3 million kg of chemicals applied to our food and land.

But with much of our food in this country being imported and as we don’t have the same visibility on what controls are implements in foreign parts, (over 85% of all fruit and vegetables are imported) then choosing organic becomes even more important.  

Organic systems are not perfect, but they do offer an alternative, one that keeps chemicals off our food, and in doing so also helps protect biodiversity.  It does sometimes feel ironic that it is the organic producer that must prove their credentials, go through the extra paperwork, and submit samples to prove that we are not doing anything underhand.

The authorities set limits on the levels of chemicals allowed on our food, they are supposedly designed to help protect you and I as consumers. These limits are referred to as MRLs or maximum residue limits. But as I have talked about before and particularly in relation to Glyphosate; sometimes these limits can vary erratically from one crop to another or from country to country. The MRL for glyphosate increased 300-fold between 1993 and 2015 in the US (Is it safer to consume more of this chemical  today than it was 20 years ago? I don’t think so!) to allow it would seem for the increased application of this herbicide on GMO soya and corn. This not strike me as having the best interests of the consumer at heart.

Chemicals are critical to our very survival on this planet, and when I talk about “chemicals” here I mean synthetic or man-made chemicals. They help us treat disease; they make possible all the amazing technologies we rely on for our modern-day way of life. But, and this is a big one, I do not believe they belong in or on our food.

Maybe “our drug of choice” should be fresh healthy clean food!

You are the lifeblood of our organic farm and business.

Thank you.

Kenneth 

PS last week we opened our Christmas shop, we will be delivering as normal in the week before Christmas and now you can book your delivery and place your order for delivery for Christmas week. Check it out now here.

Kardashian vegetables…

by Kenneth Keavey

As I walked through our celeriac crop the other day, I realised that if all food was judged on appearances, then celeriac would never make the cut.

The beautiful vegetables of the tomato and pepper families would be right up there with the grand and beautiful Kardashians, but not celeriac. It scrapes the bottom of the barrel, but of course as we all know very well it is generally what is on the inside and not what is on the outside that matters. Where celeriac is concerned it packs a decent enough punch, it is of the celery family and has an amazing flavour and is loaded with vitamin C and vitamin K.

As with all beautiful and their not so beautiful vegetable cousins (and in my view all vegetables are beautiful so there will be no discrimination here please) the fresher they are the higher the nutritional content and the better the flavour and taste. So, what are we talking about here, well the point is I guess: size and shape doesn’t really matter when it comes to vegetable pecking order, but freshness does.

Now let’s take a magic transport capsule out of our mucky celeriac fields and transport ourselves into a glitzy shiny supermarket aisle, the kind that adorn our towns up and down the country, meccas to the perfect Kardashian like vegetable, clad in their shiny glitzy plastic wrapper, perfect of tone, shape, and proportions, to be admired and revered by all. You will find none of the “Ugly” crowd here they have not made the cut.

The forked carrots, the stumpy parsnips, the mishappen swedes and the knobbly ugly celeriac’s all get stopped at the door.  You will not find these reminders of an imperfect food system in these halls of perfection. Ah, but maybe we have this upside down and back to front, surely this cosmetic perfection is not what we should all aspire to, maybe the Instagram-able carrot in all its glory is not the pinnacle of our food system, maybe just maybe there is another way?   Maybe, it is time to start seeing the celeriac for the celeriac!

If one third of all food is dumped and part of that waste is created by food graded out and rejected based on shape, looks and imperfections at the supermarket’s door, then isn’t it time to get on board with accepting these nonconforming characters. 

As earth’s population grows and as the penny finally drops and we realise that land is actually finite, (we cant actually make anymore, the wealthy sand bars of Dubai aside) and if the only choice we have is to chop down more trees to grow more soya to feed more cows, maybe it is time to say enough is enough and firmly invite the celeriac’s of the world to the table.

If we can cut down food waste then we need less land to grow food, because we need to grow less food. (The argument to grow less soya to feed less cows by actually eating less cows is a story for another day, an adventure that we will embark on soon.)

Although this has been written very tongue in cheek, we as always have the power right here at our finger tips to make a change, to reduce our waste, to choose the beauty on the inside, and if you really want to go out on a limb and be adventurous then we have decided to reduce our Rescue box to €15 (class one produce to fill this box would cost €30). This is a box of 10-12 items, chosen on the day, they may not be perfectly perfect, but they will be good enough to eat, and we think it is better to offer these boxes, invest the time in grading, checking and building these boxes than contributing to that already bulging mountain of food waste. This is in our view a win-win. You win you get perfectly fine produce for half price, we win as we don’t waste the food, and the planet wins.

