The UK is about to go into Brexit negotiations with a political maverick, Brexiteer Michael Gove, in charge of DEFRA. Here are are a few of his predecessors’ contributions to posterity: […]
Michael Gove has taken over in the UK ministry which covers agricultural, food, rural affairs and the environment. He was central to the Brexit push and has links to US Neocons including the Tea Party – so he doesn’t seem too keen on environmental regulations. By Miles King. […]
In David Attenborough’s foreword to The State of Nature 2016, he writes: “…Nature is in serious trouble and it needs our help as never before.” The report singles out intensive agriculture and climate change as the two most serious threats to biodiversity in the UK. Agriculture still occupies 75% of the UK’s land area and the declining fortunes of mixed farming has led to consolidation and specialisation on a massive scale at landscape level. It is hardly surprising then, that the environmental impact of farming should be an issue of public concern. Look at this picture of a field with an over-wintered crop above: it is typical of thousands up and down the UK. Beneath the serried ranks of seedlings, criss-crossed with tracks that reflect the width of the spraying boom which passes periodically, countless farmland species struggle to adapt to what is often a hostile environment. The State of Nature editorial team identify earlier planting and regular spraying as important underlying factors in the way intensive farming impacts biodiversity. The study draws on long […]
UK prime minister Theresa May addressed he political party, the ruling Conservative party, at their conference at the start of the month. She tried to reassure the warring factions of that party that her plans for Brexit were on track. It’s clear she favours a hard – that’s complete – break from the EU, and not a soft – that’s partial – separation. […]
Hannes Lorenzen tells us about war, peace, regulations, EU relations and rural ways in this letter from Ukraine. […]
The UK faces the prospect of rethinking its agriculture from scratch during the Brexit process. Less than a month after the vote, farming minister George Eustice told BBC Wales that he could not guarantee future agricultural support programmes would be as generous as current EU subsidies. […]
As has been the case with the UK’s new post-Brexit referendum Ministers, the now head of farming, food, rural affairs and environment has made some unusual utterances in the recent past. Peter Crosskey let’s us get to know Andrea Leadsom a little better. […]
The UK’s new Minister with responsibility for farming and food may want to change how CAP and subsidies work. Pillar 1 type payments may be dropped and the delicate balance between farming and nature – especially on farms – may change radically. Miles King explains. […]
After the Brexit bombshell, ARC2020’s Peter Crosskey tells us how the UK farming community is reacting to vote to leave Europe. […]
What happens when socially and ecologically engaged artists really focus on soil? And in so doing, bring different people – from across a wide spectrum – together to get to know that earth beneath their feet a little better? In one city in the UK – Bristol – they have done just that. Mario Catizzone tells us about it. […]
The National Farmers Union, representing 50,000 of the largest and wealthiest farming landowners in England (and Wales), who receive the lion’s share of all subsidies provided to the UK by the EU, have voted to support the Remain campaign. How and why has this happened? Miles King explains. […]
Ukraine’s is in the news again after the Dutch vote against a free trade agreement between the EU and that state. But what do we know about its agricultural sector? Well, its booming. However, questions are being raised as to whom this new agrarian growth is actually benefiting; the rural population or established farming corporations? […]
UK-wide study traces declining diversity of nectar sources for the country’s pollinators. Four plant species supplied half the UK’s nectar in 2007. […]
What are the implications of other countries producing the GHG emissions ‘for you’? In other words exporting ever more food to you, all the while racking up their GHG emissions total? Its good for your emissions tally, but is this fair? Peter Crosskey has more […]
Equality in the Countryside: a rural manifesto for the parliamentary opposition. A manifesto for rural equality launched by the Landworker’s Alliance at the Oxford Real Farming Conference 2016. […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention