Cornwall Climate Catch Ups: Jonathan Smith

“I’ve put a lot in to this farm,and it has a lot of heritage. Potentially within the next 25 years it could be unusable due to coastal erosion.”

This was me, talking about my farm, in Living on the Edge from Cornwall Climate Care. These words are as true today as they were a few years ago. It might be over a decade since the devastating storms of early 2014, but the threat of further coastal erosionhangs over all of us who live on or near the coast.

On my small farm on St Martin’s, Isles of Scilly, some of my land is separated from the sea by just a sand dune. If that’s breached then there’s a very real threat that managed retreat from that land is the only option. In short, 20 years of work by me, and hundreds of years of farming before me will be gone forever.

Adaptation is Essential

For a group of low-lying islands like Scilly, the coastline is very vulnerable to both rising sea levels - which is likely to significantly accelerate with quicker than predicted polar ice melting, and increased severity of storms. We must adapt where we farm, build, get water supplies, and how we manage our coastline.

It feels like we are waiting for the ‘next big one’. A deep low pressure arriving on big spring tides could be devastating, as it was in February 2014. A few more chunks of cliff and sand dunes breached, salt water inundation to farmland, houses or water supplies and we will be living in a different reality. It really is a question of when, not if.

Meanwhile, farmers are grappling with changing weather patterns. The experience here is one of more extensive both dry and wet spells, more fog, milder winters and warmer summers.The climate is not like it used to be, and that creates significant challenges for farmers, growers and land managers.

Mitigation is Morally Right, and Good Business

The carbon emissions of the Isles of Scilly are a tiny blip in the emissions driving the climate crisis across the world. But everyone has to pull together in the urgent need to reduce global carbon emissions as quickly as possible, with the biggest emitters like us in the richest parts of the world needing to act the quickest. There is a moral imperative for every person,business and institution to act.

When I come in from a morning’s work on the farm - harvesting crops in the summer, or spreading seaweed in the winter, I settle down to work online for FarmCarbon Toolkit as the Impact Manager. Here we help farmers and growers to measure and manage their carbon footprint, showing them pathways to net zero and beyond.

Pleasingly this work is extended across the estate of the Duchy of Cornwall, delivered by us, which includes all the farms on Scilly. My farm has been on a carbon journey since 2009, and has been net carbon negative for many years - that’s to say the farm absorbs more carbon in soils and biomass than it emits through emissions such as from diesel.

On my farm, where I grow organic fruit and veg, I have been minimising cultivations, maximising the addition of organic matter - such as seaweed and compost, and mulching the soil. These have the combined effects of building healthier, more resilient soils that are more resistant to drought. At the same time it reduces costs and builds resilience in to the business - so it’s a good approach to business. Oh yes, and it happens to be great for our carbon footprint too.

We also have great hedgerows, orchards, small areas of woodland, and are doing what we can to get even more perennial biomass growing right across the farm. It sucks in and stores carbon, and is great for wildlife.

A Growing Movement

As farmers and growers on Scilly start on their own carbon journeys,there are positive changes happening across the Islands’ farmland. Less artificial fertiliser is being used, hedges and trees are being planted,cultivations are being reduced, some livestock is being reintroduced, and serious interest in soil health is being cultivated.

This is a microcosm of the changes that are happening on farms across the UK. through our work at Farm Carbon Toolkit, we see many positive changes being driven by farmers, retailers, food supply chains, and even Government policy. There are the exemplars of good soil management like our SoilFarmers, demonstrating how they’re building healthier, carbon rich and resilient soils in all sorts of different systems and soil types.

In Cornwall there is a strong movement in Farm Net Zero, many of whom have featured in Food for Thought, Hungry for Change and Power to the People. They’re changing the way they farm to both mitigate their impact, and adapt to climate change. The ones furthest ahead are featured in our Carbon Farmer of the Year competition.

As food and farming is responsible for up to 30% of the UK’s carbon footprint - and the same of your own footprint, depending what you eat, this sector is a critical part of our collective decarbonisation. It’s also the only sector, other than forestry, that has the potential to sequester more carbon than it emits. Positive farming can also increase biodiversity, provide nutritious food, manage water well, and underpin dynamic rural communities.

I believe it’s in all our interests to support positive farming by buying food from farmers and growers who are moving towards net zero carbon, encouraging wildlife, and producing good food. Multiplied up across the country and the world, this makes real impacts, and it's within the realms of possibility.

In my rosy future vision for food and farming I see a possibility that, whilst those storms battering my farm will continue, the sea levels might just stay low enough so I can pass the farm on intact to my daughter.

About the Author

Jonathan Smith is the owner of Scilly Organics, environmental activist, and Impact Manager & Director at Farm Carbon Toolkit.