Finally, here’s to all the imperfect celeriac’s of the world, may they reign supreme and here’s to you for bringing a bit of sanity back to our food system.

As always thank you for your support.

Kenneth

PS We have received the first delivery of Irish organic apples this week from Richard Galvin in Waterford and they are amazing to see them and all our other fantastic IRISH organic produce we have here click here.

The rain, the muck and being grateful

by Kenneth Keavey

As I was walking the crops the other evening and the sun was setting on our fields, so early now compared to even a month ago, it struck me as it always does how beautiful and bountiful our natural world is.

The rain of the last week or so has left the land sodden and mucky. Thankfully we had harvested a decent haul of parsnips before the land became unmanageable, parsnips can be very difficult to get out of the ground when you are knee deep in water. We are harvesting the last of the outdoor celery this week and not a moment too soon, as the mild wet conditions have led to the start of a fungal infection in the plants which is common at this time of year (in the absence of chemicals). We will move into the polytunnels which should give us another 2-3 weeks supply of IRISH organic celery. Our first harvest of celeriac is starting this week, a very underrated and sometimes labelled “UGLY” vegetable. I would heartily disagree on that one, after all its often what is on the inside that counts, and its beauty is definitely on the inside: the smell and the flavour of fresh celeriac is something that is quite amazing!

Our own freshy harvested carrots are still in season but not for much longer, thankfully we have a great supply of fresh Irish carrots for some time to come yet. We are delighted to be getting the first harvest of Irish organic brussel sprouts from Padraigh Fahy of Beechlawn organic farm this week.  They are easily one of my favourite vegetables of the year, and his sprouts are definitely worth the wait. Emmanuel and Brenda have been very busy harvesting our own leeks every week and they are spectacularly fresh, so rich in flavour and taste, and there is nothing like smelling the crates of leeks as they come out of the field. There are all the other usual Irish organic staples, kales, mushrooms, herbs, winter cabbage, potatoes and more. We are grateful for the food we can produce here and feel lucky to have deep fertile soil and plenty of water to allow the plants to thrive.  (Too much water by a long way in some parts this week).  Some areas of the world are not so lucky.

A new report from the UN University (UNU) in Germany has set out a series of risk tipping points that are approaching. The groundwater risk tipping point has already been passed in some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, and is close in India, the report said. Saudi Arabia was a major wheat exporter in the 1990s but now imports the cereal after the groundwater wells were exhausted. It is undeniable that we are deep into our planetary overdraft with the limit looming, the natural equilibrium that leaves earths ecosystems in balance has been dangerously tipped towards the unsustainable, and we now find ourselves in unchartered territory. The floods, the fires and the droughts that are now occurring with a ferocious intensity and a frequency that was unthinkable only a decade ago.  The highest monthly surface temperature ever recorded was in July and was probably the hottest the planet has been in 100,000 years. We have accomplished all of this is in the last 200 years.

But there is much to be hopeful about too: the speed of adoption of renewable energy, the electrification of our transport system, the shift to local more plant-based diets, and an overwhelming desire for change and demand for sustainable practices from businesses and government by you and I. This is the world we advocate for a new world where nature is respected as a resource to be protected. After all, it provides everything we now have: our food, homes, and clothes and even the peace of mind that a walk in nature brings.

This is the future that we vote for, this is the future that we fight every day for. We know that we don’t always get it right, that we have a long way to go, that we are not perfect, but we aspire to doing better every single day.

Thank you for your support and Happy Halloween!

Kenneth

This couldn’t be more important

by Kenneth Keavey

Plastic, plastic everywhere, 12 million tonnes are dumped into the oceans every year, and there are nearly 5 trillion pieces of plastic floating in the ocean. Plastic production has increased from 2.1 million tonnes in 1950 to 391 million tonnes in 2021!!  And get this every piece of plastic ever produced is still with us somewhere, (unless it has been burned). The largest market for plastic today is packaging materials. (Ref National Geographic).

If you follow us on Instagram check out my latest little video talking about plastic in one of our polytunnels, I recognise the irony here by the way, but you will need to watch to figure out why 🙂

We have been grappling with this plastic challenge on our farm for some time and we still have much to do, but it struck me today as I was talking to Ella our packing manager that the detail really does matter.

