I mentioned that MP Robert Flello had done well in the Private Members' Ballot and would be trying to introduce a Bill into Parliament on the subject of sustainable livestock management. This is a really tricky subject, and because of its difficulty it does not get as much government attention as it should. What would a sustainable livestock industry look like?
It probably wouldn't involve the import of soya-based animal feed from areas of destroyed rainforest. It probably wouldn't involve using so much of our productive farmland to grow grain to feed to cattle - we could grow food we could eat directly on that land instead. Might it involve keeping animals indoors for longer and scrubbing their greenhouse gas emissions out of the air in their sheds before it escapes into the atmosphere to worsen cliamte change? Might it involve eating less meat? Or more poultry and less red meat?
Tricky stuff indeed. But Mr Flello also has an Early Day Motion which is attracting many MPs' signatures. It is one of the most successful EDMs of this parliamentary session and gives a flavour of the thinking behind the Bill..
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
Sooty
There is a large milk processing factory quite close to where I live and from what I have heard much of the products from there are exported to China. Also some of my friends are dairy farmers and they have told me that the fact that they getting a good price for milk is because of the demand for milk products in China. Your examples are of dairy imports not exports.
Sooty please address the facts that 97% of wildflower rich meadows have disappeared from our countryside . Also that many of our butterfly and other insect species are close to extinction. That almost all ponds in agricultural areas have been destroyed. Most of our wildlife now lives in towns and cities because intensive agricultural practices have destroyed any natural wildlife habitat. If you can show me that farmers have not caused this destruction of habitat and wildlife I shall be amazed.
You also mention the corncrake . This is the only farmland bird that has increased because of environmental grant aid. ironically it is still doing the best of all on RSPB farms in the hebrides.
please give me an example as to why we should continue giving environmental grant aid to farmers. Are there any wildlife success stories out there?. I certainly do not know of any. Quite close to me there was a barn owl nest site . The owl was doing pretty well because of the set aside scheme. As soon as the government withdrew the grant the land was put down to wheat and the owls are not doing very well now.
i know of a church commissioners demonstration farm near here. This held a lot of wildlife. The farm owner was passionate about wildlife and put a lot of effort into increasing the amount of wildlife on the farm. When he died his sons were not quite as passionate. First of all herbicide spray drift affected the hedgerows and destroyed akll broad leaved plants. Very soon the hedgerows supported only 1 breeding pair of chaffinches in 150 acres which is a pretty bad show. What this shows is that if the farmer is keen on wildlife then the chances are that wildlife will thrive on the farm but if not then the wildlife will decline. This is why our British wildlife and its habitat cannot be trusted to farmers, but should be placed in the hands of conservation groups such as the RSPB.
And Mr Avery I would appreciate your input to this debate for this is the reasons I have put forward my comments in the first place