Environment Minister Richard Benyon has unveiled £1 million for research to help the horticulture and gardening industries end their reliance on peat. Although industry is reluctant to move past using peat as a growing medium, the threat to the climate and biodiversity from its continued extraction has lead to increasing government pressure on industry to shift to more sustainable alternatives.

Defra minister Richard Benyon announced increased research funding would be made available in response to the findings of the Sustainable Growing media Task Force, which has been assigned to facilitate the transition from peat use to more sustainable alternatives.

The government has set the horticulture industry a deadline of 2030 to completely phase out the use of peat compost. The industry has already missed a deadline of reducing use of peat by 90 per cent by 2010.

The Task Force is principally comprised of industry groups, including retailers, manufacturers and growers. Of the 35 organisations represented in the Sustainable Growing Media Task Force, environment, recycling and sustainable farming groups account for just four.  

Benyon: we need to find alternatives

On Thursday Mr Benyon said, "Peat is a precious and finite resource and we need to find alternatives [to its use]. The horticultural sector has already made great strides towards reducing its reliance on peat but I want to see more alternatives developed. The research project I'm announcing today should help them do just that."

The minister said the horticultural industry is "over-reliant" on peat and warned that the second consecutive poor peat harvest across Europe is predicted to exacerbate problems for growers, whose transition to alternative growing mediums has been slow. The poor peat harvest will lead to scarcity and high prices across Europe.

New Government initiatives unveiled by Mr benyon include:

• A £1 million five-year research programme, managed in partnership with the Horticultural Development Company, and half funded by Government to overcome barriers to alternatives to peat and demonstrate the viability of new products;
• A £100,000 fund to develop demonstration projects to show the public sector the benefits of using sustainable growing media; and
• A new 'Growing Media Panel' under the chairmanship of Dr Alan Knight to oversee and co-ordinate the delivery of plans for the future of the gardening and horticulture industry.

Although 15 percent of all EU peatland is in the UK, over 80 per cent of this land is in a "degraded state," according to the findings of the Organic Soils and Peatlands Climate Change Mitigation Initiative. This is largely due to past drainage, fire and grazing.

Not only do peatlands provide habitat for many threatened species of wildlife, peatlands themselves are massive carbon sinks; peat extraction in the UK is estimated to release 630,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year, equivalent to the emissions of 300,000 cars.

In November last year, Communities Minister Eric Pickles upheld a decision by Salford Council to refuse planning permission for further peat-extraction at Chat Moss, near Manchester.