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Farming Today: 24/01/20: Sugar and health, calf-at-foot investment, quantifying natural capital

24/01/20: Sugar and health, calf-at-foot investment, quantifying natural capital

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 24/01/20: Sugar and health, calf-at-foot investment, quantifying natural capital

Perspectives on sugar and public health - and a new way to measure natural capital.

Anna Hill gets perspectives on the sugar tax, and finds out about a government system to measure natural capital.

As part of Farming Today's week-long focus on sugar beet, Anna Hill considers the end product: what impact sugar consumption is having on public health, and attitudes towards taxes on sugary food and drinks. She hears from Graham MacGregor from campaign group Action on Sugar - as well as British Sugar managing director Paul Kenward.

Caz Graham visits the UK's largest 'calf-at-foot' dairy, with a herd of 125 organic cows - where calves are left with their mothers for five months: much longer than a traditional dairy model. The Scottish government’s Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Fund is now funding a £60,000 year-long pilot project, tracking the farm's progress - to see if what they’re doing could form a template for other farmers.

And this week, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has launched a system to help measure the economic impact of 'natural capital': that is, positive ecosystem effects, things that provide us with food, clean air and water, wildlife, energy, protection from hazards and so on. Professor Ian Bateman from the University of Exeter was involved in creating the new system, and tells Anna it's the first step in farmers being able to find out what 'public money for public goods' will actually mean for them.

Presented by Anna HIll, produced by Lucy Taylor.

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