Stable farm, beloved by King Charles: Gived, CotSwolds

When King Charles III visited the HoneyDale farm in the Kotsvolds region in England, one of his first remarks was: “Monoticu. This is our problem.”

This is the memory of the owner of the farm Jan Wilkinson when he was on his disc with the then Prince Charles almost four years ago.

“And I nodded my head and thought,” Well, absolutely, “Wilkinson CNBC said through a video call.

The monocurist refers to the usual practice of growing a single harvest on Earth, sometimes year after year. Cultures are grown in this way for efficiency but Say critics This depletes soil nutrients and increases the risk of illness.

King – longtime supporter Organic Agriculture – Visited HoneyDale to learn about its emphasis on growing a variety of plants, technology aimed at soil regeneration.

Wilkinson studied agriculture in the 1970s, when the monoculture was encouraged after after World War II for the UK imported less food and becoming more self-sufficient.

“We went to prepare more food and do it cheap – and we did not respect the environment, by nature,” Wilkinson said. According to the latter, according to the farmers relied on fertilizers made of petrochemical Government Statistics.

A long career at CotSwold Seed Company, which supplies farms with seeds for wildflowers, herbs and root crops, meant Wilkinson heard from many farmers, some of which emphasized the need for self -sufficiency and various cultures.

Wilkinson and his wife Selena bought 107 acres Honeydale in 2013 and turned it into a demonstration farm-known as Grown – It would study how agriculture can be regenerative rather than deplete land.

When they bought it, cereals and meadows made up most of the farm, and Vilkinsan presented lambs and wild flowers and planted 20,000 birds to nest. The farm garden grows into the varieties of heritage apple services, including one with the name “Blenheim Orange” dating from 1740. The farm also put natural fuel control in the natural control scheme. The farm sits in the Evenlod Valley, where the river is regularly poured, and the new scheme collects rain water in a number of water bodies, aimed at preventing floods.

“A big problem is a thorough prey in the soil health plan,” said Wilkinson CNBC. “And soil health is certainly associated with water quality and pollution,” he said. The soil is also sequesters – Or shops – carbon, and in 2023 the British government noted This “intense agriculture has forced swing soils from 40 to 60% of its organic carbon.”

“We need to grow into the next agricultural iteration, still producing enough food for … growing the population of the world, but to do so that it is not so extractive and actually restores natural systems,” Wilkinson said.

To this end, the non -profit organization, which is carried out, “rebuilding” the soil on the farm, focusing on the rotation of the crop, using what is known as herbal lei, the combination of herbs, herbs and blades that add nitrogen – natural fertilizer – to the soil. The grass, similar to chicory, has long roots that can “extract” the soil for minerals, improving its health, while grass similar to a rooster is resistant to drought.

Wheat of heritage and rye are grown for eight-year rotation, which does not use artificial fertilizers and sprays, and are compared to a “control” wheat, which is grown in the traditional way, which uses artificial fertilizer-so agriculturalness can measure the health of the soil compared to regenerative areas. There are signs that the soil has been restored, with an improvement in the structure and more rainworms, Wilkinson said.

Lei is “managed” by an animal, using a method called “Crowd Sowing”, where every day a few animals graze another, small area of ​​land. By doing this, they trample some plants back into the soil, creating natural fertilizer with their manure.

The method also means that no plant becomes dominant, which improves diversity, and as soon as soil fertility has improved over four years, wheat and oats are grown on the ground.

About 20% of agricultural visitors are farmers, some of whom have added herbal leys to their farms, and other visitors come from food or related industries, or are members of the public. People can attend talks on topics such as beekeeping, harvesting and woodworking, while the future session is called “Goat for Beginners”.

Wilkinson said that people from different layers visit, including pesticides or those who “feel very much in the world.” “Some companies are trying to find out what regenerative agriculture means for them,” Wilkinson said.

“We just say we are not here to judge. We just know that agriculture should go into the next era,” he said.