Am looking forward to today. I have a meeting with our Council this morning which is always fun. And tonight I am giving a talk to the South East England Agricultural Society. We are debating whether conservation is compatible with intensive farming.
I am not sure what sort of reception to expect, but I am sure it will be colourful evening. Judging by the state of the farmland bird and farmland butterfly indices, you could conclude that it is not possible to reconcile seemingly competing interests. But it is always worth remembering that it was farming practices that allowed many of the species which we now value to flourish. Many species even owe their vernacular names to their association with agriculture: cornflower and corn bunting to name but two.
But as we became better at producing food from our land - a fourfold increase in yield since 1945 - and as the Common Agriculture Policy exerted its influence, farmland wildlife suffered.
Great efforts have been made by many farmers over the past decade to try and reverse the declines but alas, the two biological indicators still show numbers are bumping along at the bottom of the graph. Some of the solutions are in our grasp - environmental stewardship can be made to work harder, payment rates for these schemes need to provide sufficient incentive for farmers to take up the right options and the new CAP must, of course, be made fit for purpose.
Given that so much of our nation is farmed, it is pretty clear that, if we want to recover farmland wildlife, we have no option other than to find harmonious coexistence between nature and farming. This is why I am so pleased that Defra, in its Natural Environment White Paper, committed to explore the question about how to improve productivity whilst enhancing the envirionment.
With luck, we should get a chance to explore some of the solutions at tonight's debate.
I'll let you know how I get on.
Do you think that it is possible to increase productivity whilst enhancing the environment? If so how? If not, what do we do?
It would be great to hear your views.
Thanks for the comments. All make sense to me.
The event itself was entirely positive. We had a balanced debate and from the feedback I received afterwards, the farmers were either already trying to do their bit or wanted to do more. They did not contest information about the state of nature that I prevented although were probably a little grumpy to be reminded that the south east is at the bottom of the regional league table for wild birds. And my fellow speaker, Andrew Mason, from Sentry Farming, broadly accepted the challenges that I was airing.
Debate after the talks did cover CAP reform, agri-environment scheme design, GM and yes, Sooty, predation - cats and corvids. Given the imminent demise of FWAG, farm advice was also a hot topic. I think that losss of FWAG was universally seen as a bad thing for farmers and for wildlife. I know nature is meant to abhor a vaccum, but I am not convinced that we, or others, are well placed to fill the void. So creative solutions such as wildlife friendly farmers helping to spread the word seem entirely appropriate options to explore.
I have a feeling that we'll get back on this topic soon.