Peatlands are precious, but right now they’re being destroyed on a staggering scale in the UK. And a huge amount of that destruction is because peat is being dug up to grow the food we eat.
Family favourite foods from mushrooms and lettuces to blueberries and even the trusty potato all use peat in the growing process, making it very hard to have a peat-free home. We are going to change that.
We’re calling for peat-free produce
Peat is brilliant in the ground where it belongs and there are now peat-free alternatives that supermarkets can put their support behind.
We need supermarkets to play their part in saving peatlands for people and the planet by:
- Clearly labelling products which are grown using peat extracted from peatlands, so customers can shop with confidence
- Reducing and removing peat from their supply chains
- Asking the UK Government to set legislation to end peat sales, and support the transition to peat-free for growers
Help supermarkets go peat-free
The problem with peat
Did you know that many of the everyday vegetables you get from the supermarket, from salad leaves to onions, are grown using peat?
The peat used to grow our food comes directly from the destruction of our peatlands – a climate-saving habitat found across the UK which reduces floods, holds water in drought and locks up billions of tonnes of carbon.
Peat is being dug up for our weekly shop much faster than it can form, which makes this devastating process unsustainable as we watch this rare habitat disappear.
It takes 1,000 years to grow just one metre of peat. And we use 760,000m3 every year to grow plants and food. That puts the staggering amount we use annually into perspective.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Peat-free supermarket updates
The Peat-free Pathway for UK food growers
Food growers voices are essential in creating the vision of a peat-free future in the UK. So what does the Peat-free Pathway means for the campaign to end peat sales?
New UK Government commitment to tree planting must be peat-free
We welcome the Secretary of State's commitment to invest in tree-planting - but that investment needs to be in peat-free trees.
Waitrose respond to public call to go peat-free
Read Waitrose's response to Peat-free Partnership's campaign asking supermarkets to remove peat from supply chains.
We all have our part to play in saving our peatlands, including our supermarkets.
The use of peat for food production has a drastic knock-on effect for wildlife, carbon stores, flood risks and water quality.
Peat-free Partnership