FAQs

Stockfree Organic is a farming system, not a philosophy. The standard excludes keeping of farm animals for commercial purposes or for the purpose of pest management. So while the Stockfree Organic standards have much in common with the vegan world view, they do not impose any particular diets on farmers and growers.

We recognise the need for reducing consumption of animal products for environmental, land use, health and animal welfare reasons, and the more people adopt a plant-based diet, the better for the future of our planet.

Farms that apply the Stockfree Organic standard use less land, are highly productive per acre, have a low carbon footprint and do not rely on livestock agriculture.

On stockfree organic farms fertility comes from the soil itself, provided the soil is biologically active, from green manures, for appropriate rotations and appropriate tillage operations. Woodchip, albeit not a fertiliser, aids soil bacteria to provide water, air and minerals to plants at the time they most need it.

Stockfree Organic farming is a fully traceable system, verified and certified by professional certification bodies. It guarantees that the certificate holder is abiding by the Stockfree Organic standard and all rules and limitations the standard implies, are followed. Veganic growing, whilst it aspires to apply the same standard of growing, is not inspected, nor certified, thus is based on trust only. The term ”veganic” is used mostly by amateur gardeners, allotment holders and commercial holdings that are not certified.    

The Stockfree Organic standard is currently audited and certified by the Soil Association Certification Ltd. If you are already organically certified with the Soil Association, you can ask your certification officer about Stockfree Organic certification.