I was asking whether we could use tape guns to help with wrapping our courier boxes and she told me, the paper tape we use doesn’t work with them. Some time ago we switched from the plastic tape to the harder to use and more expensive paper tape. It was worth it though, it looks better, it feels better and crucially it is NOT PLASTIC!

That’s a small detail but an important one. Fossil fuel companies are now looking to push more plastic on us as the pressure comes on them to stop burning their dirty hydrocarbons. They make the stuff and giant food businesses and retailers profit from the stuff, so why aren’t they responsible for the cost of cleaning up this mess.

Our food system is now nearly 100% reliant on throwing packaging away after a single use and we really have to work hard if we want to choose differently. As much as emissions from burning fossil fuels such as carbon dioxide and methane are the unseen waste products of our energy system, plastic waste is the very real and identifiable byproduct of our current retail food system

There is no easy quick fix to this problem.  Supermarkets and large food manufacturers have the resources and the power to make far reaching and profound changes. But when profit is their ultimate goal, their actions will only align with sustainability when the consumer clearly demands it and they know their business will suffer if they don’t toe the line.  

16 years ago I spoke with a supplier about compostable bags, I am reasonably confident that he thought I had lost my marbles.   It wasn’t until some years later that compostable bags were available that would keep our salad fresh and now that’s all we use.

But of course, reuse is the holy grail of packaging, a tricky and costly system to put in place. Although I do recall once a upon a time not that long ago all milk used to come in glass bottles that were recollected and reused.

We do everything we can to eliminate plastic.  On our local delivery routes in Galway, Dublin, Wicklow, Mayo and Limerick we recollect our boxes each week and reuse them up to 10 times. Where we can’t recollect our boxes for all our customers on our National delivery routes we only use compostable materials and the packaging to protect your goods is made via a shredder from waste cardboard in our packing shed (which intself is reuse).

All of these materials can be recycled or composted at home. (as an aside: remember on your compost heap you need three parts carbon to one part nitrogen.!) Where possible all our loose produce is packed in paper, and for fresh greens such as salad we use compostable plant based bags. We also have an amazing array of plastic free groceries. Where ever you see the “pf” on our site you will know the grocery product is plastic free.   

So, where you can, avoid plastic, it is hard I know, but remember all these little positive changes are picked up by the big producers and this effects real change. We have more power than we realise.

Thanks for your support. 

Kenneth

PS We don’t know why but over the last couple of weeks we have seen a fall off in ordering, we know with the half term coming up we expect a tough couple of weeks.  As a small independent retailer and of course a food producer, every order counts. So please if you can at all keep us in mind for your fresh produce and sustainable groceries, thank you! Click here to see all the  IRISH organic produce we have here.

Do you have 2 minutes to help?

by Kenneth Keavey

Glyphosate Aka Roundup; we all have heard the name it is the most ubiquitous herbicide used on the planet, nearly 10 billion kg have been used globally.  

It is a probable-carcinogen and it now contaminates most non-organic food stuffs. 

Today Friday there is a vote to renew the licence for it’s use in the EU for a further 10 years, please if you have a minute put your name to this petition to stop its renewal. 

Using chemicals to fight nature will never work. In the short term it may give a temporary reprieve from a certain disease or pest, but that pest will come back stronger and more resistant next time. It is in a way a self-perpetuating industry and GMO’s are another extension of this very lucrative business. 

Bayer the company that bought out Monsanto (the makers of Roundup) are lobbying heavily for its continued use, it’s a massive money spinner for them, why wouldn’t they? They argue its safe, remember tobacco companies said the same thing about smoking! 

But we don’t need this stuff on our food, we don’t need it contaminating our waterways, destroying our biodiversity. 

Generally, the application of Roundup is the first step when a conventional farmer sets about reseeding fields, or prior to sowing conventional grain, or in fact for weed control prior to harvest of conventional tillage crops. The application of roundup to grain crops prior to harvest is mind-blowing. This stuff is systemic meaning it gets absorbed into the plant, it stays there, and as the grain goes to be processed to flour it stays there. 

As a trained chemist, I feel strongly that these chemicals have no place in our food chain. They hurt our bodies, they hurt our land, and it begets the questions are these chemicals necessary? Is there an alternative path we can thread? A resounding ‘of course there is’ would be our answer. 

