Why is the Uk agricultural industry becoming almost “obsessed by carbon free farming”???

delilah

Member
Everyone on here should be telling their local NFU person that 'net zero by 2040' needs dropping now. Doesn't matter if you are an NFU member or not, it is being presented as an industry target so it affects everyone. It may have genuine intentions but it will end up being a stick to be hit with. Ring any bells ?
 

Grass And Grain

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Yorks
Seems to be NFU pushing Net Zero. Wouldn't put it past them to develop a voluntary scheme, then RT will make it a requirement, then we'll have to pay to join the Net Zero scheme, then we'll be the only country in the world doing it.

Only guessing, but basing the guess on past form. Same with this training thing.
 

GeorgeK

Member
Location
Leicestershire
I think carbon neutral is just a buzz word and because carbon accounting is largely unstandardised and unregulated it's fairly meaningless. Any decent accountant poring over carbon accounts as if they were a balance sheet would rightly have a heart attack as numbers appeared, disappeared and changed almost at random.
Got to love buzz words. Put 'smart' in the name of your useless product and get instant press coverage. How's about smart carpets? Linked to the cloud and automatically contact your robot vacuum cleaner when they detect a certain level of dirtiness
 

Stuart J

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
UK
Maybe the question should be, why are UK farmers not obsessed with becoming carbon neutral?
 

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BrianV

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dartmoor
Big business now sees lots of money in this, not because it will make a jot of difference to the Earth but simply because it's an easy money stream that gullible people will follow as they think it will make a difference.
Now we start to see big hedge funds blackmailing companies to follow suit & get out of coal & traditional business in the believe it will make their funds far more attractive, pretty soon it will become an unstoppable tsunami that the likes of China will surely exploit.
 

GeorgeK

Member
Location
Leicestershire
Big business now sees lots of money in this, not because it will make a jot of difference to the Earth but simply because it's an easy money stream that gullible people will follow as they think it will make a difference.
Now we start to see big hedge funds blackmailing companies to follow suit & get out of coal & traditional business in the believe it will make their funds far more attractive, pretty soon it will become an unstoppable tsunami that the likes of China will surely exploit.
Yes carbon trading is tipped to be the next big thing for traders. Turn them into a commodity, speculate, manipulate and earn a fortune
 

puppet

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
sw scotland
Maybe the question should be, why are UK farmers not obsessed with becoming carbon neutral?
Maybe because they already are and are waiting for the science to catch up.
UK ag 11 -15% of total GHGs. Livestock GHG 8%, sheep and cattle 4, almost all of which are methane calculations. Plants and veg 7%.
We will look back at this period as flawed science.
 

Bogweevil

Member
I ask the above as the island of the “Uk” is such a pin plonker, relative to worldwide agriculture.
Which other countries agricultural policies are so concerned with “carbon neutral farming “ as the Uk is??

'Pin plonker' whatever that is, surely not, we are global No.32 by value, not bad for a small, cold, dark, wet island where most of the land is peaty, rush-plagued sodden permanent pasture, swathed in drizzle, and by rights should be planted with forest. New Zealand is 42nd, the much vaunted Netherlands is 37 and Ireland is miles away at 87, but to be fair their soil and climate is just as nasty.

Anyway in the real world we either become carbon neutral and more sustainable or the planet and the human race is finished.
 

milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
'Carbon neutral' is a crazy fad imo. Best way to end up being owned by the Chinese and watch our own country go backwards.

Makes them all feel good though........ buy all this high tech stuff made and the materials to do so in the most carbon and environmentally unfriendly ways possible.
 

Jackov Altraids

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
'Carbon free' is a virtual concept of environmentalism to keep up with virtual currencies and 'virtual' meat.
When you are exhausting the worlds resources you need to create new money streams.
Bill Gates dream is the perfect example of how wrong this is. Pay the big tech companies all your money for a false sense of saving the world while living the same.
The only way to save the planet is to live sustainably and end the mindset of 'growth' being essential.
The trouble is, all those with money may lose out and are willing to spend a lot to make sure it never happens.
 
'Carbon free' is a virtual concept of environmentalism to keep up with virtual currencies and 'virtual' meat.
When you are exhausting the worlds resources you need to create new money streams.
Bill Gates dream is the perfect example of how wrong this is. Pay the big tech companies all your money for a false sense of saving the world while living the same.
The only way to save the planet is to live sustainably and end the mindset of 'growth' being essential.
The trouble is, all those with money may lose out and are willing to spend a lot to make sure it never happens.

Can growth and better life co-exist?
 

GeorgeK

Member
Location
Leicestershire
To call it carbon 'accounting' is sacrilege really. Say I complete a carbon audit, my use of ammonium nitrate would be a large portion of my total footprint. At the same time as a major polluter Yara does the same and accounts for their C02 from AN production. So the fert is counted twice? Just one example of the mess carbon accounting seems to be
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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