The home of Britain's Working Conservationists
The production and application of non-nitrogen fertilisers adds a further 10% to our average farm’s GHG footprint. From this we can see that optimisation and reduction of the use of fertilisers holds the key to reducing the climate impact of arable production.
Unlocking the environmental and income-generation potential of hedgerows in the British countryside is a step closer as the GWCT begins piloting the new Hedgerow Carbon Code.
On Tuesday 6 September GWCT Chief Executive Teresa Dent was invited to give the organisation’s verdict on the government’s progress with its Environmental Land Management Scheme to the EFRA Select Committee in the Palace of Westminster.
It was a real pleasure to be involved in LEAF’s (Linking the Environment & Farming’s) Open Farm Sunday this year on 12th June.
Once again, growers have been struggling in recent weeks with what has been for most yet another prolonged period of dry weather. A look at the Met Office data for 2022 shows that the spectre of climate change hangs over us on a now constant basis.
It is encouraging to see the results of a long-term study of wildlife on a large commercial arable farm in England, on Tuesday 2nd August.
The EU has announced a temporary derogation from rules on crop rotation and maintenance of non-productive features on arable land for 2023 in response to the impact of the Ukraine crisis on food supplies. At the same time it has announced a new strategy to reduce pesticide use, potentially reducing crop yields.
Alastair Leake, GWCT Head of Policy, explains more about a project to establish a Hedgerow Carbon Code that benefits carbon storage and biodiversity.
This February and March the Farmland Ecology Unit collected 1,200 soil samples as part of the healthy soil, healthy food, and healthy people (H3) project. H3 is part of a large interdisciplinary project aiming to transform UK food systems by putting the health of people and the environment at the forefront of UK food production.
Ahead of the expected publication of the UK’s first National Food Strategy for 70 years, a high-level group of political, scientific and industry leaders is urging the Government to do much more to put scientific rigour and evidence at the heart of Britain’s food and farming policies, warning that a failure to do so could risk sleepwalking the nation into its own food crisis.