Farming & Agriculture news

• America's corn belt farmers face uncertainty after rain … and more rain

  23-06-2019 07:00 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  Cold, rainy weather has meant severe planting delays for farmers from Ohio to Nebraska – and next week’s acreage report takes on heightened importanceIn his 32 years of farming, Steve Fourez says he’s almost never been so late planting corn and soybean crops on the 500 acres he farms in east-central Illinois.Normally by the start of May he’s finished planting corn, and soybeans are seeded soon after. This year, Fourez said, he wrapped up planting on 6 June, as cold, grey
  
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• Ammonia pollution damaging more than 60% of UK land – report

  18-06-2019 15:17 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  Study finds most sensitive plant and wildlife habitats are worst affected, yet government has no clear plans to monitor impactAmmonia and nitrogen pollution, mostly from farms, is harming more than 60% of the UK’s land area and hitting the most sensitive habitats for plants and wildlife hardest, a government report has found, despite there being no clear plans to monitor or reduce its impact.More than 85% of England’s total land area receives ammonia concentrations above the critical
  
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• The price of plenty: how beef changed America – podcast

  17-06-2019 13:00 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  Exploitation and predatory pricing drove the transformation of the US beef industry – and created the model for modern agribusiness• Read the text version here Continue reading...
  
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• ‘Photosynthesis could heal’: why agriculture should be driven by environmentalists

  16-06-2019 20:00 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  Environmental policy must begin at the farm gate because it’s farmers who could undertake the repair workThe juggernaut of globalisation has been inescapable for Australian agriculture. From the start, merino wool was a major export earner, and it still is. Australia has 70 million sheep and wool reaches markets far and wide. Overall, 70% of all our primary produce is sent overseas, including much of our organic produce.Agriculture is as much an export business as mining, so when I see asp
  
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• Revealed: UK government failing to tackle rise of serious air pollutant

  13-06-2019 17:01 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  Investigation reveals no plan is in place to tackle increase in levels of agricultural ammonia, a gas contributing to thousands of deaths in UK aloneAnalysis: dealing with ammonia is an urgent health problemTesting reveals hotspots at UK farmsOne of the most potent air pollutants is on the rise in the UK, but the government has no comprehensive monitoring, little enforcement, and almost no funding or clear plan to reduce the emissions, an investigation has found.Evidence obtained by a joint inve
  
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• Dealing with ammonia is an urgent health problem – yet levels are still rising

  13-06-2019 17:00 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  Government clean air strategy failing to control increasing emissions that add to ‘hidden killer’ of air pollutionRevealed: UK government failing to tackle ammonia pollutionTesting reveals hotspots at UK farmsEarlier this year, the government produced its first comprehensive clean air strategy, the result of years of campaigning, public outcry and finally a series of court actions ending in victory for activist lawyers over resistant ministers.For the first time, that strategy promis
  
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• What will it take for the UK to reach net zero emissions?

  12-06-2019 19:06 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  We will have to change almost everything, from our homes to our mealsThe net zero carbon target will require sweeping changes to almost every aspect of British life, affecting our homes, the food we eat and the way we get around, as well as jobs and businesses across the board. Ministers are hoping there will be health benefits and improvements to the natural environment along the way, as well as helping to stave off the global climate emergency.However, on some of the key areas where rapid chan
  
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• UK accused of 'silently eroding' EU pesticide rules in Brexit laws

  12-06-2019 08:00 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  Analysis finds changes such as removal of blanket ban on hormone-disrupting chemicalsThe UK has been accused of “silently eroding” key environmental and human health protections in the Brexit-inspired rush to convert thousands of pages of European Union pesticide policy into British law.Despite government claims the process would be little more than a technical exercise, analysis by the University of Sussex’s UK Trade Policy Observatory (UKTPO) has uncovered significant departu
  
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• EU climate goals 'just a collection of buzzwords', say critics

  10-06-2019 19:57 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  Document setting out agenda for next five years denounced by environmental campaigners for skimping on detail
  A leaked document on the European Union’s priorities has been criticised as offering little more than “a collection of buzzwords” to tackle the climate crisis and accelerating the destruction of the natural world.EU leaders are due to adopt a “strategic agenda” for 2019-24 at a Brussels summit starting on 20 June, but a draft has encountered a volley of crit
  
