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.
Pie in the sky. Let's try and do something a bit more practical. The greenhouse gas emissions direct from cattle 'problem' is surely massively overstated.
Mirlo you know absolutely nothing about farming,you probably are very knowledgeable about lots of things so stick with them not farming.
Here is a very simple answer and lesson at the same time.
Pay what the price would be for food if all farming done to your standards and farmers will comply but I doubt the general public could afford it,by the way the places you talk about in the Hebrides you may not know get massive subsidies and probably even grants from people like the RSPB to farm in this manner,certainly if the whole country farmed that way starvation would occur in this country,this country is not anywhere near self sufficiency in dairy products so cannot understand where your evidence of exports to China comes from,of course I bet we sold half a pound of cheddar to them to give them a taste.Still think you are knowledgeable but definitely not in farming,a long time since i saw someone get so many things wrong about farming unfortunately people believe people like you.
I am somewhat angry!
Let's assume everybody here is more or less right shall we - So what do we do (on our own?) and how much will it cost and who will pay for it?
The smart answer is that we will ALL pay for it (in the end) - but we can't even agree that a disease like TUBERCULOSIS (you thought I had forgotten - didn't you?) still needs properly sorting. Ask all those 115 Labour politicians if we need to cull badgers - ANSWER - 100% - certainly not!!
What chance? Where do you start?
At the moment we also have (amongst others) an organisation (the RSPB) with 1Million members that are being told to LET bTB RIP in all UK wildlife mammals! On the other hand it wants to us to capture and scrub the bovine gaseous emissions!
Come on - get a life! Where are you all coming from?
Are we just kidding ourselves - just going through the motions - do we really understand - do we really care?
Seems not!
It would be great if sustainable livestock management would mean deintensification of farming methods, herb rich pastures, ceasing to drench cattle with chemicals which kill off all invertebrates on pastureland, puttting the care of breeding farmland birds as a priority, not polluting our environment with chemical fertilizers and pesticides in order to produce a monoculture crop to feed to dairy cattle and then send the resulting dairy products to China, not to produce cereal crops which are heavily subsidised by ourselves and then exported half way across the world to achieve the highest prices.
Dream on! Farming is driven by the desire to make as much money as possible . Farmers as custodians of the countryside. I think not. How many wildflower and herb rich meadows remain? Virtually none! A small minority of farmers in north cumbria have even sprayed herb rich roadside verges and reseeded with ryegrass to gain an extra big bale of silage.
Tiree in the inner hebrides holds many thousands of breeding lapwings, oystercatchers, snipe and even dunlin for such a small area and I think the only way for sustainable farming to occur in the rest of the Uk is to reproduce the Tiree model. I believe the way forward for this is for the RSPB to preferably purchase a farm or two(or ten !) and carry out the work and management themselves. You cannot trust the conservation of nature in this country to farmers. If such and such an environmental grant is withdrawn then the farmer will most likely revert the land back to it's previous highly intensive management and any money that has been paid will be effectively have been wasted.
I understand that the RSPB farm in North Cumbria doesn't even carry out sustainable farming methods ie. the cattle which graze are drenched with chemicals which then contaminate the pasture and destroy the invertebrate life. I also cannot understand why wildflower meadows have not been sown on this farm and then managed by early and late grazing or as hay meadows. To allow natural regeneration of herb rich meadow is ridiculous because it could take 50 years or more. I could go on for ever !
Flello? He's the guy that said that "he was shocked to find how much a Sunday roast cost the Planet!"
The 'second reading' of the Sustainable Livestock Bill takes place on Friday 12th November, and needs the support of 100 MPs to proceed any further.
Well he's certainly managed that with some 160 MPs supporting him - but with 75% Labour and only 11 (townie?) Conservatives. The Labour list looks like a CND members list - all vegetarians and wanting to ban Trident and Hunting - mostly the 'usual suspects'
It makes one wonder why Labour didn't implement such a Bill during its 13 years in office
Sustainable livestock farming? - soya? - rain forests? Yup!
But this Englishman can't afford it right now - nor can the UK - remember the Pig Welfare legislation?
We looked after our pigs - the others didn't - our Pig Farmers (not subsidised "by the EU") went bust!
By the way - How do you save our Planet?