If you follow us on Instagram check out our most recent video there are plenty of “weeds” growing between our kale plants and yet the kale is amazingly healthy and happy and vibrant. Not only that some of these “weeds” are carry over from our green manure of clover and phacelia from the year pervious. They serve many valuable functions, they allow biodiversity to flourish, nature is diverse it is not a monoculture. They also help prevent leaching of valuable nutrients from the soil, effectively acting as a winter cover crop. 

When we first took on my granddad’s land here, it was not in great, shape nutrient levels were low and there was a very challenging dockleaf problem, but over the years through careful management we have reduced the burden of docks, there are still dock leaves growing but they are not a problem now. Total elimination was not necessary. 

We feel that there is a viable alternative path we can follow for growing good quality, tasty food without the use of chemicals, we have been at it for 18 years now, we still have a lot to learn but one thing is for sure, we will never ever look to the chemical cabinet for a solution to any of our challenges. 

Thanks as always for your support. 

Kenneth

PS Don’t forget that our Farm shop is open every Saturday from 10am to 5pm, H91F9C5. Also we have the first amazing savoy cabbage and crown prince pumpkin available from Padraigh Fahy in Beechlawn, plus our own gorgeous bunched carrots, fresh parnsips and leeks, see all the great IRISH organic produce we have here.

Some cool drone footage, and my thoughts on food waste…

by Kenneth Keavey

First, I want to show you something: Darragh Wynne from the charity Goal Ireland was here a few weeks back and invited me to talk for a video, if you want to learn a little bit more about and see some cool drone footage of our farm (and even catch a glimpse of George and Florence check this video out.

George and Florence are happy pigs, they couldn’t actually have a better life, I really don’t think they could. Not only do they get to roam around nearly 2 acres of old and newly established forests, they have a dry straw lined shed to sleep in and probably best of all they get fed waste organic veg once a day. They are as happy as two pigs in muck could be. 

But they fit into this story very well, as they are the last step in our grandly termed food waste reduction strategy, we don’t have a formal document or anything like that, but we do have a belief system around food waste. 

So here is a crazy fact, one third of all food produced on the planet is wasted.  The area required to produce that food is 16 million km2, which is roughly an area the same size as Russia, which is a very big place. 

We all know we need to take urgent steps to reduce our impact on the planet, no surprise there, and as we pass yet another mind boggling climate record with September being the warmest month ever by a long way, that action is critical. 

So wouldn’t it be an amazing if we could cut the land used for agriculture by 16 million square kilometers and instead grow forestry? Of course, it would. 

But where is all this wasted food coming from? Well, that is where I will tell you the second part of my story, last week we took a delivery of carrots, we weren’t very pleased with these carrots, they were Irish, they were organic, but they were massive, and I mean they were big but we got our heads together and figured out how we could prevent them ending up in the bin. 

So, we set about trying to use them to sell them, to make sure we wasted as little as possible. There is one thing I can absolutely guarantee had these carrots landed at the door of a supermarket they would have been rejected, sent back, or wasted. 

Herein lies one of our bugbears, supermarkets insisting without remorse on unforgiving specifications and when produce does not meet them refusing to sell it or accept it. We have been there many moons ago, once upon a time having supplied supermarkets.  In the growing season we have had this year, produce may come out maybe a little smaller or bigger or twisted or forked and that in our view is the beauty of nature.  We wont grade out twisted parsnips, or forked carrots. 

Of course, there is still the possibility that produce will not meet our quality requirements, and this is where we do have a very well-defined system and we put a fair amount of effort into it to make it work. 

Maciek our quality manager has done amazing work creating his “Rescue boxes” each week these boxes are filled with “Class II” produce.  If we can’t use the produce in the rescue boxes our team get it, and if it is unusable it ends up in one of two places, actually one of three places! 

It either A. Goes to one of our three compost bays, or B. go to George’s belly or C. goes to Florence’s belly! 

(Interesting fact: We have to make two separate piles of food when feeding the pigs because Florence always bullies George and tries to keep all the food for herself!) 

So that is the end of the story for this week, just know you are supporting a little business that manages in our own way to keep the food waste mountain from growing at least on our watch and continues to step by small step help build a better food system. 

You are making it possible, thank you. 

Kenneth

PS Darragh Wynne from the charity Goal Ireland was here a few weeks back and invited me to talk for a video, if you want to learn a little bit more about and see some cool drone footage of our farm (and even catch a glimpse of George and Florence check this video out.