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: Common Agricultural Policy
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
Feed the World….. sugar till we are all obese.
We are told that Fat is the new normal and this is undoubtedly true. It’s another example of shifting baseline syndrome, also known as the “frog in the saucepan“. I have noticed my own waistline expand over the years … 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
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
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
Welcome to your new job Mr Sells
Andrew Sells starts as Chairman of Natural England on Monday (20th). If we could wave our magic wands and appear in his office that morning, what would we suggest to him as his top priorities? Some might suggest the Badger … 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
Public Goods for Public Money
“Public Goods for Public Money” has become a bit of a mantra, not just for me, but for a wide range of organisations and individuals fed up with one failed reform of the Common Agricultural Policy after another. I was … Continue reading
The Death of Greening
Remember the European Commission’s much vaunted proposals to “green” the Common Agricultural Policy? The idea was that, to show the European public (who pay for the farming subsidies the CAP hands out) that their money really was being spent on … Continue reading
a new nature blog 