Radio 4

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
just sent this off after listening to the World at 1 during lunch, I wonder if I will get a response?

Dear Sir/Madam,
.

I am an avid Radio 4 listener as well as an organic/regenerative farmer.

I have just been listening to The World at 1, and they interviewed Dale Vince, who was saying something along the lines of, we need to stop eating meat for climate change, these type of comments were not questioned.

I would counter, that soil sequesters Carbon when grazed, especially in an regenerative way. Regenerative farming, means (with animals mob grazing) and prioritising allowing the soil biology to work, this makes the soil more fertile (by drawing down Carbon).

If we took grazing animals out of the equation, not only would 2/3 of the land in the UK come out of production, but the remaining 1/3 would have to gain it's fertility from artificial fertlisers, which are made by the use of Natural Gas, as well as continuing to lose soil organic matter (held Carbon).

I have also read that permanent pasture, when planted with trees emits Carbon as the trees grow, so newly planted woodland is only Carbon equal to grazing land (and only if the wood is never allowed to rot or burn). I recently read that the highest emitter of Carbon is actually wood rotting.

I have also read an article saying that large areas of Australia will probably have to be abandoned to agriculture, even if we limit climate change to 1.5 degrees. Bearing this in mind, is it sensible to stop farming 2/3 of the UK land bearing this in mind?

I hope you will look into these number crunching questions.


Yours
 

Jackov Altraids

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
I do have some admiration for vegans being willing to make the awful sacrifice of not eating properly for what they believe are good reasons. The trouble is it is a little bit like joining a cult in that having heavily investing your soul into it you are very unwilling to accept any evidence that might suggest you were misguided.
Even more so when you have heavily invested in making a 'vegan football club'.
 

Turnip

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Aberdeenshire
This "stop eating meat for the planet" gets trotted out at every opportunity, it trips out of the mouths of journalists every day.

People have been eating meat for ever, but not driving cars or flying in planes.
People have been eating meat for a long time, its just the quantities we consume these days are far more compared to historical meals. Medieval diet for instance only occasionally had a bit of meat at a meal. In Victorian times it was more common to find fish with a meal instead of meat as it was expensive.
 

Muddyroads

Member
NFFN Member
Location
Exeter, Devon
I think the coverage is changing a little since the latest climate report. Only this morning the BBC ran a story on their website about making music tours more environmentally friendly. It was all about transport and power generation, nothing to do with food. The message might finally be getting through.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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

  • 1,294
  • 1
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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