Laverstoke's aim is to produce the best-tasting, healthiest food. Everything we do stems from this.
To achieve this we are creating the most ideal, naturally healthy, environment that we possibly can.
This will enable our crops and animals to thrive.
We look at Laverstoke as an experimental project.
The goal of the experiment is to deliver the highest quality plants and animals with the minimum use of external materials.
It is a demanding, no compromise approach, but one that we believe will achieve our aim.
An organisation that we have found very useful, and is involved in all aspects of eco-agriculture is ACRES USA.
Can it be Self-sufficient and Self-sustaining in Today's World ?
We follow nature closely but also marry in the latest scientific techniques and modern equipment.
We are conducting experiments and developing in almost every area.
To achieve a naturally healthy environment, biodiversity is a vital factor. This all begins with the soil.
Soil is 90% of farming. The soil is a wonderful, complex and fragile thing.
Do you know that a handful of soil has more living things in it than there are people on earth
All our food depends to some extent on soil (with the exception of food from the sea).
The living microbiological component of soil plays a vital role in making good nutrients available to plants
and ultimately to many of the foods we eat.
We have planted very complex grass leys containing over 30 different grasses,
clovers and herbs to continue to expand the biodiversity.
In addition to our crops and ley plants, we also planting more hedges and trees,
continuing the aim of increasing the biodiversity of Laverstoke's plant life.
We also have a very diverse mix of animals that are rotated around the whole farm
to continue to further the bio-diversity and putting life back into the soil.
Compost and Compost Teas
At Laverstoke we are experimenting with making and applying our own composts and compost teas.
This is by using the latest scientific findings to promote diverse bacteria,
fungi and other soil life as well as matching them to plant's needs.
We will be spreading compost four times a year on 2000 acres and will be spraying
compost teas four times a year as well as investigating the use of biodynamic preparations.
Our on-farm laboratory tests and evaluates the composts, compost teas and preparations.
Biodynamic Conversion
Five hundred acres of the farm is certified organic and the entire 2,500 acres
are currently undergoing conversion to become biodynamic.
We are partly registered with the Soil Association. We are now registering with Demeter to become
biodynamic on the whole of the farm. This is organic farming plus.
It is a much more holistic way of farming, a complete system which is what we are doing anyway.
It was developed by a German agricultural expert in 1920 and is practised all over the world.
In essence:
Healthy soil = healthy grass = healthy animals = healthy meat and milk = healthy people
and conversely:
Unhealthy soil = unhealthy grass = unhealthy animals = unhealthy meat and milk = unhealthy people.
Much of our research has included literature dating back to the beginning of the last century
combined with some of the latest scientific research, mostly from the USA, Holland, Germany and South Africa.
We believe we are improving health through the food we eat by not treating with medicines
and other chemicals all the time. This applies to soil, grasses and animals.
We consider that this also carries through to people.
However, because there is such a ready availability of medicines and cure-alls,
this philosophy has been largely forgotten both in farming and in the way people live their lives today.
We produce our own food for our animals.
In doing so we adopt the same principle as producing food for people.