An Earth Lover’s Guide To The Best Summer Barbecue Ever!

There’s only one thing we love more than Wimbledon and Pimms in the summer, and that’s firing up the barbecue. Which is why we’ve gotten behind The Soil Association’s #BetterBBQ campaign. The key to your best barbecue ever? Organic meat. Know where it comes from, and cook it right; it’s a simple concept with tremendous flow-on effects.

We live in an age where meat is produced in huge quantities, and delivered to local supermarkets with very few words passed about the quality of the meat, the quality of life of the animals, or how either or both might affect your gut.

First thing’s first: some stats. According to The Soil Association, if organic farming was taken mainstream at least 25% of the UK’s agriculture greenhouse gas emissions would be offset. The more farms see the demand and become organic, the more plant, insect and bird life on each farm would grow – estimated at more than 50%. In other words, the better the environment the cows grow up in, the better the environment is for all of us. The better the environment is for all of us, the more life there is for all of our favourite little critters and flowers. The more life there is, the happier our cows will be, and so goes the circle of life: the happier our cows are, the happier we are.

Because the term “organic” has been tossed loosely around by the food industry; we had a chat to Anna Bury from Eversfield Farm, a family-run, all-organic establishment to see what it really means and why it matters. 

“When we turned the farm organic everyone else thought we were crazy,” said Anna Bury, daughter of Mark Bury – the head of Eversfield, “but we saw such an incredible improvement in the land that when we eventually leased some of the fields, all of the people that said we were nuts wanted in. They could see the huge difference in quality between our farm and theirs.”

This is all sounding pretty great right? But you’re wondering what you can do to make all of this, well, relevant! It’s a simple swap with a big impact: buy and eat organic. In a nut shell, here’s why:

For the environment: we all know the climate isn’t what it once was a couple hundred years ago before the thought of cows in factories instead of fields had even been contemplated. If organic farming became mainstream in the UK we could offset atleast 25% of our greenhouse gas emissions!

For the wildlife: as Londoners we may not be the kind to take a hike in the bush, or climb mountains like our Scandinavian-fjord-trekking friends, but we can appreciate a pretty bird or butterfly when we see them. Organic farms have 50% more of our favourite little critters and flowers.

For higher standards of animal welfare: there are varying degrees of activism we’re aware can be taken here. But, you don’t have to be vegan to be an advocate of ensuring that animals are treated right. If farmers had more demand for organic meat the higher their standards of practice would have to rise to meet it, and the more animals would live a happier life.

For yourself: for tastier meat that you can trust in, and feed to your family and friends rest-assured of quality. Organic farms, by European law, require at least one inspection a year to ensure good practice, and no harmful exposure of animals to antibiotics that could end up in widespread antibiotic resistance.

Going above and beyond organic farm regulations, the Bury family, took meat production back to its roots: all natural everything – and the farm flourished tenfold, along with the quality of meat they were producing.

The moral of the story? Small changes have a massive impact. In fact, choosing organic could change everything. Do yourself and the world a favour and have a #BetterBBQ this summer.

Get on board The Soil Association campaign, details here: www.soilassociation.org/betterbbq