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…
Tag: NFU
November was the cruellest month…
November was a dismal month for nature in our country – just dismal. This week the Westminster government issued figures showing that farmland birds were at an all time low but didn’t bother to comment on what they might do about it. The Chancellor had a swipe at the environment and announced a review of…
Farmland birds reach lowest point since records began
The latest (up to 2010) official figures for the UK Farmland Bird Index (and for that for England alone where things are just a tad worse) were published on Tuesday. They show a further decline in numbers of the suite of 19 farmland birds which brings the index to its lowest ever point. Take a…
Nature Directives – use them!
The nastiness of George Osborne came out when he mentioned ‘endless social and environmental goals‘ in his Autumn Statement yesterday. George is keener on economic goals – although not so good at reaching them, so perhaps we can see why he doesn’t want any other goals to miss. As predicted in this blog yesterday (just…
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…