Below-par farm biosecurity should block farmers from participating in England's badger culls, writes Anna Dale. But a large body of evidence of poor and negligent biosecurity by farmers suggests that Natural England, the government's official regulator, is turning a blind eye to this strict requirement - and undermining the purpose of the cull.
… Anna Dale | 29th March 2017 Activism Badgers Farming Regulation UK England Health Science …
As industrial agriculture continues to erode our wildlife, Dave Goulson challenges the methods and objectives of ever-increasing food production. We need to move towards sustainable, evidence-based farming systems that produce healthy food, rather than allowing the agrochemical industry to reshape our farming, countryside and nutrition to its quest for profit.
… Health and biodiversity restored? How farming can rediscover its long-lost roots … Goulson | 16th November 2015 Comment Food Farming Toxics Conservation Natural World … to move towards sustainable, evidence-based farming systems that produce healthy food, …
With Brexit the UK will have to chose between two visions of our farming future, writes Keith Tyrell. Will it be heavily subsidised corporate agribusiness that ravages both nature and small, high quality farmers. Or will we seize the chance to build a sustainable food and farming system that supports wildlife, landscape, family farms, organic production and diverse rural economies?
… Keith Tyrell PAN UK | 25th August 2016 News Farming Food Brexit UK Pesticides Toxics … will have to chose between two visions of our farming future, writes Keith Tyrell. Will it … the chance to build a sustainable food and farming system that supports wildlife, …
Farming today is well on the way to becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the agro-chemical-biotech industry, writes Colin Tudge. Defra and the European Commission are all too keen to make it so, reflecting the interests of an agro-oligarchy obsessed with profits and growth at all costs. But there is an alternative. Join the 'real farming' agrarian renaissance ...
… Farming for profit? Or for people, nature, … Colin Tudge | 19th November 2014 Activism UK Farming Natural World Toxics Economics brussells-sprouts-cut.jpg Farming today is well on the way to becoming a …
A growing number of farmers are now questioning the nature of the cull and its effectiveness. And some are blaming poor biosecurity and intensive farming for the spread of TB in the UK cattle herd. Andrew Wasley and Sarah Stirk report
… Stirk | 18th June 2013 News News Food And Farming Badgers Milk Dairy Animal Health … are blaming poor biosecurity and intensive farming for the spread of TB in the UK cattle … with high powered rifles', the government and farming bodies should urgently be looking …
From the day that Danish pig farmer Ib Borup Pederson switched away from GM soy, his animals became healthier and more productive. Birth deformities reduced, sows became more fertile, medicine costs fell, and profits went up. The changes were linked to the reduction in the levels of the herbicide glyphosate in their feed.
… | 18th September 2014 News Health Toxics Food Farming Denmark China deformed-pig.jpg Figure …
Published in Nature today, a new cattle herd model shows how bTB infects cattle and how to halt its spread, writes Matt Keeling. Most effective is the slaughter of entire herds with even a single TB infection detected. Culling badgers has very little impact.
… Keeling | 3rd July 2014 News Badgers Health Farming UK Science btb-graph-cut.jpg Published …
Almost all our food is grown in soil, writes Peter Melchett. Yet we are treating it like dirt: spraying it with toxic chemicals, depleting vital nutrients, and releasing its carbon to add to climate change. With World Soils Day coming up tomorrow, let's change our ways - and renew our commitment to organic food and farming.
… Melchett | 4th December 2015 Comment Food Farming Organic Natural World Health Toxics … and renew our commitment to organic food and farming. "The health of soil, plant, animal … erosion and poor soil management. Intensive farming practices are partly to blame. While …
Organic farming produces more nutritious food than chemical agriculture, writes Colin Todhunter, while sustaining soils and building organic matter. And we know this from real, peer-reviewed scientific studies - unlike the pseudo-science touted at us by the self-interested advocates of industrial agribusiness.
… The world must step off the chemical farming treadmill Colin Todhunter | 29th October 2015 Comment Farming Food Health India Toxics work-farm-india-cut.jpg Organic farming produces more nutritious food than …
The government may want to press ahead with the English badger cull, writes Lesley Docksey. But after the Brexit vote it may just cost too much - for taxpayers and for the farmers who bear part an increasing share of the expense, now facing the loss of the 55% of their income that currently comes from Brussels.
… Docksey | 27th July 2016 Comment Badgers Farming Brexit Politics Natural World Finance … continue? Some 55% of the UK's income from farming comes from the EU via the Common … When faced with the possibility that British farming might be destroyed by the way FMD was …
Al available science indicates that badgers have little if anything to do with bovine TB in cattle, writes Lesley Docksey. This is reflected in Wales's consultation on its 'refreshed TB Eradication Programme'. We must hope that Northern Ireland's bTB Eradication Strategy will be equally science based - and ready to campaign hard if it relies on cruel, ineffective and expensive badger culls.
Badger cull free TB eradication in Wales and Northern Ireland? The science demands it! Lesley Docksey | 6th December 2016 News Badgers Science Health UK Northern Ireland Wales farmyard-cut.jpg Al …
As they argue for an extended and intensified badger cull, some farmers have been making extravagant and improbable claims about giant badgers frolicking with their cattle in the sunshine, write Jay Tiernan & Lesley Docksey. But despite holding office in the NFU, they display astonishing negligence by failing to adopt the most elementary bio-security measures advised by Defra to keep their cattle TB free.