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• The Guardian view on African swine fever: bad for people as well as pigs | Editorial

  06-06-2019 19:30 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  The current outbreak, linked to smallholders, is likely to affect prices around the world. But supersized animal farms are not the answerIn the coming weeks, bacon sandwich eaters in Newcastle and dairy farmers in California may find their pockets hit by developments thousands of miles away. The culprit is an outbreak of African swine fever which is sweeping through Asia, leading to the culling of millions of pigs in China and Vietnam, in what one expert calls the world’s biggest animal di
  
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• Secret footage exposes abuse of calves at Coca-Cola affiliated dairy farm

  06-06-2019 17:55 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  US attraction Fair Oaks Farms Dairy Adventure accused of animal rights violations Undercover footage showing young dairy calves being kicked, violently thrown, having their heads stamped into the ground and suffering from heat exposure at a US farm known as the “Disneyland of agricultural tourism” was published this week.“Calves can be seen struggling to breathe and are observed suffering by themselves within their hutches,” according to a report by Animal Recovery Missio
  
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• Eating Animals review – painful portrait of factory farming

  06-06-2019 08:00 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  Natalie Portman narrates an unsettling documentary about how agribusiness resorts to ever greater squalor and cruelty ‘You vote at least three times a day with your fork,” says a farmer in this sombre, painful, relevant documentary about agribusiness from film-maker Christopher Quinn, based on the 2009 non-fiction bestseller by Jonathan Safran Foer, co-written with him and narrated by Natalie Portman, who was so energised by the book that it reportedly turned her into a vegan activis
  
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• Barnaby Joyce approved plan to chase $80m water buyback, documents show

  06-06-2019 06:15 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  Federal government pushed plan to buy a portion of water entitlements rather than adopt Queensland proposal to purchase two farms and all water rights The former agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce approved a controversial change of strategy in his department which led to the purchase of low reliability water entitlements for “a record” $80m from a company with links to a fellow minister, new documents obtained by Guardian Australia show.The 2017 purchase of water from the Cayman Isla
  
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• Slow poison: how Queensland government workers paid the price for fruit fly eradication

  03-06-2019 20:00 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  During the 1990s, workers were told not to worry about breathing in the poison, but years later they suffer debilitating illnessesRobert Paul Sharman remembers how the smell of the gas would linger.Outside the fumigation chambers it hung around, bonded to the tropical North Queensland air, amid the hottest November on record. When Sharman went home, and nursed his baby son to sleep, the odour of the gas was still there.Doctors who I’ve spoken to say there’s no doubt that’s what
  
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• The world needs topsoil to grow 95% of its food – but it's rapidly disappearing

  30-05-2019 07:51 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  Without efforts to rebuild soil health, we could lose our ability to grow enough nutritious food to feed the planet’s populationThe world grows 95% of its food in the uppermost layer of soil, making topsoil one of the most important components of our food system. But thanks to conventional farming practices, nearly half of the most productive soil has disappeared in the world in the last 150 years, threatening crop yields and contributing to nutrient pollution, dead zones and erosion. In t
  
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• From Top Gear to the top field: how Jeremy Clarkson became an eco-friendly farmer

  27-05-2019 16:15 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  The former Top Gear presenter has cultivated his petrolhead image for years, but a recent interview lifts the lid on his Earth-loving side
  Name: Farmer Clarkson.Age: 59. Continue reading...
  
