Category Archives: agricultural pests

Gone to the Dogs

Posted on May 11, 2014 by

I grew up with dogs. We had a succession of Welsh collies. Kirsty was a family pet before I was born, but sadly died young. Meg accompanied me through childhood into teenage years – I will always remember going up … Continue reading →

Posted in agricultural pests, bees, dogs, ecosystem services, eutrophication, Neonicotinoids, Uncategorized, wolves | Tagged , , , , | 21 Comments

A Lenten Story: The Gamekeeper’s Gibbet, Biodiversity Onsetting and Confirmation Bias

Posted on March 27, 2014 by

spot the badger The Gamekeeper’s Gibbet Not so long ago, a walk in the country would entail this scene – a gamekeeper’s gibbet. Vermin would be presented by the estate gamekeeper, neatly strung on fences or hung from trees, as … Continue reading →

Posted in agricultural pests, animism, badgers, biodiversity offsetting, blood sports, Defra, Owen Paterson | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

The Supergrass that betrays real Environmental Goods

Posted on March 5, 2014 by

I was intrigued by this headline in Farmers Weekly (where else?) – “£2.5M boost for grass that helps prevent floods“. What can it be? A panacea for all our flooding problems – is it superabsorbent? Is it a climate change … Continue reading →

Posted in agricultural pests, agriculture, ecosystem services, flooding, grasslands, Neonicotinoids, public goods, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

The meat of the argument

Posted on November 18, 2013 by

At least wednesday’s debate on conservation and re-wilding at the Linnean Society, one of the questioners asked whether meat eating and conservation could be reconciled. Afterwards the same person pressed home their point – how could conservationists justify meat eating? … Continue reading →

Posted in agricultural pests, conservation, ethics | Tagged | 8 Comments

Paterson: Badgers ate my credibility

Posted on October 10, 2013 by

  By BadgerHero (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons “It woz the badgers wot dunnit ossifer, honest.” It’s embarrassing isn’t it, when a Cabinet Minister appears on national TV and makes such crass statements. Owen Paterson … Continue reading →

Posted in agricultural pests, agriculture, anti conservation rhetoric, anti-environmental rhetoric, badgers, David Heath, environmental policy, farming, George Eustice, Owen Paterson, Richard Benyon | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Barberries and Badgers

Posted on August 28, 2013 by

Amid all the hysteria and anger around the Badger Cull, which has now commenced, I might be accused of jumping on the bandwagon. Well OK, maybe, though I have done work in the past on the badger issue, researching and … Continue reading →

Posted in agricultural pests, agriculture, badgers, barberry, biodiversity, environmental policy, farming, invasive species, Owen Paterson | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments