🌿 How it works
Organic farmers spread animal manure or compost on the soil instead of artificial fertiliser. They rotate crops, and they may use natural predators, such as ladybirds, to eat pests. Animals usually have more space outdoors.
Sustainable Rural Living » Organic Farming, Recreation and Leisure
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: 5.3 Rural environments (a) diversification of farming; skill (4)
- How organic farming can give a farm a new income stream
- How recreation and leisure can bring visitors and money to a farm
- The benefits and problems of each choice
- How to use photographs, marketing and social media to investigate diversification
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Unlock This CourseOrganic farming
In the last lesson you met GM crops and specialist crops and food. Here are two more ways a farm can add new income streams: organic farming, and recreation and leisure.
Organic farming is a way of growing crops and keeping animals without artificial fertilisers or chemical pesticides. Instead, organic farmers use natural methods to keep the soil healthy and to control pests.
Key terms:
- Organic farming: farming without artificial fertilisers or chemical pesticides, using natural methods instead.
- Crop rotation: growing a different crop in a field each year so the soil does not run out of nutrients.
- Recreation and leisure: activities people do in their free time, for fun and relaxation.
- Marketing: the way a business tells people about what it sells, to persuade them to buy.
💰 Why it is a new income stream
Customers will often pay more for organic food. A farm that changes some or all of its land to organic can sell at higher prices, often through farm shops, markets, box schemes and supermarkets.
✅ Benefits
Higher prices for the food. Less money spent on artificial fertiliser and sprays. Healthier soil and more wildlife in the fields. It can also create jobs, because organic farming often needs more hands-on work.
⚠️ Problems
Yields are often lower, so there is less to sell. Weeds and pests are harder to control. The farm has to be checked and certified before it can call its food organic, and it can take a few years to change over, with costs but little extra income at first.
Recreation and leisure
Not every new income stream comes from growing something. A farm has land, buildings, views and space, and many people want to enjoy these in their free time. Recreation and leisure diversification means using the farm to give visitors something to do or somewhere to stay.
- Places to stay: campsites, glamping pods, holiday cottages made from old barns, and bed and breakfast.
- Things to do: farm parks where children meet animals, maze trails, horse riding, mountain bike trails, fishing lakes and farm walks.
- Places to eat and shop: a farm cafe or tea room, and a farm shop for visitors.
- Events: weddings in a barn, festivals, and "pick your own" fruit days.
Rural areas with attractive scenery, or within easy reach of a town or city, often do best. You can read more about how tourism uses the countryside in the lesson Tourism in Rural Areas.
👍 Benefits
Money comes in from visitors, and can be steadier than crop prices. Old barns can be reused. It creates jobs in cleaning, catering and running activities, and visitors also spend money in nearby shops and pubs.
👎 Problems
Start-up costs for buildings, toilets, car parks and insurance. Farmers need new skills in looking after visitors. Trade is busiest in summer and weekends and quiet in winter. Extra traffic, noise and litter can upset local people and harm wildlife.
Skill: investigating diversification with photographs, marketing and social media
The exam may show you a photograph, an advert or a social media post from a farm and ask what it tells you about diversification. Treat each one as evidence.
📷 Photographs
Look for what has been added to the farm: tents, pods, signs, a shop, a car park, play areas, rows of organic crops. These show the new activity. Ask: how many visitors are there? Is any farming still going on?
📢 Marketing
Leaflets, posters, websites and adverts show who the farm wants as customers. Look at the prices, the opening times, the offers and the words used, such as "organic", "family fun" or "luxury stay".
📱 Social media
Posts, photos and reviews show what visitors like and dislike. The number of likes and comments hints at how popular the activity is, and reviews may mention problems such as noise or parking.
Remember that photographs, adverts and posts are not always the full picture. A farm will show its best side in its marketing, so a good answer says that the source may be biased and that you would also check other evidence, such as visitor numbers or accounts.
Worked example
An invented farm website shows a photograph of six glamping pods beside a lake, a price list and a post saying "Fully booked all August! Thank you!" with 240 likes. What does this tell us?
The photograph shows the farm has added places to stay, so it has diversified into recreation and leisure. The price list shows the money it earns per night. The post suggests it is popular in summer. But it is the farm's own marketing, so it may only show the good side, and it says nothing about winter bookings.
Common mistakes
- Saying organic farming means no chemicals of any kind. It means no artificial fertilisers or chemical pesticides, and natural methods are used instead.
- Writing only benefits. Give a problem too, such as lower yields or high start-up costs.
- Describing a photograph without saying what it shows about diversification.
- Treating a farm's own marketing as completely reliable evidence.
Exam-style question
(a) What is meant by organic farming? [2 marks]
(b) Explain one benefit and one problem of a farm adding a campsite and farm cafe. [4 marks]
(c) A farm shares photographs and posts on social media. Suggest one way these could be used to investigate diversification, and one limitation. [2 marks]
Model answer
(a) Farming without artificial fertilisers or chemical pesticides (1), using natural methods such as manure and crop rotation instead (1).
(b) Benefit: visitors pay to camp and eat at the cafe (1), so the farm earns money from more than one source and jobs may be created (1). Problem: it costs money to build toilets, a car park and the cafe (1), so the farmer may not earn extra money for some time (1).
(c) Photographs could show the new activities, such as tents or play areas, and how busy they are (1). A limitation is that the farm will only post its best photographs, so the evidence may be biased (1).
Exam tip
In part (c), always say what the source shows and then give a reason to be careful with it. One without the other usually earns only one mark.