Your next puffer jacket could be made from bullrushes, as carbon-storing peat farming takes off
Have you ever wondered what keeps you warm in your winter jacket? Most jacket insulation is made from human made synthetic fibres (polyester) or natural down from ducks or geese. Some winter jackets are insulated with something a little more surprising – bulrushes.
A biomaterials company called Ponda is using the seed heads of bulrush cultivated in peatlands to create BioPuff as insulation for puffer jackets, an alternative to synthetic fibres and goose down. These jackets help to encourage wetter farming on peatlands, a practice known as paludiculture that helps keep carbon locked into the ground.
While paludiculture is a relatively new way of farming in the UK, my research investigates how this emerging farming practice is being implemented in north-west England.
It is crucial that peatlands remain wet or are rewetted to prevent the release of stored carbon. Once drained, peatlands emit a significant amount of carbon – degraded peatlands account for 4% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Most (88%) of these emissions come from degraded lowland peatlands, which account for only 16% of the UK’s total peatland land area.
While the complete restoration of lowland peatland habitats is necessary, in many cases landowners and managers may not be willing to fully stop cultivating or grazing on parts of their agricultural peatland. Paludiculture has been proposed by UK policymakers and researchers as an innovative farming practice. In this scenario, peat soils remain wet to reduce peatlands’ carbon emissions. Simultaneously, landowners and managers can theoretically make an income from cultivating paludiculture crops.
The UK Paludiculture Live list consists of 88 native species that could be used for farming via paludiculture. This list is divided into categories including food crops (such as cranberry and celery), growing media (Sphagnum moss), fabrics (bulrush) and construction materials (such as common reed and freshwater bulrush).
Crop trials
Over the past five years there has been a growing network of researchers, landowners, land managers, conservationists, businesses and government advisors innovating and implementing paludiculture trials in north-west England. Celery, lettuce, blueberries, bulrush, and Sphagnum moss are some of first paludiculture crops that have been grown in this region.
One of the trials, delivered in partnership with the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, a tenant farmer, the landowner and Ponda, shows how paludiculture offers an opportunity for both the farming community and the sustainable fashion industry.
This trial was established with the aim to grow bulrush on five hectares (12 acres) of previously drained lowland peat soils.
After raising the water table level to between 30cm below ground level and the peat surface, the bulrush seeds were sown in June 2024 using a drone. More than a year later, the bulrush was successfully harvested in August 2025 using a specialised digger equipped with a reed-cutting bucket.
This trial was successful due to collaboration between the organisations and people in the partnership who shared paludiculture knowledge that specifically related to this region and farming practices on lowland peatlands elsewhere in the UK.
Additionally, it is crucial that paludiculture crops are supported by a concrete business case and market route so that landowners and land managers do not have to rely on variable government funding.
Uncharted waters
While paludiculture has progressed in the UK over the past five years, there are still challenges in upscaling this farming practice.
In terms of food crops, supermarkets may not accept paludiculture grown celery or lettuce if they do not match retailer requirements. The entire paludiculture market chain faces barriers from cultivation to commercialism.
These include challenges such as managing water table levels, having robust storage, handling, and processing infrastructure, market regulations and the market visibility of paludiculture products. These hurdles can make it difficult to expand trials up to larger farm and landscape scales.
Because much of the UK’s peatlands are owned by private landowners and often managed by tenant farmers, paludiculture must develop as a financially stable farming practice to ensure there is buy in from everyone involved.
However, transitioning from conventional drainage practices to wetter farming is not just a financial matter. Landowners, farmers and peatland practitioners must acquire new peatland rewetting knowledge and be willing to grow crops on wet soils. The paludiculture trial in the north-west demonstrates how these partnerships can form and help pave the way for more wetter peatland systems.
The next time you pass a wetland area, see if you can spot a bulrush. These boggy plants can help tackle climate change by storing carbon and could even be transformed into your next puffer jacket.
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Zoe Lipkens receives funding from the University of Leicester's Future 100 doctoral training pathway.