Soil Association Organic Fortnight (3–17 September) is the UK’s biggest celebration of all things organic. Organic farming is a sustainable system of food production that works with nature, avoids the use of pesticides, and prohibits the use of synthetic fertilisers and genetically modified organisms.

This is better for the organic farm workers who do not have to work with poisonous chemicals, for the farm animals that are not locked up in concrete factories, and also for all the birds, bats, beetles, butterflies and bugs who have a variety of unsprayed crops and insects to feed on. As a result organic farms generally have a lower carbon footprint than non-organic farms, cause less pollution, and have 50% more wildlife.

Industrial farming practices have contributed to a dramatic decline in UK biodiversity. Over the last 50 years the UK has suffered a phenomenal decline in many once common species such as the skylark and the small white butterfly which are now a rarity. Evidence shows that many intensive farming practices are to blame for this decline. Damaging practices include the use of pesticides and herbicides, and the destruction of hedgerows which are havens for wildlife.

The most effective way to ensure abundant wildlife thrives in our countryside is to promote systems of farming that support wildlife instead of decimating it. Organic farming techniques, which encourage diverse ecosystems to maintain soil fertility and keep pests under control naturally, can help reverse the decline.

The main benefits of organic farming for biodiversity are the non-use of fertilisers, herbicides and synthetic wormers; minimal use of pesticides; rotating the crops planted each season to keep soil fertile and avoid the need for chemicals; lower stocking densities for animals; encouragement of natural predators for controlling pests by maintaining hedgerows and creating open spaces at side of fields; higher soil biological activity; mixed crop and livestock systems rather than monoculture. It is the absence of these beneficial factors on many non-organic farms that has accounted for most of the decline in wildlife in Britain's farmed countryside in recent decades.

Because so many organic farming practices are wildlife-friendly, implementing these techniques on a wide scale would help reverse this decline. Yet, while 76% of the UK's land is used for agricultural purposes only 4% of this is farmed organically.

As well as the Soil Association’s own biodiversity research, a number of organisations have looked at the links between farming and wildlife:

• A 2005 scientific literature review by English Nature and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) found that there are more birds, butterflies, beetles, bats and wild flowers on organic farms than on conventional farms. This is because the farm as a whole is subject to environmental standards, rather than just limited areas which occur under agri-environment schemes on non-organic farms.
• A literature review of 66 published comparative studies concluded that, on average, wildlife is 50% more abundant on organic farms and there are 30% more species than on non-organic farms. 
• An extensive survey by the British Trust of Ornithology in 2005 of lowland mixed crop and livestock organic farms in England found that organic farms have almost twice as many numbers and species of plants, about a third more birds and a third more bats than non-organic farms. The researchers believe that the potential of organic farms to support wild animals is actually far greater than this, and that biodiversity benefits are held back because organic farms are currently mostly 'isolated units' in an intensively managed landscape.

This year scientists from Washington State University and the University of Georgia provided compelling evidence that in ‘diversity’ – a widely accepted principle of organic farming – there is both stability and resiliency.
The scientists studied organic and conventional potato fields in Washington State and analysed in several ways the impact of species diversity and the evenness of populations on pest control and feeding damage. By ‘evenness’ they refer to the degree to which any one organism dominates an ecosystem.

After explaining that conventional, pesticide-based control systems disrupt species diversity and tend to create ecological niches filled by a few highly dominant species, the authors conclude that:
‘...organic farming methods mitigate this ecological damage by promoting evenness among natural enemies...very even communities of predator and pathogen biological control agents, typical of organic farms, exerted the strongest pest control and yielded the largest plants.’

Nature, an international weekly journal of science, covered this paper in a news item that stated:
‘There is little doubt that organic farms generally support more biodiversity, with a higher abundance and greater species richness of many plant and animal groups.’

Find out more during Soil Association Organic Fortnight from 3–17 September, when there are lots of enjoyable things you can do such as visit an organic farm, try your hand at learning a new skill at the Soil Association Organic Farm School, treat yourself to an organic holiday, look out for organic clothes on your high street, switch one of your beauty products to organic or cook up an organic feast on a budget for your friends with help from our top tips.