At 1pm today the RSPB is having a live debate with the very clever Prof Allan Buckwell from the CLA and the NFU's President Peter Kendall on whether UK farming is an environmental hero or villain. For details - click here.
You can watch the debate online and even join in. No doubt I'll be blogging about it tomorrow if not before. That is - if I survive.
I wonder whether the NFU President will accept that farmland bird numbers are much lower than they were in the 1970s and 1980s? I wonder whether he will accept that this is mainly due to the way that we farm the countryside? I wonder whether he will agree that it matters? I wonder whether he will praise the work that the RSPB has done at Hope Farm where productivity has increased and wildlife too?
Perhaps the NFU will welcome our Stepping up for Nature campaign.
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
Sorry out on the day job yesterday and missed the debate. Sky Larks - yes, one bird population that has halved; yes, RSPB prescription has worked; yes farmers are using it; yes, it helps no other bird; yes, we should be worried about all the other species in decline - FBI or no - what about peewits? I have no idea if NFU Pres is converted or not, BUT you are not helping him convert his members, but you could if you really wanted to do so.