Future proof with pasture
We have everything we need to fix the UK’s food and farming systems. The next step is up to you.
Pasture for Life
Here to fix the system
The UK’s food and farming system is broken. But low-input pasture-based farming is one of the tools we have to fix it. Pasture for Life is here to help people understand how grazing animals on pasture can support rural economies, regenerate landscapes, and enrich food systems. Then, we help everyone — from farmers and landowners to retailers and shoppers — take action, before it is too late.
Your choices have impact
Make them count
Become a member
Our membership is for everyone, whether you’re a farmer, land manager, policymaker, researcher, vet or member of the public. Wherever you are in your experience of pasture-based systems, we have events, research, and a community for you.
Certify your farm or retail business
We set the standard for best practice through Pasture for Life certification — guaranteeing an animal has been raised on 100% pasture. Farms certify their animals. Retailers become approved to sell certified produce.
Donate and fund
We exist to promote the adoption of pasture-based systems by our network of farming industry professionals, and the recognition of their benefits by food citizens. But, as a nonprofit, we need your support to grow.
WHY PASTURE?
THE BACKBONE OF BRITISH FOOD AND FARMING
Imagine the British landscape.
If green rolling hills and hedge-lined fields are part of the picture, you’ll likely be imagining a landscape of pasture. Grass is the UK’s national crop and 40-50% of UK land is pasture at any one time. Farmers manage most of the land in the UK and around the world. In fact, two thirds of the world's farmland is pasture.
How it is managed influences everything from the availability and quality of the food that we eat, to the flow and quality of the water in our rivers, to the diversity of nature and to the vibrancy of our rural communities. Protect and restore it, and we create a viable food and farming system for all life.
-500x500.jpg&w=1080&q=75)
Certified Planton Farm
Certified Cotswold Beef by Ian Boyd
This is where grazing ruminants come in.
Conventionally farmed livestock are often painted as the villains of the climate, biodiversity and pollution crises.
But there is an alternative.
For centuries, pasture has been the principal food source for all herbivores, including cattle and sheep. When grazing animals are managed as part of a knowledge-intensive, low-input but productive pasture-based system, pasture delivers for food, fibre and nature in a way that is unlike any other farming system. It becomes the biggest lever we have in the UK to effect change at scale while continuing to produce food.
Real world change
Pasture-fed animals deliver
Our impactFor farm profit
For centuries and still today, grazing animals have been a vital tool in making farming systems work financially. Farm profitability is linked to inputs. Whilst the sunlight and water needed to grow pasture are free, the supplements linked with high-input systems are not. Reducing dependence on these inputs improves farmer resilience to supply chain disruption. Plus, animals grazed as part of a mixed farming system can mitigate losses experienced when human edible crops won't grow. And this doesn't come at the expense of animal productivity. If we are to regenerate our farming communities, grazing animals will need to be at the heart of the solution.
For our planet
Grazing ruminants are ecosystem engineers — the most important factor shaping and stabilising pasture biodiversity. Remove grazing animals, and this biodiversity is lost. Higher species richness above ground translates to life beneath our feet. It is associated with positive measures of soil health, from soil moisture content, carbon, and nitrogen content to soil invertebrate abundance.
For nutrients and flavour
As humans, we are told that having a diverse, unprocessed diet is key to our health. The same is true for animals. 100% pasture-fed animals produce incredibly nutrient-rich meat and milk. This translates to flavour. Just as wine from different regions has its own distinct terroir, meat can carry the distinct flavour of its region. Plus, their fibres are unique — telling the story of the animal’s life.
Dame EJ Milner-Gulland, University of Oxford
"Pasture for Life is a key part of the jigsaw that links the wellbeing of local people with the recovery of nature and the production of healthy and sustainable local food."
Join Us