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• Tough nut to crack: the almond boom and its drain on the Murray-Darling

  26-05-2019 00:13 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  Demand for the thirsty crop has created a gold rush but irrigators and growers fear there might not be enough waterNeale Bennett, an almond grower in Mildura, ripped out his sultana grapes and dried fruit crop and began planting almonds in the 1990s. He’s ridden the wave of increased global demand for almond milk, almond meal and, well, just almonds.Rising prices for the sweet brown nuts, mechanised equipment to harvest them and the ability to trade water up and down the Murray to water th
  
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• Media watchdog has beef with ABC over Catalyst program

  24-05-2019 08:01 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  Authority finds science show breached impartiality standards in its portrayal of the beef industry as harmful to the environmentThe media watchdog has found the ABC science program Catalyst breached editorial standards for impartiality in its presentation of the beef industry as harmful to the environment.Meat & Livestock Australia complained to the ABC last year that the program was unfair to the beef industry and insects were promoted as an alternative source to cattle. But an internal inv
  
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• Determination and passion: how these renewable energy resources can save our planet | Damon Gameau

  20-05-2019 20:00 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  There are already environmental solutions that reduce emissions and regenerate ecosystems – we just have to act on themWhen my daughter was two years old, I found myself struggling to finish any article relating to the dire state of our environment. I would get halfway through the piece, then disengage and move on to something else. I assumed I wasn’t the only parent to feel this way.Curious to understand why I seemed incapable of persisting, I reached out to the environmental psycho
  
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• A vision of 2040: everything we need for a sustainable world already exists

  20-05-2019 20:00 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  There are real obstacles to environmental progress, but we must focus on what we are for, not just what we are againstWhen my daughter was two years old, I found myself struggling to finish any article relating to the dire state of our environment. I would get halfway through the piece, then disengage and move on to something else. I assumed I wasn’t the only parent to feel this way.Curious to understand why I seemed incapable of persisting, I reached out to the environmental psychologist
  
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• Value farmers if you want to save bees | Letters

  20-05-2019 19:02 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  We need new agricultural policies to encourage biodiversity, says Jean McKendree, while Morris Bradley congratulates the Guardian for changing how it talks about the climateSaving bees and other insects is indeed a vital goal for the world (Journal, 18 May). Farming practices do need to change and there are many innovative farmers in the UK who are working hard to improve biodiversity as they provide food for the nation.We need to ensure that new policies encourage good practice and support farm
  
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• Australia to import wheat for first time in 12 years as drought eats into grain production

  15-05-2019 03:07 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  Biosecurity concerns raised over import from Canada as Australia’s winter crop forecast to drop 20% below 20-year long-term averageAustralia is planning to import wheat for the first time in 12 years after drought across the eastern states saw grain production fall 20% last year.The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources confirmed this week it had issued a bulk import permit to allow wheat to be brought in from Canada to be processed for the domestic market. Related: 'It's dire': fa
  
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• The price of plenty: how beef changed America

  07-05-2019 07:00 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  Exploitation and predatory pricing drove the transformation of the US beef industry – and created the model for modern agribusiness. By Joshua SpechtThe meatpacking mogul Jonathan Ogden Armour could not abide socialist agitators. It was 1906, and Upton Sinclair had just published The Jungle, an explosive novel revealing the grim underside of the American meatpacking industry. Sinclair’s book told the tale of an immigrant family’s toil in Chicago’s slaughterhouses, tracing
  
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• Why have America's black farmers disappeared?

  29-04-2019 10:00 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  There were nearly a million black farmers in 1920. Today there are just 45,000. One man is fighting to save themJohn Boyd Jr’s grandfather Thomas, the son of a slave, slept with the deed to his farm under his mattress. He worried constantly that his land would be taken away.Twenty miles away and three generations later, Boyd lives on his own 210-acre farm, in a big white colonial house with rows of soybeans that go almost up to the front door, like other people have grass. One hundred catt
  
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• There were nearly a million black farmers in 1920. Why have they disappeared?

  29-04-2019 10:00 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  Today there are just 45,000 African American farmers. One man is fighting to save themJohn Boyd Jr’s grandfather Thomas, the son of a slave, slept with the deed to his farm under his mattress. He worried constantly that his land would be taken away.Twenty miles away and three generations later, Boyd lives on his own 210-acre farm, in a big white colonial house with rows of soybeans that go almost up to the front door, like other people have grass. One hundred cattle, a cluster of guinea ho
  
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• 'It's a groundswell': the farmers fighting to save the Earth's soil

  24-04-2019 07:00 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  Farmers across the world are ditching their ploughs to protect ecosystems – and it’s workingJohn Cherry bends down and takes a handful of soil in his hands, brings it up to his face and breathes deeply.“You can smell when it is good,” he says, poking it with a finger. “This smells of roots … there is a rich, organic quality to it. It is a good smell.”Continue reading...
  
