The Source

I’m lucky to have 30 years across the ‘One Health’ spectrum from soil & livestock as a farm Vet previously, to food systems & health, in my current role as a Public Health Nutritionist!

It was so inspiring in July to join other health practitioners, farmers, policy-makers and food providers and speak at Groundswell, our UK regenerative farming festival.

As we enter that time of year when our British harvest is plentiful and Organic September is upon us, it’s exciting to consider how climate-friendly farming and choosing British and local really can address food-related ill health, biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions all at once. Our biology wants to work well for us. Food is its fuel but food must serve all life - our land, our animals, our planet, our health. The golden thread here is microbes and soil & gut health just happen to be my passion as a public health nutritionist very much grounded in a soil-up approach!

Did you know that In all living systems microbes do 3 things? They -

1. Drive metabolism
2. Unlock nutrients
3. Provide protection = Resilience

So whether we’re talking about nature-friendly farming systems or Gut Health, they’re basically ecosystems serving the same benefits and they’re literally our lifeboat right now. 

Within human health key chronic conditions of our time are rooted in inflammatory processes in the body. The Gut Microbiome which is fuelled by plants and a nutrient rich diet has a key role in regulating this. Currently the World Health Organisation (2024) states that malnutrition from nutrient-poor foods is a greater threat than overweight and obesity. So what better time to celebrate our British food providers and choose local, seasonal food to ensure we’re getting maximum nutrient density?

With:

• Ultra-processed foods dominating our shopping baskets (low in nutrients, high in energy)
• Weight loss drugs exacerbating nutrient gaps in our diet
• Losing biodiversity soil to gut
• Our NHS spending £10.7B/year on Type 2 Diabetes alone…

Sustainable, resilient farming systems producing nutrient-rich foods hold many of the answers. 

This organic September, it’s a great reminder that

• Organic +/or regeneratively farmed crops are higher in gut healthy polyphenols and tend to be richer in many nutrients (Montgomery & Biklé, 2021)
  
• The same can be said for meat and dairy from these systems - science is showing us they have an improved fat profile being higher in vital anti-inflammatory Omega 3 (Butler et al.; 2021)
• 1 tsp of healthy soil = more microbes than people on Earth! This equals a sizeable diversity regain.

So, as we move towards Love British Food Fortnight, I’m reminded of Wendell Berry’s advice - 'the act of eating is an agricultural act’ Our food is our best health intervention not to mention all the community health benefits too from choosing British and local!

I’m celebrating our hard working British food providers who need all our support. Let’s hope the recent Good Food Cycle begins to place the support and value on our British farmers that they need and deserve, so that we can turn the tide on people and planetary health too.

You can hear more on health from Groundswell here.

Refs:

• Regenerating Europe from teh ground up JUne 2025  https://eara.farm/wp-content/uploads/EARA_Farmer-led-Research-on-Europes-Full-Productivity_2025_06_03.pdf
• Montgomery, D. R., & Biklé, A. (2021). Soil Health and Nutrient Density: Beyond Organic vs. Conventional Farming. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2021.699147
• Butler G, Ali AM, Oladokun S, Wang J, Davis H. Forage-fed cattle point the way forward for beef? Future Foods. 2021;3:100012. - OMEGA 3 BENEFITS FROM CONSERVATION GRADE DOWN TO CONVENTIONAL