The BPOA and the NFU will be seeking the views of their members following today’s announcement by Defra that it has launched a consultation aimed at phasing out the use of peat in professional horticulture by 2030 at the latest and eliminating peat use in the amateur gardening market by 2020.
The key questions to be resolved is who will pay the cost of peat reduction, and how will future policies be applied such that UK growers are not placed in an unfair position compared to their competitors abroad. The BPOA and NFU are committed to ensuring this consultation results in effective protection of the natural environment and a fair deal for UK growers.
Find out more about the consultation and initial reactions to it here
Going forward, the BPOA hopes Defra’s future policy will be evidence-based, and draw upon the peat research it published earlier this year.
Predictably this research delivered a range of complex answers requiring careful interpretation, but it was also clear that it provides some very meaningful results for the horticultural industry.
Defra published three research reports on the horticultural use of peat in August, looking at the latest data on peat sales, the greenhouse gases associated with peat and peat-free alternatives, and the costs to the industry of making peat reductions.
The current Defra team dealing with peat actually deserves some credit for commissioning this and other recently published research (see a previous article regarding research on the availability of peat alternatives) in the first place. Since Government targets to reduce horticultural use of peat were published over a decade ago, the BPOA and NFU have been calling for policies to actually be based on sound science and this was eventually recognised by Defra with the flurry of peat research projects commissioned in the last couple of years. The next challenge will be to ensure the results of this research actually underpin any future policies on peat reduction.
The first report published In August was from Defra’s ongoing monitoring work, and simply gives the 2009 data on peat sales. The results show that the UK horticultural market is now 58% peat free, and that the volume of peat used has decreased (compared to 2007) to just under 3 million cubic metres a year (download a copy of the report here).
The second report published dealt with the greenhouse gases associated with peat and peat alternatives (e.g. coir, wood fibre, bark, green compost) This project sought to measure and compare the greenhouse gas emissions (basically the carbon footprint) associated with different growing media materials. It found that, depending how you measure, peat alternatives can have higher carbon footprints than peat itself, or can have lower footprints than peat. The report consequently concluded the evidence-base is not robust enough to justify using CO2 emissions as a reason to drive reduced peat use. Which is surprising considering Defra had these results in-hand when their Minister launched an ‘Act on CO2’ campaign in March this year that aimed to wean gardeners off peat by 2020 on the basis that they ‘can lower their CO2 emissions immediately by using peat-free compost’. You can read a more detailed summary of this report here, and you can download a full copy of it here.
The third report published by Defra investigated the costs to the industry of making peat reductions, and considering the current economic climate its results are arguably more important than those of the greenhouse gas project. The report discovers that despite the £100 million investment by industry to date in peat replacement, we have, for most growing purposes, still not been able to develop a peat-free growing media that is both better and cheaper than peat. The report also explains how a future faster rate of peat replacement will increase the costs of making the change significantly - achieving a '90% peat-free by 2020' target for example would cost UK growers in the order of £69 million per year. Notably the report also highlights that the market power of the retailers has allowed them to replace peat, at considerable cost to their suppliers, without passing the cost on to consumers. To progress peat reduction, future costs cannot be borne by the industry alone. You can read a more detailed summary of this report here, and you can download a full copy of it here
The BPOA and NFU have long been of the view that alternatives to peat must add value, not cost, to UK growers. It is clear from these Defra reports that for peat reduction to progress further, stakeholders other than growers or growing media manufacturers will have to take a more proactive and realistic role in supporting the costs involved. If Government continues with policies that drive a reduction in the horticultural use of peat, then it should be looking to fiscal mechanisms at its disposal, e.g. lower taxation, to incentivise the use of sustainable peat alternatives. The BPOA and NFU also believe retailers have a significant role to play in helping growers recover the additional costs of peat replacement from the consumer.
The BPOA and NFU continue to work with Defra on the issue of horticultural use of peat, to ensure that any future policies are firmly based on evidence, and to ensure British growers get a fair deal on peat.
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