It's a hard life being an organic farmer, writes Alicia Miller - and specially when it comes to engaging with a bureaucracy that's trying to 'green' our agriculture. Should small scale farmers change their farming practices to fit in with it? Or the other way round?
… To support 'green' farming, officials must learn that small is … Food Trust | 16th June 2015 Comment Farming Food UK EU Wales Organic Green Economy … Should small scale farmers change their farming practices to fit in with it? Or the …
The UK dairy industry is in crisis, writes Megan Perry, with falling prices forcing many farmers out of business. Smaller, more sustainable farms have been the worst casualties, while the large, intensive producers survive. We must ditch market-driven 'survival of the fittest' attitudes - and recognise both the real costs of intensification, and the true value of traditional farming.
… Food Trust | 30th October 2015 Comment Farming Food Economics UK EU … and the true value of traditional farming. Dairy farmers have faced an ongoing … industry's woes is simply to grow food and farming exports by £7 billion. It has remained …
Vets have an essential role to play in safeguarding the health and wellbeing of farm animals at the hardest times in their lives, writes Philip Lymbery. But confronted with the ugly reality of the slaughterhouse, many vets are reduced to becoming passive servants of the industrial farming machine.
… Food Trust | 1st December 2014 Comment Food Farming Health philip-lymbery-cut.jpg Philip … becoming passive servants of the industrial farming machine. James Herriot, hero of the … and their work helps to prop up the factory farming system. Their aim is to keep animals …
Since 1967, Israeli soldiers and 'settlers' in occupied Palestine have destroyed 800,000 olive trees in an attempt to force Palestinian farmers from their land, writes Megan Perry. 'Our response to this injustice will never be with violence, and we will never give up and leave.'
… Trust | 18th July 2014 Ethical Living Food Farming Land Grabs Middle East Indigenous … many Palestinian farmers are using farming as a form of resistance to fight for … 75% unemployment in Marda due to the loss of farming land and restricted access. In 2004, …
As a youngster on a small farm, antibiotics saved Richard Young's life after a scratch on barbed wire led to septicemia. Now, he's campaigning to stop the routine, mass use of antibiotics on intensive farms, so that they can carry on saving human lives for many years to come ...
… Trust | 24th July 2014 Activism Health UK Farming ab-richard-pulling-pigs-tail-cut.jpg … Motion 247: Use of antibiotics in intensive farming . See also: Antibiotics: British … Committee, which drew up detailed organic farming standards in the 1980s. For the past …
GM companies are exploiting the launch of a new blight-resistant GMO potato to make their case for an EU-wide relaxation of rules restricting GM crops. But as Sophie Brown discovers, we have all the answers to blight already, without a GMO in sight!
… Food Trust | 10th June 2014 Comment Farming GMOs Ecology sarpo-trial-cut.jpg GM … long-term negative impact on biodiversity in farming, which comes from relying on … to the disease. Large-scale monocultural farming would remain particularly vulnerable …
Modern agriculture - even among organic farmers - is often seen as a matter of soil chemistry, writes Lynda Brown. But an alternative view is gaining ground: that it's really about soil life. Nurture your soil-dwelling micro-organisms, and your crops look after themselves.
… Food Trust | 31st March 2015 Comment Farming Natural World Organic compost-hands-cut.jpg Real farming is all about sustaining healthy and … fame, caused several gasps at the Oxford Real Farming Conference with her controversial …
Could London, New York and other cities be self-sufficient in fruit and vegetables? Yes, writes Rachel Dring, by converting wasted roof space into gardens and greenhouses. Benefits include reducing waste; raising energy efficiency, sustainability and food security; and healthier, more connected citizens.
… September 2014 Ethical Living Cities Food Farming Health lufa_chard-cut.jpg Could … the energy and water of conventional open-air farming and Oscar's designs make the most of … in human waste prohibits its use in farming. Technology has yet to create a better …
European retailers have imposed 'ethical' certification processes on their banana suppliers, writes Rachel Smith. But reports from Ecuadorian plantations reveal serious weaknesses in the schemes that leave workers poisoned and abused. To get to the truth, inspectors must dig deeper, and make surprise visits.
… Food Trust | 10th August 2015 Ethical Living Farming Human Rights Ecuador … specialises in the Fairtrade sector including farming, employment, working conditions and …
A land grab twice the size of France is under way in Ethiopia, as the government pursues the wholesale seizure if indigenous lands to turn them over to dams and plantations for sugar, palm oil, cotton and biofuels run by foreign corporations, destroying ancient cultures and turning Lake Turkana, the world's largest desert lake, into a new Aral Sea.
… News Ethiopia Indigenous Peoples Land Grabs Farming Water omo-tesemay.png A land grab …