Opinion: Dominic Robinson
Dominic Robinson, CEO of Soil Association Certification, guides us through the theme of this year’s Organic September campaign: nourishing your ‘gut garden’.
This year’s Organic September comes at a celebratory and pivotal moment for the organic sector. All evidence shows one thing: consumers want, and are buying, organic food and drink.
The strong performance we saw in organic in 2024 (+7.3% growth, as reported in this year’s Organic Market Report) continues, with the latest figures showing double-digit growth to March 2025. The organic market has seen 13 years of consecutive growth, reaching £3.7 billion in 2024, with organic food and drink unit growth four times that of non-organic. Now is the time for Soil Association Certification, and the entire organic sector, to reiterate the evidenced benefits organic brings for people and nature, and the solutions it provides for contemporary concerns.
The Organic Research Centre’s 2024 Consumer Insight Report reveals that consumers’ top three motivations for buying organic today are: to avoid pesticides; to support better animal welfare standards; and to opt for healthier, less ultra-processed food. The research also shows that organic food is particularly striking a chord with Gen Z as it answers concerns around both personal health and the environment. Along with middle- and lower-income shoppers, Gen Z are now the most frequent buyers of organic food and drink, showing that while cost of living concerns may not have disappeared, organic is desirable, sustainable and achievable for diverse groups of consumers.
Gut health has increasingly come into focus and is an area where organic can play a pivotal role. Leading epidemiologist Professor Tim Spector, amongst others, has captured consumers’ imaginations with his clear explanation on the effect pesticides like glyphosate can have on our gut microbiome, particularly in certain crops like oats where the levels may be higher due to the pesticide’s use on the crops pre-harvest [EWG, 2023].
As this adds a new dimension to consumers’ desire to avoid pesticides in their foods, and drives new groups to choose organic, Soil Association Certification is putting gut health at the heart of this year’s Organic September messaging. While it may seem gut health is a contemporary trend, I can’t help but notice how relevant the words of Soil Association founder Albert Howard are to this year’s campaign. In the 1940’s he stated that: “The health of soil, plants, animals and (hu)man is one and indivisible,” pinpointing the essential connection between what we eat and the ground beneath our feet. While the proliferation of industrial agriculture means society forgot this connection in the years since, today we’re rediscovering just how important the way we grow and farm our food and the health of the soil are to its nutritional value.
“We hope organic producers, businesses and consumers will join us this September in sharing how organic can support a thriving gut garden.”
This Organic September we’re calling on citizens to ‘Grow (their) gut garden’. Just as we would cultivate a flourishing, biodiverse garden by following organic principles, we want to encourage consumers to realize how organic food and drink can support a thriving gut microbiome. By exploring the link between soil health and gut health, we will help people understand that how food is produced affects its quality – and that it all comes back to the soil.
We’re so confident in organic food and drink’s support for gut health that we’ve commissioned a series of gut health studies. In association with a clinic, we’ll be measuring the difference in a group of volunteers' gut microbiome, gut permeability (‘leaky gut’) and inflammation markers before and after eating differing levels of organic food and drink over a period of a month.
While the tests will add clinical integrity behind organic and its benefits, I’m also excited to hear the more anecdotal changes the volunteers notice when making their organic swaps. After all, a survey commissioned by Soil Association Certification in 2024 revealed that 43% of 25–34-year-olds feel happier when buying organic as they are making a difference for the environment, and almost a quarter of Brits feel healthier and happier when they choose sustainable options.
The demand for organic is booming, and organic farming is crucial for delivering the UK’s nature goals. Not only are organic farms home to 30% more species biodiversity compared to non-organic farms, long-term studies show that organic soils store more carbon, helping to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Yet while consumer demand for more organic produce is high, the UK is reliant on imports for much of this, meaning we’re not reaping the benefits of nature-friendly farming as much as we could be. Now is the time for policymakers to step up and facilitate the conversion of more British farmland to organic, to support a healthier population, help British farmers future-proof their livelihoods, and deliver on the Government’s own Net Zero promises. There are positive headwinds, with an indication from Defra that they will support a UK-wide Organic Action Plan. There is evidence that governmental support for organic drives an increase in farmers wanting to convert – for example, the Scottish Government’s commitment to doubling organic land saw an 11.8% increase in organic farmland there in 2023.
We hope organic producers, businesses and consumers will join us this September in sharing how organic can support a thriving gut garden, and that the Government will take note and support nature-friendly (and gut-friendly!) farming.
By Dominic Robinson, Soil Association Certification