Helen Browning: A woman who won't be cowed in the war against titan farms - Profiles, People - The Independent

Helen Browning: A woman who won't be cowed in the war against titan farms - Profiles, People - The Independent: "Ms Browning, who runs this 1,300-acre farm outside the Wiltshire village of Bishopstone, is at the forefront of the furious debate over farming methods that will define British food and agriculture for decades to come. In March she will begin a daily commute to Bristol where she will take up the directorship of the Soil Association.
On one side of the argument are those who see the future in terms of US-style factory farms, enormous mechanised food production centres where tens of thousands of animals live under the same roof. The sales pitch is pretty basic: cheap food. For the organic lobby and farming traditionalists, such plans provoke horror."

Austerity Pulling Plug On Europe's Green Subsidies

Austerity Pulling Plug On Europe's Green Subsidies: "The Spanish and Germans are doing it. So are the French. The British might have to do it. Austerity-whacked Europe is rolling back subsidies for renewable energy as economic sanity makes a tentative comeback. Green energy is becoming unaffordable and may cost as many jobs as it creates. But the real victims are the investors who bought into the dream of endless, clean energy financed by the taxpayer. They forgot that governments often change their minds."

Caveat Emptor

Food and Farming Futures - The Report

Reports and publications | Our work | BIS: "The Foresight project Global Food and Farming Futures final report and executive summary provide an overview of the evidence and discuss the challenges and choices for policy makers and others whose interests relate to all aspects of the global food system"

UK wild bird numbers continue to fall | Environment | guardian.co.uk

UK wild bird numbers continue to fall | Environment | guardian.co.uk: "Mark Avery, the RSPB's conservation director, said: 'It is staggering that farmland birds, such as the turtle dove and lapwing, have reached such a low ebb. But the good news is that we know how to turn around these declines.'

A secure future for farmland wildlife rested with farmers being financially rewarded for managing land in an environmentally friendly way, through agri-environment schemes, he said.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is currently reviewing key entry level stewardship (ELS) payments to farmers, which cover 70% of England's farmland. 'Defra only has to tweak ELS a little to ensure a recovery in farmland birds such as skylarks and corn buntings,' said Avery."

Faster broadband for rural homes | The Times

Faster broadband for rural homes | The Times: "Three million rural homes and businesses have been promised cheaper and faster broadband access after competition regulators demanded BT slash the wholesale prices it charges internet service providers for using its network."

Great bustard reintroduction project gets EU funding boost | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Great bustard reintroduction project gets EU funding boost | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Efforts to reintroduce the world's heaviest flying bird to the UK have received a £1.8m boost from the European Union.

The project to bring the great bustard back to Salisbury Plain has been bringing chicks from Russia to the UK for release since 2004.

The attempt to reintroduce the globally scarce bird, which became extinct in the UK by 1832, had its first major breakthrough in 2009 when the population produced the first chicks to hatch in the wild in this country for 177 years.

But the project has had a hand-to-mouth existence.

The funding from the EU Life+ initiative will cover 75% of the scheme's costs, including monitoring the bustards with GPS satellite transmitters.

The University of Bath, which is part of the partnership to reintroduce the bird, said 16 bustards had been fitted with satellite transmitters to track where they go to feed and roost.

The information will be used to monitor those areas for food availability and predators, and create feeding patches which cultivate the right mix of plants and seeds to provide food and attract the type of insects the birds eat.

The reintroduction project is the brainchild of David Waters, who said: "... Now we have a chance to give this project real wings.

"The funding will provide a properly resourced project, with four new posts, new monitoring equipment and even the possibility of a second release site."

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