Yesterday, I gave a presentation to the Oxford Farming Conference on balancing production with conservation.  You can read a copy of my paper here. I enjoyed the experience despite having the odd flashback to doing my final year exams - the conference is held in the Examination Halls which for me is home to some rather painful memories. 

It was great to be able to contribute to the debate as the conference sets the scene for the rest of the year.  To keep the debate alive I have invited a few guest bloggers to add their contributions this week.

Below you will find some thoughts from Matthew Naylor. 

Matthew is a farmer from South Lincolnshire.  He grows cut flowers for most of the major supermarkets.  The farm, on Holbeach and Moulton Marsh, was reclaimed from the Wash by the Saxons and Romans.  The farm is LEAF Marque accredited and Matthew is a trustee of LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming).  He is a Farmers Weekly columnist, a Nuffield scolar and he writes a blog here.

Matthew writes...

Martin Harper’s paper gives a rational and comprehensive overview of where Western European agriculture finds itself.  It is a fact that the CAP-designed system for producing food in the UK has caused biodiversity to suffer.  Thankfully he delivered the news in an impartial way.  Farmers are sensitive souls and they take criticism badly; they need to understand why there’s a problem before they will start to tackle it.

There has been a tug of war between certain farmers and certain conservationists in the past.   The best policy in this situation is usually to stop tugging and let the other side fall on their bum.  This signifies a brave new dawn and I hope will lead to many more cases of farmers and conservationists working together.  Unfortunately it is much easier to keep on arguing than it is to address a situation.  The big challenge now is “How do we deliver a productive and profitable farming network while maintaining a balanced eco-system?” 

Martin’s paper was the first time that I have heard the phrases land sharing/land sparing.  This encapsulates something which has troubled me as a farmer.  Should I be farming with nature or alongside nature?  The correct answer varies from one crop to the next but I suspect involves a proprtion of both.  We clearly need areas that are managed for wildlife on most farms but we also need to consider our practices on the productive areas too. The timing of mechanical operations is fundamentally disruptive to all sorts of natural life cycles.  Most UK farms have moved towards huge fields and the capabilities of modern machines mean that vast areas of the countryside can receive the same process in a few days.  We cannot hope to have broad bio-diversity unless the crops and the way that they are grown is at least as diverse.  In this respect, the market is leading the farming industry in completely the opposite direction.

The paper also highlights how difficult it is to measure the postive and negative impacts of our actions.  None of us can claim to be absolutely sure why farmland bird numbers are falling.  The EU have paid huge sums of money into Stewardship schemes without a clear idea of what they would actually achieve.  ELS and HLS have set the agenda very well but they should have been supported with much more research funding and practical advice at a local level.  The role of the RSPB has been invaluable on our own farm in this respect.  It is disappointing, but perhaps not suprising, that the charitable sector has to be depended upon to make up for the shortcomings of the tax-funded policy.

Do you agree with Matthew? 

It would be great to hear your views.

oxfordfarmingconference2012.pdf
Parents
  • What a interesting world it would be if you ruled the world, Peter!

    And Sooty - I hear your challenge regarding the petition - we do support it and will determine how and when to promote it so that at least as many as the >210,00 people that signed our birds of prey petition sign up.

Comment
  • What a interesting world it would be if you ruled the world, Peter!

    And Sooty - I hear your challenge regarding the petition - we do support it and will determine how and when to promote it so that at least as many as the >210,00 people that signed our birds of prey petition sign up.

Children
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