Chair of Wales Net Zero 2035, Jane Davidson joins sustainable growing advocate, Garden Organic, as one of its new Vice Presidents

Environmental champion and former Welsh Cabinet Minister for Education, the Environment and Sustainability, Jane Davidson, becomes Vice President of sustainable growing charity Garden Organic.

 Jane Davidson is currently the Chair of Wales Net Zero 2035 and the author of #futuregen: Lessons from a Small Country – the story of how Wales became the first country in the world to legislate in the interest of future generations.

She is passionate about living lightly and has gardened organically for more than 30 years. She and her husband manage a smallholding in west Wales, growing as much of their own food as they can.

“‘Why garden organically?’ is a question I’m often asked,” says Jane. “Particularly by visitors to our smallholding, who by contrast have their own neat lawns and borders kept rigid by weed killers!

 “Actually, it’s an easy question to answer as we can see the benefits all around us – in the soil with the high number of earth worms; in the air with the songs of the birds and the bees; and in the taste of what we grow – knowing we can eat directly from the plants as we don’t use pesticides. We are able to grow more than enough of our own food to keep us all year round.

 “So, really, the question should be ‘why wouldn’t you garden organically, when you can get all these benefits, gardening for yourself and nature too?’ That’s why I accepted the role of Vice President for Garden Organic and that’s why I hope more people will use the excellent resources and support it provides to find out the benefits for themselves. You will see, hear and smell the difference!”

Fiona Taylor, Chief Executive of Garden Organic, is thrilled that Jane shares the charity’s passion for protecting the UK’s precious biodiversity and growing in a healthy sustainable manner.

She says: “We cannot afford to further deplete our crucial biodiversity, too much wildlife has already been lost. We need to ditch polluting sprays full of harmful chemicals that leave pesticide residue on our food, look after our soil with peat-free compost and reduce food miles by growing our own produce in our back gardens, yards, balconies and window ledges.

 “At Garden Organic we’ve been campaigning for 65 years for people to protect the environment and grow in a sustainable manner. We pass on our knowledge through online advice, events across the UK, and workshops both online and in person at our organic demonstration garden near Coventry.

 “We have staff who travel throughout Wales and the whole of the UK giving home composting advice to councils. We have run a Master Gardener volunteering scheme as part of the Tyfu Dyfi project and worked with other volunteer community gardening organisations across the Dyfi biosphere.

 “We are so pleased that we have such a strong advocate of our beliefs in Wales and look forward to meeting more people interested in organic growing at the next Wales Real Food and Farming conference. Garden Organic was a sponsor of this event in 2022 and we participated in the session on ‘Food leadership in the public sector and the Community”.

Jane is also a patron of the UK Chartered Institute of Ecologists and Environmental Managers and Pro Vice Chancellor Emeritus at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. From 2000 – 2011, she was Cabinet Minister for Education, then Environment and Sustainability in Wales where she proposed legislation to make sustainability the central organising principle of government: ‘the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales)’ Act came into law in 2015.

Jane joins current Vice Presidents, Raymond Blanc OBE, Thelma Barlow and Susan Hampshire, Pam Whittle and President, Professor Tim Lang in leading Garden Organic.

For further information on how to become a member of Garden Organic and how to benefit from its online and in person workshops visit: gardenorganic.org.uk/