Jim Paice doesn’t make stewardship pledge to taxpayers

The Defra Agriculture Minister James Paice told his fellow farmers that he wanted them to be able to opt out of their current agri-environment agreements if CAP reform changed the rules.  This seems fair enough to me.  I can’t quickly find his words on the Defra website but the Farmers Weekly report them here.  Mr…

Lots of stuff!

I was pleased to see that in Martin Harper’s blog yesterday (which is always worth reading after you’ve read this one) that Martin encouraged RSPB members to sign up to the epetition on vicarious liability.  I expect that the RSPB will give this a bigger push in the New Year and I will let you…

Use them!

On one of the last day’s of my trip to the USA I watched a killdeer calling in alarm as a man, unwittingly I think, disturbed the bird from its chicks.  The bird’s cries cut through the mist of the June Gloom on the California coast – I won’t forget the sound of them as…

An open letter to Peter Kendall, President of the NFU

Dear Peter As the President of the National Farmers Union you claim to be the ‘voice of farming’ and last week you made a speech where you said that there is no ‘biodiversity crisis’ and government should ‘switch its focus from biodiversity’ to production. Speaking as one of the people who pays for your and…

Casual but calculated anti-environmentalism

‘Government should switch its focus from bio-diversity and concentrate on farm productivity if it wants to make the most of British agriculture’s potential as an engine for growth‘  Peter Kendall, the President of the NFU,  said on Wednesday. Kendall continued with this most callous, calculated and casual statement ‘The point is we haven’t got a…