Don't rats come into the sheds when the weather gets bad rather than when food runs out in the fields? And doesn't sugar beet have exactly the same effect as the problem you are predicting?
Rats in fields aren't the same problem as rats in sheds.
Furthermore, owls and other raptors are far less likely to suffer from secondary poisoning than from rodents caught round buildings.
Farming isn't a level playing field though. Some have veg land and some have windswept rocky mountain.
If whole farms going into SFI wasn't the intention, then the scheme should have had limits built into it. Failing to do that is negligence.
And since "the minister" for Defra didn't know what the ahdb was some weeks after his appointment, it makes you wonder whether "being accountable" just means having a mate in the civil service.
Even so, splashing large sums of money in the direction of all and sundry on the basis of charitable...
You would hope that the rspb wouldn't be getting special treatment over and above any other landowner, likewise the wildlife trusts. Is it just that they are better at working the system?
I don't want to call the kettle black, having received money from local authorities, RPA and the Forestry...
The main recipients for government funding on environmental schemes are farmers.
Charities like rspb operate independently of government although they have some influence with one million members. I don't think they get money from the taxpayer.
But your first point about field corners and...
There are two separate types here. One are the genuine naturalists who want to enhance habitat for the benefit of wildlife and the environment and who don't think the farmed environment is the best way to do that.
The other type are the ones seeing natural capital (land ownership) as a business...
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