… Docksey | 22nd August 2015 Activism Badgers Farming Health UK cattle-cut.jpg As they argue … to convince people that it's not down to bad farming practice but the fault of the badgers? … wildlife is easier than letting better farming practices, testing and cattle controls …
With controversial plans to allow farmers to cull badgers later this year, Ed Hamer asks whether Bovine TB is really a health problem for either cows or humans
… | 30th January 2011 Comment Badgers Food And Farming Disease badger.jpg Badger culling … Land magazine READ MORE... NEWS Asian factory farming boom spreading animal diseases like … controls on excessive use in intensive farming NEWS ANALYSIS Warning as infectious …
Farmers' first line of defence against pests is the ecosystem in and around their fields, write Jonathan Lundgren & Scott Fausti. With widespread or indiscriminate use of pesticides essential biodiversity is lost - and the result is more frequent and serious infestations, and a decline in food security.
… Scott Fausti | 14th August 2015 Comment Farming Ecology USA Toxics Food Insects … have more pests. The findings suggest that farming practices that promote insect …
The Government's 'National Pollinator Strategy' has a fatal flaw, writes Georgina Downs - it contains no meaningful measures to address farmers' spraying of highly toxic pesticides, often in mixtures that can further increase the harm they cause. And with 80% of the UK's pesticides used in agriculture, that's setting the 'strategy' up to fail.
… Georgina Downs | 6th November 2014 Comment UK Farming Toxics Politics Health … to flourish." What about pesticides used in farming? Irrespective of the many positive … regarding the use of pesticides in the farming sector. The Strategy recognises that …
With the 6th International Conference on Bovine TB under way today in Cardiff, Lesley Docksey reports on Defra's latest statistics. BTB in England is falling - and it's falling fastest where the strongest biosecurity measures are in place, confirming the experience of Wales and Scotland.
… 2014 News Natural World Badgers UK Health Farming cows-wales-cut.jpg With the 6th … other country ... ' Yet all Owen Paterson, Farming Minister George Eustice, Defra and the … call for more TB testing BBC Radio 4's Farming Today featured the story in early …
A programme to be broadcast on BBC2 promoting badger culling as the answer to bovine TB is praised in the corporation's flagship Radio Times, writes Lesley Docksey. But both are criticised by experts for their inaccuracy and bias. The main reservoir for bTB is, and always has been, the cattle themselves - and that's where the real solutions begin.
… March 2016 Comment Badgers UK Natural World Farming Health Media biosecurity-cut.jpg A … Region media, and other media outlets, in farming programmes on radio and TV and papers devoted to farming. As Mark Jones, veterinarian and …
As scientific evidence grows of the many ways in which glyphosate - pipe-cleaner, herbicide and antibiotic - damages the environment and health, governments and regulators turn a blind eye, writes Dr Eva Sirinathsinghji, and the EU has even raised allowable residue levels. It's time for us all to put bans in place wherever we can!
… ISIS | 25th February 2015 News Health Food Farming Regulation Toxics …
Owen Paterson's departure from Government could see the end of the hated badger culls and a wider return to environmental sanity, writes Lesley Docksey. Given his disbelief in climate change and his arrogant disregard of science, it's not a moment too soon!
… Docksey | 15th July 2014 Comment Badgers Farming Flooding Politics UK Climate Change … "He understands farmers, he understands the farming community and he understands how … future and therefore need for a competitive farming industry." And Tory peer Lord Howard …
The risk of cancer from the world's top herbicide, glyphosate, is just the tip of the iceberg of health damage caused by exposure to pesticides and other toxic agrochemicals, writes Georgina Downs. It's time for governments to correct their scandalous failure to protect rural residents from the cocktails of poisons sprayed on crops.
… Downs | 30th April 2015 News Health Toxics Farming Corporations Regulation … potential short-term financial impacts on the farming industry are far outweighed by the … the environment. The reality is that chemical farming is costing the UK many millions, …
India's farmers are the targets of structural violence aimed at uprooting indigenous agriculture and replacing it with an intensive corporate model based on GMOs and agrochemicals, writes Colin Todhunter. But as Monsanto's GM cotton succumbs to insect infestations despite repeated pesticide applications, agroecological farming is an increasingly attractive option for cultivators.
… Colin Todhunter | 19th February 2016 News Farming India GMOs Toxics Corporations Ecology … pesticide applications, agroecological farming is an increasingly attractive option … dairy animals which are integral to the mixed farming system employed. Dogra notes that …
Conventional agriculture has made an enemy of evolution as pests and diseases develop resistance to biocides and over-bred hybrids succumb to them, writes Salvatore Ceccarelli. But there is another way - for farmers to participate in breeding seed lines that are continuously adapting to their environment, with ever improving yields, flavour, pest-resistance, and other sought-after qualities.
… Science News | 29th February 2016 Comment Farming Seeds Agroecology Toxics Health wheat … breeding of tomatoes for organic farming An example that this is indeed … will gradually become more frequent in this farming/breeding system (Ceccarelli 2014) . …
The US EPA has approved new GMO corn and soybean varieties resistant to both glyphosate and 2,4-D, writes Jim Goodman - and the highly toxic herbicide mix itself. In this latest escalation of the chemical war against nature there is one clear winner - Dow AgroSciences. But everyone else loses - farmers, consumers and our increasingly endangered wildlife.
… GMOs Jim Goodman | 27th October 2014 Comment Farming Regulation Law Natural World USA … When people ask me why we switched to organic farming, that swirling yellow tank mix always … When people ask me why we switched to organic farming, that swirling yellow tank mix always …
Wild bee decline is closely associated with the advance of intensive farming and habitat loss, a new study shows. It follows an earlier paper that linked 'delayed action' decline of wild bees to exposure to pesticides including fungicides - previously considered 'bee-safe'.
… Beyond Pesticides | 28th December 2015 News Farming Health Toxics Science Bees … associated with the advance of intensive farming and habitat loss, a new study shows. …