Shopping for food can feel like a bit of a minefield sometimes. High protein, heart friendly, low sugar, all natural – packaging is often covered with claims. However, when it comes to sustainability, there’s one term you definitely can’t just throw about: organic.

Organic certification is a legally protected term. This means that it can’t be used unless the product has been certified to show that it meets the extensive rules which govern organic farming. Critically, this means using no artificial pesticides, fertilisers or herbicides, and meeting higher animal welfare standards. There are only a handful of organisations that can certify a business as organic in the UK, and it’s a highly rigorous process which can take several years to complete.

Doves Farm was founded in the wake of Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring, which documented the widespread environmental issues caused by the use of the pesticide DDT. Although DDT was banned in 1972, concern about the environmental issues surrounding farming continued to grow, and the organic movement exploded in the 1970s. Doves Farm has been organic since their founding in 1978, and it remains a key part of the brand’s identity and ethos. 

The same year that DDT was banned, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) was founded. One of the founding members of IFOAM was the UK’s very own Soil Association, which is still the leading organic certification body operating in the UK today. Organic certifying bodies are responsible for checking that farms and producers are following the rules required to be certified as organic. If you see something labelled as organic in the supermarket – such as Doves Farm flour – you can see who certified it through a little logo on the packet.

Unsurprisingly, given the context of when it took off, pesticide usage is still a key concern for the organic movement. Organic labelling remains unique in its extensive legal restriction of artificial pesticide usage. As Michael Marriage, co-founder of Doves Farm told us, ‘The main challenge of using organic techniques on our farm is the control of weeds when you can't use artificial herbicides. We do suffer from quite a lot of old weed seeds in the soil. Some weed seeds can last over 10 years and then pop up out of nowhere. We have had trouble in some fields with wild oats but have managed to control them by rigorous cultivations during the growing season. We also control them through preparing false seedbeds, letting the oat seeds germinate and then cultivating lightly to kill the seedlings, and then repeating this each year.

However, controlling weeds and pests without artificial pesticides and herbicides is just one aspect of organic farming – it’s about a broader commitment to taking care of the soil and environment as well.

Michael explained, ‘For pest management, we encourage biodiversity around our fields with hedgerows, wildflower strips, and beetle banks, which provide habitat for beneficial insects and birds that prey on crop pests. This integrated approach allows us to maintain a balanced ecosystem in the field, protect the integrity of our grains, and uphold organic principles while producing healthy, flavourful wheat varieties.’

As you might guess from the Soil Association's name, another key concern for organic farmers is soil health. Most consumers have the luxury of not thinking about soil as much more than dirt, but in fact soil is everything. Without healthy soil – soil that’s full of microbes, animals and nutrients – we can’t grow food.

For Michael, ‘Soil health is at the heart of everything we do on our organic farm. As we grow heritage grains like rye, spelt, einkorn, and emmer, we rely on organic methods that build living, resilient soil rather than depleting it.

We rotate our grains with cover crops, and 3–4 years of herbal grass and clover leys to replenish nutrients naturally and break up pest and disease cycles. Cover crops protect the soil from erosion, usually over winter, whilst providing winter forage for our sheep. The herbal grass and clover leys add organic matter, and fix nitrogen for the next crop.’

And, to help build soil fertility, Doves Farm has another trick up their sleeve – sheep.

‘By grazing our flock of sheep, the droppings feed soil microbes and improve structure. Minimal tillage is used whenever possible to preserve soil life and prevent compaction, while crop residues such as straw are left on the field to add organic matter and protect the surface. By focusing on these organic practices, we’re not just growing wheat – we’re building healthy, living soil that will sustain our farm for generations to come.’

Another key aspect of organic farming is traceability. After going to all the effort to farm organically, farmers don’t want their products to accidentally get mixed up with non-organic ingredients. Storage, handling and packaging of organic goods is tightly controlled. In fact, caring about the traceability of their products is one of the ways Doves Farm got started with milling. For their first harvest, Doves Farm couldn’t find millers who were willing to keep their organic wheat separate from non-organic wheat.

‘The mills and grain merchants didn’t want to keep our organic wheat separate from the rest, so it became apparent that we’d have to do it ourselves,’ Clare Marriage, co-founder of Doves Farm, told us in 2018. ‘That meant buying a mill, creating the flour on the farm and then going round shops to sell it.’ Other organic wheat farmers, who also wanted their wheat to be milled separately, began sending their wheat to Doves Farm. Today, they are the largest organic flour producer in the UK.

From beetle banks to paperwork, achieving organic certification is always a big commitment. Next time you see a packet of organic Doves Farm flour, we hope you'll have a better idea about what it took to get there – and why for Doves Farm organic is the only way to go.