Organic farms are celebrated for being better for wildlife than conventional farms. This is undoubtedly true, with research showing that organic enterprises support much more biodiversity than other farms. But as a horrified Protect the Wild supporter recently discovered, wildlife persecution still occurs on some organic farms. Protect the Wild breaks it down.
On 8 March, Protect the Wild supporter Kinlay took a walk in the Somerset countryside and came across a young man in a field with an air rifle. Kinlay discovered he was carrying out ‘pest control’ for a farmer, namely trying to shoot Wood Pigeons and squirrels.
Knowing the area, Kinlay understood that the farmland in question was run by a local organic producer, Leigh Court Farm. So, she reached out to the company about the situation via email. The farm manager confirmed that he had instructed the young man to carry out targeted shooting, arguing that it was necessary due to the damage that pigeons cause to crops. In the email exchange, the manager fell back on an all-too-familiar ‘pests’ trope, and told her that “most farms that have this sort of problem do it”. He further said:
“farmers have shot or trapped or otherwise killed pests since farming began. Pigeons in particular are our most costly pest, we do cover our crops with enormous pieces of plastic mesh to protect them but this doesn’t always work.”
Kinlay and some of the friends she has spoken to about the situation are horrified. While there was no reason to believe the air rifle was being used unlawfully, she told the farmer that killing birds like this was pointless. In one email she told him that Wood Pigeons are:
“far too numerous to control by wandering around with an airgun – any that are shot will soon be replaced: it’s useless tokenism at best, and highly misleading to your customers at worst.”
As Kinlay’s comments suggest, what has so outraged her about this situation is that the farm has “green credentials” as an organic producer, yet it is engaging in an activity that is distinctly non-wildlife friendly where Wood Pigeons are concerned.
Organic farming standards
In the UK, farmers must be certified to label their products as organically produced. The government maintains a list of approved ‘organic control bodies’, meaning organisations that can certify farmers. There are currently eight organisations on this approved list, two of which are based in Ireland. Some names will undoubtedly be familiar, such as the Soil Association, whereas others like the Biodynamic Association Certification may not.
Each of these organisations produces standards that farmers must meet to be certified. Their precise requirements for certification may vary but they are based on legally-binding standards. In terms of arable farming, these organic standards centre around ensuring soil health and controlling unwanted plants (weeds) and animals (certain insects, rodents, etc) with particular methods, as the government has highlighted.
Pesticide use is, for instance, heavily prohibited in organic farming. As Organic UK (The Organic Trade Board) points out, some pesticides are approved for use but several of them are naturally occurring substances like beeswax and plant oils. Instead of applying harmful chemicals to crops, organic farmers “rely on crop rotation, well-timed cultivation, hand or mechanical weeding and carefully selected crop varieties,” Organic UK explains.
Protect the Wild contacted all the UK-based certifiers to ask if they provide specific guidance to farmers on tackling birds considered to be crop ‘pests’, as explicit details on this in their standards tend to be lacking. None of the certifiers responded.
But when it comes to ‘pest control’ of the kind that Kinlay witnessed, it appears that standard farm rules may well apply. To take one example, the Organic Food Federation’s standards state the following:
“General pest control should be maintained for areas of your farm including buildings, stores, animal housing, yards and field boundaries where appropriate. You can use all legal methods of controlling vermin.”
It’s also important to note that some farmers do not own the land they occupy and may be held to other standards by their landowner. For instance, the farmer who Kinlay spoke to rents land from the National Trust and he said that controlling ‘pests’ is a condition of the lease.
We asked the trust whether it provides guidelines or standards to tenant farmers on dealing with birds considered crop ‘pests’. A National Trust spokesperson said:
“In many farm tenancies the tenant may have rights or obligations to manage or lethally control wildlife and are permitted to control vermin as part of their tenancy agreement. Other legal rights or responsibilities may also be held by the tenant. All activities by our tenants must always comply with relevant laws.
