The Farming with Nature EIP was dedicated to providing an accredited food brand that can be used for improving space for nature on a national scale and to reward food producers for doing so.
Current food quality labels and brands in Ireland, such as the quality assured, origin green or organic labels, fail to recognise or consider biodiversity or nature. There is currently no label on the market for Irish food products which guarantees any kind of biodiversity on the farm where the produce originated. Using the space for nature index and assessment to quantify and qualify farm biodiversity, created in the Farming with Nature project, the project also created a proposal for a “Farming with Nature” food brand and accreditation.
The Farming with Nature food brand could provide food consumers with an option for buying this label which guarantees the product came from a farm which has a minimum of 10% space for nature and managed for biodiversity. This brand offers a solution to the current challenge of farmers having no incentive to take parts of their lands and put back into ecosystems, as it currently costs farmers to have “non-productive” land used for biodiversity, whereas the Farming the Nature brand could provide farmers with payment for these ecosystem services.
The Farming with Nature project created a brand book, along with the robust go-to-market strategy for this food standard brand, with the view that this shouldn’t be a premium product, but an industry standard to ensure minimum biodiversity on farms.
The importance of this being a farmer-owned brand with independent verification is stressed by the Farming with Nature brand, where it is critical that the brand is not industry owned or involved with vested interests where it could be abused and greenwashed by industry and instead adhering to a strict minimum of 10% space for nature to qualify for this brand.
In relation to consumer acceptance of this brand, the Farming with Nature project is aware of the public opinion and reality of environmental destruction with current production-focused farming in Ireland, whereas this brand standard allows for recognition of positive action for biodiversity, rewards farmers, and gives consumers the option to invest in ecosystem services. The Farming with Nature brand also offers a solution to upcoming legal requirements such as the nature restoration law and greenwashing directive. This payment for ecosystem services also plays a role in mindset changes on value of nature among farmers, industry and consumers and rewards farming with nature rather than purely for production.
To test this Results Based Payment Scheme brand proposal in the Farming with Nature project, the 43 participating farmers were paid based on their farm biodiversity index calculated through the dedicated portal and app. Payments didn’t differentiate between the size of farms, but purely on ecosystem services provided using the percentage of space for nature and quality score calculated for each farm, with 10% minimum space for nature required to quality for the brand standard.
Farmer feedback on this initiative showed that this brand idea could incentivise ecosystem services and nature restoration while changing mindsets of those in the agricultural space that it is not just large, intensive and productive farms that have value, but that farming with space for nature has a high value.
For more information about this innovation, contact Leo at leo@erinn.eu.
