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Farming Today: Plastics on the farm; the truth about chlorinated chicken; winter in the Cairngorms

12/01/2018

Plastics on the farm; the truth about chlorinated chicken; winter in the Cairngorms

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, Plastics on the farm; the truth about chlorinated chicken; winter in the Cairngorms

What could a tax on single-use plastics mean for farmers?

Plastics are at the heart of the government's 25-Year Environment Plan and next month there will be discussions on a tax for single-use plastics: what is the reaction from farmers?

Plastics were at the heart of the government's 25-Year Environment Plan, which the Prime Minister revealed yesterday. 
We now have ban on micro-beads in cosmetic products, the 5p charge for plastic bags is extended to all retailers - and next month there'll be discussions on a potential tax for single-use plastics.
So what does this anti-plastic message mean for farmers? Sybil speaks to Cotswolds farmer Tanya Robbins.
But plastics weren't the only focus of Theresa May's speech: other key themes included marine protection, increasing British woodland and protecting and enhancing natural capital.
Critics have said it contained too much talk, and too little action - with no concrete legislation to put the plan into law after Britain leaves the EU and therefore hold offenders to account. Others say the focus on a 'Green Brexit' is a ploy to win over younger voters ahead of the next election.
Sybil Ruscoe asks 20-year-old Aimee Challenor - a member of the Young Greens - whether, if that was the aim, it had worked...

Yesterday we discussed post-Brexit trade negotiations with the US - and heard from the American Under Secretary for Trade, Ted McKinney - who said he was "sick and tired" of answering questions about chlorine-washed chicken, which he said hadn't been used "for a long time".
So what exactly do American processors use to disinfect their poultry? A representative from the US Embassy in London told us that FOUR chemicals are approved for use in disinfectant solutions for poultry - one of them being chlorine dioxide. They said it's the least common of the four permitted chemicals, and although they couldn't give us a percentage of how many American poultry producers are using it, they said it was very low. 
To get some clarification, Sybil speaks to Matt Kilcoyne from think-tank The Adam Smith Institute - which last year published a report into why we should accept US chicken in the UK as part of a future trade deal.

As part of this week's Winter Livestock focus, we're visiting one of the toughest farming corners of the UK: the Cairngorms in Scotland. Bob Moncrieff is a tenant farmer near Nethy Bridge. His 20 cows and 280 breeding sheep graze mostly on the open hillside where there's been snow on the ground since the start of December. Moira Hickey reports on the day-to-day reality of running a hill farm in a Highland winter.

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