We follow international principles for ethical wildlife management, placing lethal control as a last resort. In addition, there are a wide range of laws that protect wild animals and govern many aspects of wildlife management in the UK. Any management on Trust land must be carried out in line with these laws, as well as Trust policy and wider best practice.”
What are the legal methods available?
As we explain in our Protectors of the Wild pages, all wild birds are protected by the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981. However, the government issues what are called General Licences that allow owners or occupiers of land, who are referred to as ‘authorised persons’, to kill some wild birds in certain specific circumstances. One of these general licences – GL42 – allows for authorised persons to kill or ‘take’ several bird species for the purposes of preventing “serious damage” to farmed animals, crops, and other foodstuffs.
Under this licence, Wood Pigeons can be killed by authorised persons to prevent serious damage to crops, fruit and vegetables, as well as to foodstuffs for farmed animals.
Owners and occupiers of land, such as farmers, are supposed to try other methods first, such as non-lethal deterrents like bird-scarers (the gas guns many of us will be familiar with, for example). But according to the law as long as farmers abide by the government’s rules, shooting certain birds in certain situations can be perfectly legal.
Just because it is legal though, doesn’t make it right.
Protect the Wild firmly believes that non-lethal alternatives should be prioritised in any situations where so-called wildlife control is deemed necessary. We reject the notion that wildlife is ours to ‘manage’ and advocate a relationship with Nature that is centred on reciprocity not oppression. Considering that organic farming is centred around the idea of working with Nature too, we would have hoped that this principle would be a guiding light for how organic farmers interact with all wildlife.
Relying on non-lethal methods
But Kinlay’s experience shows that this isn’t necessarily the case across the board. However, there are organic producers that use non-lethal alternatives, which they have found to be adequate.
Garden Organic is a charity that has been championing organic growing for over half a century. Although its experience lies in garden settings, such as vegetable gardens, rather than agriculture, its head gardener Emma O’Neill has outlined several strategies that growers can use to deter pigeons from their “prized vegetables.” Strategies include covering crops and creating physical barriers to stop the birds being able to access plants, as well as deploying visual and auditory deterrents.
Shooting is not an apt companion to organic farming
There are other ways some organic farms fall short on treating wild lives with the respect they deserve too. As Protect the Wild’s bloodbusiness directory shows, some farms utilise parts of their land for commercial shooting.
We list businesses in this directory that in one way or another support hunting with dogs and/or the shooting of birds or mammals. The directory was launched in July 2024, with the intention of empowering people to make informed choices about their spending.
There are several organic farms listed on bloodbusiness.info that support either shooting or hunting. For instance, both South Penquite Farm in Cornwall and Oxleaze Farm in Gloucestershire are known to host hunts. Meanwhile, Rushall Organics in Wiltshire runs a shoot on its land. Carswell Farm in Devon is part of a wider estate that also hosts a shoot.
Other farms not yet listed on bloodbusiness.info that run shoots include Chedworth Manor Farm, an organic dairy farm, and Lower Blakemere Farm. This latter business is a tenant on Duchy of Cornwall land and is a regenerative farm rather than an organic one. As the Soil Association has highlighted, this is an important distinction because though these farming practices are similar, there is currently no legal definition for regenerative farming. This means it is not subject to the requirements and auditing that are necessary for organic certification.
Commercial bird shooting is a deeply anti-Nature affair. Naturally, it’s horrific for the pheasants and partridges who endure being scared into the sky by ‘beaters’ and then shot at in the air by a line of waiting ‘guns’. These non-native birds are released by the millions for shooting in the UK each year and they are considered a danger to native wildlife, due in part to the impacts of their eating habits on other wildlife, both plants and animals. Moreover, wildlife organisations estimate that hundreds of thousands of other birds die from poisoning each year due to the lead shot left scattered around the countryside from shooting. Mammals that predate on target birds like grouse are routinely snared and trapped on shooting estates. The industry is also associated with significant levels of illegal raptor persecution.
Considering all this, Protect the Wild finds it incredible that any organic farms think sport shooting is an apt companion to their farming operations, which are supposed to have ‘working with Nature’ at their core.
