Lord Goldsmith speech on green recovery

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Lord Goldsmith speech on green recovery

Written by Defra Press Office

A Hawthorn tree in bud and a spring sunrise over Bodmin Moor looking towards Sharp Tor, Cornwall, England, UK




Yesterday, Minister of State for Pacific and the Environment Lord Goldsmith delivered a keynote speech on the subject of a green recovery and the work that the UK is doing on domestic and international conservation.

In his speech, which was delivered at an event hosted by Bright Blue and coming on the back of the publication of their Global green giant? report, Lord Goldsmith stressed the importance of nature, generating coverage on the issue of rewilding in MailOnline.

He also explained how nations around the world can use coronavirus as an opportunity to reset our relationship with nature, with the environment at the heart of recovery:

“As countries set about rebuilding their economies, as we all will, we have a chance to do things differently and better. Governments everywhere are planning for economic recovery - I believe $9 trillion have already been put aside for the global recovery. And how that money is spent will have ramifications for generations.

“They can stick with the status quo; bailing out high-carbon, environmentally damaging industries, and locking in decades of emissions and environmental destruction. Or they can choose to make environmental sustainability and resilience the blueprint for recovery.

“I am delighted that our Prime Minister has committed to ‘Build back better and build back greener.’ We are committed to doing all we can to turn things around. But we cannot do it alone.

“And so much of our work in the run up to COP will be building alliances of countries and businesses willing to go much further – on targets to protect the natural world, on supply chains, on land-use subsidies, on ‘net zero’ emissions, and on commitments to greatly increase support for nature-based solutions etc

“The pandemic has illustrated the folly of waging war on nature. It is a gigantic wake up call, and it feels to me that the world is now ready to collectively agree a new covenant with nature. A moment to profoundly re-set of our relationship with this, the only planet that can sustain us.”

Lord Goldsmith also used the speech to set out how the UK government is already working to deliver for the environment, including using our ambitious Environment, Fisheries, and Agriculture Bills to protect out nature environment and diverse ecosystems, shaping an economy and society that is cleaner, greener and more resilient.

Read and watch the minister’s speech on the Bright Blue website.

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beltbreaker

Member
Location
Ross-shire
So we have potentially 7.7 Billion people on the planet needing fed and our government wants to rely on food from abroad not only that if we continue to farm we should be zero emissions.

I am all in favour of having a go at this on a level playing field. However I would suggest we will doing it with both hands behind our backs legs shackled running up hill with a big eff off dog attached to our rubbish. Whilst other countries are free to send in hormone treated GM fed/grown pesticide laden crops with little in.

This is not a time to be screwing about with the national food supply on the whim of a non elected son of a banker.
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
Most of it I agree with really.

At least in saying this: "Around 80% of deforestation is caused by agriculture – the majority of it to grow commodities that we all consume. We have to be sure that when we import those commodities we do not import deforestation" he didn't just blame livestock for once.
and his comment that: "If you look at they commodities which we import, and forget everything else, they alone increase the UK’s environmental footprint by 80-90%" is well made.
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
Most of it I agree with really.

At least in saying this: "Around 80% of deforestation is caused by agriculture – the majority of it to grow commodities that we all consume. We have to be sure that when we import those commodities we do not import deforestation" he didn't just blame livestock for once.
and his comment that: "If you look at they commodities which we import, and forget everything else, they alone increase the UK’s environmental footprint by 80-90%" is well made.

Luckily the percentage of world land covered in forest has been steadily increasing on aggregate, not decreasing as some would have you believe. With high CO2 levels this is likely to accelerate no matter what European policies are. Indeed I would say that European policies are largely irrelevant apart from the imperative to replant most harvested areas.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
As I battled my way round the field edge today pulling wild oats and marvelling at the height of the nettles and other field edge vegetation I thought to myself we really don’t need any more of this rubbish. It’s invasive, it’s costly to keep down, by and large it’s of no use whatsoever to man nor beast. If you want a nature reserve then have one but farms operate more smoothly and profitably when they are tidy. That’s a fairly simple rule. I saw a grass snake as well. It slid out of the beet field, across the public footpath and down the bank of the ditch. Surely if a grass snake can manage here then we are doing alright without needing any extra “help” or advice.
 

Raider112

Member
Most of it I agree with really.

