2023

We all have vested interests. Sometimes they can be a driver for good. There are some opportunities to be realised through adoption of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, but we need to accept that there are sacrifices too, and individuals vary in their willingness to embrace this for the greater good.

Politicising climate change is dangerous. There are numerous examples of how forcing complex environmental issues into binary choices doesn’t turn out well. Understanding the science, accepting the complexity, and acting on the best evidence available at the time is the only way out of the considerable challenges we currently face.

Chapter 6 of Farming with the Environment covers the aquatic side of things. Some of it is about how nutrients behave in water and how aquatic invertebrate communities are affected by them. But the fact is that what goes on in water is influenced massively by the management of the land draining into it.

Nationally and globally, the abundance and species diversity of wildlife has declined over the past decades. In Farming with the Environment, I describe the steps we have taken to reverse this decline through the development of practical evidence-based habitat creation and management.

The BEESPOKE project is hosting an open day at the Allerton Project to discuss the benefits of encouraging pollinators, provide advice on the countryside stewardship options available to do so, and help outline the kind of outcomes you might see as a result.

As a society, we have become disconnected, not just from the sources of our food, but from the very concept that the process of food production is integrated with countless wildlife species.

The health of our soil literally and metaphorically underlies the ecosystem on which we all depend. Not least, it is fundamental to farming.