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…
Tag Archives: Agriculture
Following on from my last blog talking about how effective the NFU is at lobbying to protect the private interests of a few wealthy farmers, this classic insight appeared this morning in the Western Morning News. New Deputy President of … Continue reading
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
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
Defra publish correct Bovine TB herd breakdown data – previous figures were inflated by one third
The Badger Cull has been found to be ineffective and inhumane according to Defra’s own expert panel looking at the Pilot areas in Somerset and Gloucestershire. The BBC report Prof Rosie Woodroffe, a scientist at the Zoological Society of London, … 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
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
a new nature blog 