Was it just me - maybe it was - but was Peter Kendall in a bit of a bad mood today?
Have a look at the Farmers Guardian debate and judge for yourself.
Peter seemed very keen to have a go at me and the RSPB whatever I said.
And how predictable to see NFU mouthpiece Guy Smith going back to criticising the FBI - there is precious little acceptance, by the NFU President or by Guy Smith, that there is a problem with farmland birds. The NFU's attitude to the environment may be summed up by Peter Kendall's phrase 'wrapping (farmers) in green tape'. Remember please, NFU, that's the taxpayers' money you get and so there do have to be some rules attached to it.
But very good to see lots of good comments - many I guess from farmers who are working closely with the RSPB in all sorts of ways.
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A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
Mark, I think you are really very tolerant, far from extreme. Remember forgotten memory syndrome ? Since I completed my agriculture degree I've watched farming intensify, and then intensify again. In forestry we ran the technology as hard as we could - and crashed in the Flow Country. farming is still running hard and Peter kendal continues to pursue traditional NFU tactics - one moment its global policy, the next we've switched to the poor individual farmer. Bluntly, farming is about sequestering nature for our human use. If the crop grabs more there's less for others - birds, insects, weeds. Its a simple equation. The only additional factor is what proportion of the land you subject to the treatment - and that keeps going up, if prices are low for economy's sake, if high because demand is there. Its not surprising bird numbers have gone down - but isn't it time we had (1) a debate about where intensification stops on both axis, in field & proportion of land intensified and (2) farmer's contract with the public who are both their customers & subsidisers ? Maybe we'd all like something different - clean water that doesn' have to be nutrient stripped by our water supplier or land to absorb water to prevent flooding, or even birds, and maybe, if we're asked we might be ready to pay for it.
The NFU essentially represents businesses, and like other businesses, some (most?) will maximise profits at all costs, and in the case of some farmers at all cost to wildlife. This is the reality - the crushingly disappointing thing is that the NFU just will not recognise that wildlife has value and that as the body that represents supposed 'guardians of the countryside' it has a moral duty to acknowledge a) that there have been devastating crashes of wildlife populations in this country and b) that they, more than anyone, should encourage those people who work the countryside to do all they can to protect and encourage it. If the RSPB are the 'CND' then sign me up. The elephant in the room are subsidies I'm afraid - and other concessions - red diesel, planning relaxations etc etc
and how predictable for you to chunter on about declining wildlife,
to repeat, I was doing some crop walking this morning in some lovely spring weather and on my rounds I came across some
Swans eating the rape
Brent geese eating the wheat
Canadas and Greylags on the banks by the reservoir
Mallards and Tufted duck on the bottom pond with some Coots.
Pheasants and french partridge in the game cover
Herons and Egrets in the fleets.
A Sparrowhawk working the hedge in the lane.
A Buzzard over the wood.
A Hobby speeding across a wheat field.
About thirty Collared Doves in the yard.
A pair of Barn Owls scratching around in the box above the office in the old barn.
A Green Woodpecker on the loafing paddock, a Greater Spotted Woodpecker on the garden feeder.
A large flock (120?) of Chaffinches in the dead elms in the lane.
Some Pied Wagtails picking around on the just drilled pea land.
A Wren, several Blue , Great and Long tailed tits in the brambly hedge by the bottom pond.
Magpies and Crows lurking around up to no good by the muck hill
The point for me is that ALL these species found on my farm have increased nationally since 1970 according to RSPB figures and yet NONE are considered 'farmland' birds.
Its poppycock.
Paysan savant
Yes it is tax payers money Mark and the part that farmers get relatively small and the part for wildlife even smaller still as probably 90% at least of population if given subsidised food or subsidised wildlife would choose food.You ought to remember that people like me give the RSPB subs similar to subsidies in most respects and of course we accept that we will not be happy with everything the RSPB does with our money so surely you have to expect that you will not be happy with how all your tax is used,bet some of that far more misused than the part farmers get.