AHEAD of National Meadows Day on 1 July, the charity Plantlife is asking farms to create more wildflower meadows in a bid to reverse the drastic decline of wildlife and plants in the UK.
Speaking to the Telegraph, the charity said that if each farm in Britain planted at least one wildflower meadow for animal grazing, it could lead to a new era of organic food.
“Essentially you are what you eat,” Dr Trevor Dines, botanical specialist at Plantlife, told the newspaper. “Animals that are able to graze on rich, diverse sources of plants will be healthier and their meat will be better. And livestock make meadows, they help them to thrive and improve diversity.
“We would like to see a wildflower meadow on every farm, and we would like to see more food branded as ‘wildflower meadow grazed’ as a sign of quality, one step up from organic.”
Over 97% of the UK’s wildflower meadows have been lost in the last 75 years – an area which equates to 1.5 times the size of Wales.
