Recent Comments
navasolanature on Poundbury Nature for Wellbeing… Alex Tylor on ‘Look but don’t pick’ – Wild M… AllRoundNature on Will Prime Minister Truss aban… Peter Lancashire on The true story of David Camero… Peter Lancashire on The true story of David Camero…
Category Archives: agriculture
Guest Blog by Ruth Davis: A Common Good Manifesto 1) Living Wages and Good Food
Today I am delighted to have a guest blog from my old friend Ruth Davis. We used to work at Plantlife together. Ruth is Political Director at Greenpeace though these are her own views. Ruth is starting an open debate … Continue reading
Posted in agriculture, environmental policy, farming
Tagged Agriculture, common agricultural policy, Conservation, Environment
4 Comments
UKIPs policy for farm subsidies: strip away all environmental protections and public goods.
As we approach the dreaded Euro Elections on Thursday, I have been keeping (or should that be kipping) an eye on some of the claims made by UKIP on matters environmental. Last week they claimed that every household in the … Continue reading
Posted in agriculture, Common Agricultural Policy, deregulation, ecosystem services, farming, UKIP
Tagged Agriculture, CAP, European Union, UKIP
5 Comments
This article was in yesterday’s Farmer’s Weekly. As there is a partial paywall on that website now, I am copying in the article so you don’t have to go the FW website to read it. Stop using our fields as … Continue reading
No targets and prescriptions – Conservation: The Knepp Way
wild daffodils on Knepp Estate (c) miles king On Wednesday I was privileged to spend a day at the Knepp Estate in Sussex, with Natural England Agriculture Policy experts – not that NE do policy of course. Other experts (and … Continue reading
The Supergrass that betrays real Environmental Goods
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
Keeping a Level Head
A Somerset Levels Wet Meadow (c) Miles King I feel almost reluctant to put pen to paper (metaphorically) on the issue of the floods and the Somerset Levels, because so much has been written or spoken in recent days fromn … Continue reading
Posted in agriculture, anti conservation rhetoric, anti-environmental rhetoric, Common Agricultural Policy, Environment Agency, European environment policy, Floodplains, grasslands, meadows, Owen Paterson
Tagged Agriculture, common agricultural policy, Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, flooding, Owen Paterson, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Site of Special Scientific Interest
15 Comments
Lost in the drainage Maize
I wrote this blog twice yesterday but both times wordpress refused to publish it. I’m trying again – third time lucky. I now know the reason it crashed. I was trying to copy a map from a pdf and upload … Continue reading
Posted in agriculture, deregulation, Dredging, Environment Agency, farming, flooding, Owen Paterson
Tagged Agriculture, flooding, IDBs, Maize, Owen Paterson, Somerset Levels
32 Comments
World Wetlands Day Blog: On the Level
In honour of World Wetlands Day (when will we next see an international environmental convention signed in Iran?) I write today about the Somerset Levels. Has anyone noticed that the Somerset Levels are under water? There’s been a bit in … Continue reading
Set our Landscapes Free
Species need landscape features to shift at differing speeds. Shifting Patterns in Time and Space Some species depend on constantly and fairly rapidly changing circumstances such as the creation and loss of bare ground, changes in the inundation status of … Continue reading
a new nature blog 