A busy week

Congratulations to the re-elected NFU President, Peter Kendall, whose speech at the NFU Conference was described as ‘shocking and regressive‘ by one of his own members on this site on Wednesday.  That farmer said he voted for the NFU in the Nature of Harming ‘award’ and writes rather harshly that  ‘Peter Kendall is a PR…

The NFU elects…?

Today the NFU Council will elect its new President, Vice President and Deputy President – except there is a fair chance that all three will be re-elected. The NFU has a very progressive voting system – in some ways.  If you are the incumbent then you need to get an increasing proportion of the votes…

What the public wants

According to a survey by ICMResearch for CPRE more than four out of five of the public believe that farmers have a responsibility to look after the landscape and wildlife for future generations – so most people are wrong!  I don’t think that farmers have that responsibility but I am grateful to those who behave…

You are directly affected, but Defra has forgotten you

Defra has started a consultation on reform of the Common Agricultural Policy – don’t panic, you have until 5 March to respond.  But Defra only wants views from those who may be affected by these proposals.  And that appears to mean English farmers, environmental groups, rural communities, non-governmental organisations and other interested parties.  But there…

Badgers – slow Paice

On Wednesday, Defra announced their next slow pace towards a large amount of badger-bothering.  What they said wasn’t very much and wasn’t very clear. It seems that some time in the autumn, that’s autumn 2012, there will be a six-week trial of farmer-led badger killing in two ‘pilot’ areas of southwest England which are yet…