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• Country diary: grafting to make new cider-apple trees

  20-04-2019 06:30 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  Marshwood Vale, Dorset: These saplings will help improve the landscape near the line of pylons that stalk the areaWe are in a barn, harnessing the strength of spring to make new apple trees. Smooth, supple twigs – scions – lie before us in labelled bundles. Hairy bunches of rootstock wait in a barrow, shrouded in plastic to stop them drying out.It’s perilous preparing scions for grafting. You cut them slantwise, pulling the knife upwards through the wood in a single, fast jerk.
  
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• Can the world quench China’s bottomless thirst for milk? – podcast

  08-04-2019 13:00 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  China’s leaders have championed milk as the emblem of a modern, affluent society – but their radical plan to triple the nation’s consumption will have a huge environmental cost• Read the text version here Continue reading...
  
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• Murray-Darling water plan: Labor says it's prepared to override states

  01-04-2019 19:00 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  Tony Burke says the ailing health of Australia’s greatest river system would be a priority for any federal ALP governmentThe ALP is preparing to use federal powers under the Water Act and its influence with the two Labor-controlled basin states to drive better environmental outcomes if it wins government in May.The opposition spokesman on the environment and water, Tony Burke, told Guardian Australia he would immediately convene the ministerial council and outline what he wants to achieve.
  
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• Much can be dung to resolve the cow poo problem | Letters

  31-03-2019 18:51 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  Readers respond to the news that animal excrement is mucking up the environmentThe problems caused by apparent overabundance of cow faeces (Turd world: how poo is mucking up the environment, 25 March) are at least partly in the control of the farmers, who feed a broadband insecticide (Dimilin) to their cows.The purpose is to stop flies and beetles from feeding in the dung and thus breaking it down, a crucial step in the removal of the dung. Flies and beetles are thus no more a problem in intensi
  
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• Growers could be using robotics to pick fruit within 5 years

  30-03-2019 04:26
  Automated raspberry harvesting could be a reality in five years time as concerns mount over labour availability once the UK leaves the EU.Reduced access to workforce could in turn see productivity levels fall at a time when consumer demand for pl...
  
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• Growers could be using robotics to pick raspberries within 5 years

  29-03-2019 16:53
  Automated raspberry harvesting could be a reality in five years time as concerns mount over labour availability once the UK leaves the EU.Reduced access to workforce could in turn see productivity levels fall at a time when consumer demand for pl...
  
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• Survey estimates Britain has around 8,850 dairy producers

  29-03-2019 09:07
  A recent survey of major milk buyers suggests there are currently around 8,850 dairy producers in Britain.The AHDB estimate represents the number of dairy producers actively contributing to British milk production.It is based on the number of...
  
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• New £1.6m lab to help protect Scotland's livestock sector

  29-03-2019 09:07
  A new £1.6m centre for animal disease has opened in Scotland and it is expected the lab will analyse more than a million samples a year.The opening of the centre for animal disease surveillance will create more reliable and efficient diagnoses of...
  
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• Eating dairy makes people happier, research shows

  29-03-2019 09:07
  Eating dairy makes people happier, according to new research, and adding just a little bit to meals causes a 'pleasure surge' of 27 percent.The study looked at people’s responses to different food options – one with dairy added and one without....
  
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• Dunbia abattoir fined £266k after public health violations

  29-03-2019 09:07
  An abattoir run by red meat processor Dubia has been given the Food Standard Agency's largest ever fine of its kind after failing to comply with public health regulations.Dunbia (Preston) Limited has been handed heavy fines and costs totalling mo...
  
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• CCTV captures moment arsonist sets fire on farm and himself

  29-03-2019 09:07
  Dramatic CCTV footage has captured the moment an arsonist targets a former farm in Northumbria while accidentally setting fire to himself.The incident happened on what is known locally as Norman’s Riding Poultry Farm on Garesfield Lane in Winlato...
  
