The Future of Farming Starts Here.

Wildfarmed growers combine nature and food production, creating in-field habitat for insects that form the basis of our ecosystems.

Our farming is based on optimising the health of soil and crops, producing grains which are pesticide free and grown in soils which are building resilience.

Because of our traceable supply chain and 3rd party measurement of nature, carbon, water and grain quality, we’re uniquely able to link high street customers with their farmers and let customers know the impact of their food choices.

The Wildfarmed Standards were first published in 2023 as a clear framework to demonstrate the rigour and precision behind our farming practices. Initially, they set out defined methods to help our farmers grow in line with our low-input, regenerative principles. Like the Certified Organic Standards, they were a binary list of practices mandated or banned. 

At the time, defining practices was the only way to be sure of certain outcomes. Yet we always dreamed of an outcomes-based system. Over time, we found that being too prescriptive risked becoming dogmatic, limiting farmers’ ability to adapt to the specific contexts of their land. This, in turn, led to a sense that they were too high risk for adoption at scale. 

The technology available to us to undertake the measurement and monitoring required for an outcomes-based system has evolved incredibly quickly in the past few years, and so this evolution towards outcomes is becoming a reality.  As our network grows and partnerships with third-party organisations expand, we have been able to evolve the Standards alongside an outcomes-based system focused on improving soil health, increasing biodiversity, reducing carbon, and minimising water pollution. This shift reflects our belief that what we measure, we can value - enabling a food economy where farmers are rewarded not just for yields, but for producing quality food in nature-rich landscapes. 

Building on years of research and development, including our co-founder Andy Cato’s agroecological innovation work, the Standards now prioritise robust data, farmer flexibility, and measurable environmental gains. In short, the Wildfarmed Standards are moving from rigorous, strict practices to setting clear outcomes, giving farmers the freedom to deliver regeneration in ways that work best for their fields while ensuring accountability and impact. 

It’s important to note that Wildfarmed growers are still bound by the strictest set of low input standards currently on the market, and an audit is in place to prevent non-compliance.

The term ‘pesticide’ acts as an overarching term for Herbicides, Insecticides and Fungicides. 

We do not allow insecticides, as our farming is designed to restore nature. We are specifically focused on insects because they are the protein base of terrestrial food webs, as plankton are to ocean life. Unlike birds, for example, that have large ranges, insect populations are hyper local and are reflective of changes in farm management. 

Bristol University measures nature in our fields every year. In 2024 there were 3.7x bees and twice the biomass of insects in Wildfarmed fields. 

Every year with our farmers and scientific research partners, we review best practice to ensure an evidence based approach to regenerative farming. As a continuation of this, we have updated our growing standards for the 2026 harvest to include the use of a targeted herbicide early in the growing season as an alternative to the heavy machinery, soil disturbance and bare earth of mechanical weeding systems. 

We don’t allow the use of fungicides. A derogation can only be applied for when there is a proven risk of total crop loss. We allow this derogation because fear of total crop loss is a significant and understandable barrier to farmers changing their practices. Organic certification employs a derogation system for the same reason.

A derogation for a single fungicide application (3 or 4 would be used in a conventional system) is only granted when the farmer has demonstrated they have done everything we require in terms of proactive soil and nutrition management up to that point, and a qualified agronomist has provided photographic evidence of the risk of total crop failure. 

Andy talked in detail about the last 17 years of research and progress towards nature rich farming at our farm open days this year. You can listen to his talk here.

All of our grain is tested at the farm, store and mill to be free of pesticide residues to the lowest detectable level.