Summary
Natural England’s four ‘Climate Change Character Area reports’ show how England’s landscapes, their wildlife and habitats, will experience wide-ranging changes in the face of climate change.
Summary
‘Making Local Food Work’ is showing that communities taking control of their food can save money and eat well in spite of the Recession and global price increases. By coming together and linking directly with local producers, community members can benefit from economies of scale, the freshest produce and knowing exactly where their food comes from and how it was produced.
Summary
Honey bees are important pollinators of farm crops but the number of beehives is declining and there has been a range of bee health problems. The 2008 UK honey harvest was more than 50% down on normal levels. The Varroa mite is the main problem because in addition to direct damage it also vectors secondary pathogens. Wild honey bee populations in the UK have been wiped out by pests and disease so all the honey bee pollination activity is undertaken by managed bees. There is a risk that the money set aside for bee research will be targeted more widely. There is no evidence that pesticides have poisoned honey bees.
Summary
In 2008 Total Income from Farming rose by 36% in real terms. Total Income from Farming per full-time person equivalent also rose 36% in real terms, to £18,200. Agriculture’s share of national gross value added is about 0.5% of national employment was 1.7%. Average Farm Business Income for all types of farms in England is expected to be around £44,300 in 2008/09, about 11% lower than in 2007/08 - incomes for cropping farm types are expected to have fallen while incomes for livestock farms are expected to have increased. These averages mask a large variation in individual farm performance. Around 12% of farms fail to recover their costs.
Two mice ran up the clock
The clock struck one
The other ran down
Hickory Dickory Dock
Summary
Total income from farming rose by 36% in 2008. The economic downturn should make exports easier, increase the 2008 single payment for farmers and help them with lower interest rates although banks are tightening lending conditions. World prices of agricultural commodities boomed in the first half of the year but fell back later. But input prices went up too. The CAP health check included the end of set-aside, the decoupling of direct aid payments and the abolition of milk quotas by 2015. The single payment scheme paid out £1.63 billion to 106,500 claimants and the Uplands Entry Level Stewardship will replace the Hill Farm Allowance,
This is the first of a series of papers which will select some of the data from Defra’s compendium of agricultural statistics ‘Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2008′ which can be accessed at:
https://statistics.defra.gov.uk/esg/publications/auk/default.asp
Summary
Food security depends on the use and management of global biomass resources, and specifically the push to develop a ‘bio-based economy’ - the growing focus on plants as a source of innovative solutions to food security, energy security, climate change and global environmental health. Plants are a renewable but finite resource, so this enthusiasm is resulting in increasingly complicated competition for limited land and biomass resources. Plants are a common thread across agriculture, energy, environment, health, and industry, and as so they might provide a focal point for joined-up thinking and governance.
Summary
Populations of farmland bird species counted have almost halved since 1970 though the rate of decline has levelled off. Populations have increased slightly between 1994 and 2007 in the North East and Yorkshire and Humber but have gone down further south with a 27% drop in the South East. However, apart from in the East and South East, the numbers of species declining and the number increasing is similar. Woodland bird numbers have fallen less and the North West has seen an increase of 42% since 1994 but again the picture is not so rosy further south. And the number of woodland species declining and increasing is similar.
f you get an email from the Food Standards Agency nor to eat tinned pork because of swine flu’ ignore it - IT’S SPAM!
Also remember that indecision is the key to flexibility
Summary
An overall perspective needs to be supplemented by work at individual supply chain level to manage specific risks and highlight important linkages to food policy objectives such as healthy eating. Government has rejected self sufficiency in favour of resilience and proposed a framework for international action which involves maintaining economic stability; promoting openness; encouraging co-operation; supporting innovation and investment; ensuring fairness; and mitigating the effects of climate change. The relative comfort of the UK’s current position is not a reason to ignore the fundamental challenges to the present operation of the food system that await in the decades ahead.
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