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• Campaigners welcome Gove's willingness to save small abattoirs

  29-03-2019 09:07
  Comments by Michael Gove on the future of Britain's small abattoirs have been welcomed by campaigners as an 'encouraging indication' for their much-needed revival.There are now only 56 small red meat abattoirs left in the UK, with a third having ...
  
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• Can the world quench China’s bottomless thirst for milk?

  29-03-2019 07:00 via Agriculture | The Guardian
  China’s leaders have championed milk as the emblem of a modern, affluent society – but their radical plan to triple the nation’s consumption will have a huge environmental cost. By Felicity Lawrence
  Beijing-based film-maker Jian Yi, now 43, clearly remembers the arrival of fresh milk in his life. It was an image of it, not the real thing. “It was the 1990s, and I first saw it in an advert on TV. The ad said explicitly that drinking milk would save the nation. It would mak
  
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• India election 2019: Should farmers' debts be written off?

  29-03-2019 06:06
  Many farmers in India have found themselves overwhelmed by debt - but should those loans be written off, often at great expense?That's a question politicians and others in India have been debating in the run-up to nationwide elections in April.
  
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• Thirteen farming groups urge 'orderly Brexit' deal by 3 April

  29-03-2019 06:04
  Thirteen farming organisations have written to MPs urging an 'orderly Brexit' by Wednesday 3 April as the industry becomes 'intensely frustrated' with the continuing impasse.
  The UK Farming Roundtable, which represents farmers and growers from th...
  
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• 'Highly respected': Tributes paid to former NFU President Sir David Naish

  29-03-2019 06:04
  The British farming industry have paid tributes to former NFU President Sir David Naish who has died at the age of 78.Born in Nottinghamshire, Sir David was President of the NFU between 1991 and 1998 and followed in the footsteps of his uncle, Lo...
  
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• Businesses sponsor 'wooden cow' for schoolchildren to learn about farming

  29-03-2019 06:04
  Businesses and schools are now able to sponsor a 'wooden cow' for children to decorate in a bid to encourage food and farming education.A local business or school can sponsor a wooden cow for £50 for their chosen class to decorate and to 'plant u...
  
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• Farming 'part of the solution' to climate change, MSPs told

  28-03-2019 15:35
  Farming will form part of the solution to meeting Scotland’s environmental obligations, MSPs taking part in a climate change debate were told.The Green Party used Scottish parliament time to highlight that the Earth is entering a 'climate emergen...
  
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• International data strengthens UK producers of Limousin cattle

  28-03-2019 12:45
  All producers of Limousin-bred cattle are set to benefit from a UK-first development that sees the incorporation of international data within the latest genetic evaluation.The new information comes from a huge data set of over 2.3 million animals...
  
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• Wildlife-friendly farming leads to increase in key bee species

  28-03-2019 09:33
  Government-subsidised schemes that encourage farmers to plant more wildflowers has led to an increase in key bee species, according to a new study.The research, led by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, measured the presence of 353 wild bee and ...
  
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• Two £2,750 travel bursaries open for young sheep farmers

  28-03-2019 09:33
  Applications have opened for young sheep farmers to win two £2,750 travel bursaries which aim to widen industry knowledge and experience.The National Sheep Association's (NSA) Samuel Wharry Memorial Award will support two young people, aged betwe...
  
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• 'Too good to waste': Lidl launches 5kg 'damaged' fruit and veg box

  28-03-2019 09:33
  Lidl has launched a 5kg box of 'damaged' fruit and vegetables for £1.50 in a bid to eliminate food waste in store.The boxes, which differ from wonky veg, are filled with fruit and veg from stores which have become slightly damaged, discoloured or...
  
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• NFU President to raise money to help African farmers build businesses

  28-03-2019 09:33
  The NFU President will run the London Marathon to raise money to help eastern African farmers run profitable agricultural businesses.Farm Africa, a charity which aims to improve the lives of African farmers, is aiming to raise more than £170,000 ...
  
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• French farmers claim cows are dying due to turbines and solar panels

  28-03-2019 09:33
  French farmers claim that solar panels and wind turbines in Brittany are releasing electricity into the ground which is slowly killing their livestock.In the Brittany region several farmers have reported losses of hundreds of cows, and veterinari...
  
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