At least in saying this: "Around 80% of deforestation is caused by agriculture – the majority of it to grow commodities that we all consume. We have to be sure that when we import those commodities we do not import deforestation" he didn't just blame livestock for once.
and his comment that: "If you look at they commodities which we import, and forget everything else, they alone increase the UK’s environmental footprint by 80-90%" is well made.
Well I haven't had time to read the report but if that's an idea of the angle he's taking I can go with that, on the other hand I imagine it was possibly him that wrote something a few weeks ago that was saying something very different and very worrying. Hopefully I am getting mixed up.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Seriously though do these people who give these lectures realise the amount of work that goes on quietly across the country producing and delivering the huge amount of foodstuffs needed to keep the population alive? Do they realise this is an essential service often performed under difficult conditions, physical, mental and financial. Shouldn’t they really ought to be sitting back a minute and realising our agricultural industry actually is of tremendous value and didn’t really ought to be tinkered with, scaled down or jeopardised in any way or sacrificed on the high altar of some kind of “nature knows best” ideology.
The concept of a “reset” amuses me too. Agriculture isn’t an iPad or some other computer operating system, it’s been built on thousands of years of steady progress which must not be thrown away by some sort of tearing down and rebuild on a naive and ideological political agenda.
we are making steady progress on many fronts in agriculture including carbon footprints, conservation and other important areas. I’d rather see continued steady progress than some radical new “reset” that blows the whole thing out of the water. They need to keep it real and keep it grounded IMO.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
So this new covenant with nature is what? And we are to stop battling with it apparently?

Nature doesn’t take prisoners, isn’t nice, fair or reasonable. It will take the lot if you let it and leave you with nothing. Maybe survivable if there are just a handful of you roaming thousands of acres living off whatever pickings you can scavenge but nature won’t feed millions.
Personally I’m pretty sick of watching badgers trample my crops into the ground. They already have more rights than I do. I’m sick of all this tripe big style. Millionaires telling us we should make way for vermin. Ignorant, arrogant twits the lot of them.
 

Raider112

Member
Seriously though do these people who give these lectures realise the amount of work that goes on quietly across the country producing and delivering the huge amount of foodstuffs needed to keep the population alive? Do they realise this is an essential service often performed under difficult conditions, physical, mental and financial. Shouldn’t they really ought to be sitting back a minute and realising our agricultural industry actually is of tremendous value and didn’t really ought to be tinkered with, scaled down or jeopardised in any way or sacrificed on the high altar of some kind of “nature knows best” ideology.
The concept of a “reset” amuses me too. Agriculture isn’t an iPad or some other computer operating system, it’s been built on thousands of years of steady progress which must not be thrown away by some sort of tearing down and rebuild on a naive and ideological political agenda.
we are making steady progress on many fronts in agriculture including carbon footprints, conservation and other important areas. I’d rather see continued steady progress than some radical new “reset” that blows the whole thing out of the water. They need to keep it real and keep it grounded IMO.
The problem we have is that in financial terms Agriculture is seen as a pretty small piece of the economy, that is because we've been prepared to carry on producing for little reward, partly because we hope it will get better, partly through having it drummed into us by previous generations that it is our responsibility to feed the country, and partly because you can't just switch off like other industries, e.g. when you put a bull to the cows it's 3 years later before you get to cash the result. In the last 20 years we've spent almost all of it in one Environmental scheme or another, which is more rewarding personally than financially to be honest, but almost all the stuff we do was being done at no cost to the country 30 years ago when we did it as we could afford it, how many of us have that luxury now? At the same time if they are telling me that my produce isn't needed I won't become a paid park keeper, I don't work weekends, bank holidays, Christmas day, 18 hour days when necessary for the money, I do it as I am a farmer and it's my way of life. I'll just sit back and do a bit of travelling until they realise they need me.
 

bitwrx

Member
This is the guy whose brother is alleged to have released (either deliberately or through wilful negligence) farmed deer into the wild, who has admitted to feeding wild boar on his land, is alleged to have had a hand in their introduction into the vicinity and hardly denied it, and admitted "bullshitting" (i.e. lying) about it all.

Ben Goldsmith would be his name. He of non-exec director of DEFRA fame. That's right, the one who got said directorship at the behest of one M Gove Esq., when he was secretary of state for the environment and rural affairs.

By entire coincidence, I'm sure, but this all happened shortly after Gove's constituency party received a sizeable donation from Mr B Goldsmith.

Nothing to do with the OP, other than the family association. It just stinks so much I thought more people should know.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
It’s at the daily practical level that it comes home to you. Thanks to ever increasing badger population I now have to watch about 3 acres out of 50 acres of cereals trampled into the ground. There is absolutely nothing I can do about this as the government has decided the badgers have more rights than I do. So resources are wasted growing the crop. And nobody cares. Loss of neonics has made OSR and beet almost non starters and now subject of much wasted effort and resource and all we get is silence from the government who are complicit with the ill informed middle classes who now seek to manage us. It’s shameful it really is. I was discussing with my brother only this morning how we are to find a way forward because far from from being sustainable, farming here is fast becoming unsustainable. Watching your own work needlessly trashed while nobody gives a damn is the worst part of it. Then they pay lip service to mental health. Utter tools the lot of them.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Spineless plonkers at the top now. Blown whichever way the wind in the willows middle class takes them. Nobody with the balls or statesmanship to stand up for essential industries and tell people how it has to be for the strategic long term good.
Rant over.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 25-50%

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  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

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  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.2%

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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