Can we farm without plastic?

As much as our widespread reliance on plastics may seem inseverable, transformative change is possible. “Look what happened to asbestos. That industry [all but] disappeared, right?” [Rutgers’Demokritou, Environmental Bioengineer]

Farmer Stuart Oates based in Cornwall is on a journey not just to remove plastics from his farm, but also to eventually eliminate fossil fuels entirely.

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Earth Day this year is focussing on Planet vs Plastics. 

There are all sorts of aspects of life and work which involve us using a lot of plastic – from the plastic water bottle industry to the cosmetics industry, from university laboratories to national governments, and from fast fashion to pretty much every sector of industry.

One area we might not consider as having much of an impact when it comes to plastic is agriculture – whether it’s the ‘disastrous’ plastic use in farming threatening food safety, or the fact that there is more plastic in agricultural land than in the oceans – all of which amounts to a plastic addiction:

Plastics are tightly woven into the fabric of modern agriculture. Black polyethylene “mulch film” gets tucked snugly around crop rows, clear plastic sheeting covers hoop houses, and most farmers use plastic seed trays, irrigation tubes, and fertilizer bags. These synthetic polymer products have often been used to help boost yields up to 60 percent and make water and pesticide use more efficient.

Ultimately, history has repeatedly shown that the cycle of plastic pollution “is not a sustainable model,” says Environmental Bioengineer Rutgers’ Demokritou. “We cannot continue to throw chemicals and materials out there . . . and clean up the mess 20, 30, 40 years later.” And as much as our widespread reliance on plastics may seem inseverable, transformative change, he adds, is possible. “Look what happened to asbestos,” Demokritou says. “That industry [all but] disappeared, right?

The latest from the Sustainable Food Trust looks at the “immense problem farming has with plastic” – and some ways out:

In this article, SFT’s Content Editor, Alicia Miller, who manages an organic farm in Wales, considers the huge challenges for all farmers when it comes to reducing their reliance on plastics, while offering some promising examples of highly effective alternatives – many of which have been in use for aeons.

We now all well know how plastic is devastating our seas, but we’re only beginning to realise how damaging it is to our soils and how widely used and poorly disposed of it is in farming. In 2021, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) published a major report on plastic use in farming. It opened the door on the global scale of farm plastics and pinpointed the root of the problem – currently, farm plastics have only a barely viable end-of-life plan, and the vast majority of these plastics are “burned, buried or landfilled” with record keeping on where they go, almost non-existent. The report further acknowledges that there isn’t “any one single measure that could be applied in isolation in order to facilitate good management practices” – so we are deep down a dark hole in terms of where to go...

Moving away from plastics – and fossil fuel use altogether

Farmers and growers are beginning to wake-up to the realisation of how pervasive plastics are, even in organic and other sustainable practices, and many are starting to rethink ways to move away from them. Farmer Stuart Oates based in Cornwall is on a journey not just to remove plastics from his farm, but also to eventually eliminate fossil fuels entirely – not a mean feat. His first project is to start using sisal string instead of baler twine and net wrap, a relatively simple transition that also helps those producing sisal to make a better living. Oates reckons that the hay he makes, is tied with baler twine and that the microplastics in it could quite possibly be going through his cattle – “It’s madness to me,” he says. Oates has proposed a new trial for the Innovative Farmers programme focused on sisal. “These are small changes,” says Oates, “that’s something that we can do now. Small changes can make a huge difference.”

[To learn more about using plastic-free woodchip mulches, tune in to our two-part podcast episode with organic pioneer, Iain ‘Tolly’ Tolhurst. Find it on our podcast page along with more conversations with leading figures from the world of sustainable food and farming.]

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