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Farming Today: 06/02/2020 Chicken from Thailand, peat restoration in Scotland and attracting new blood into farming

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06/02/2020 Chicken from Thailand, peat restoration in Scotland and attracting new blood into farming

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 06/02/2020 Chicken from Thailand, peat restoration in Scotland and attracting new blood into farming

How much do we know about the welfare standards of the meat we import to the UK?

With US trade deals in the headlines, how much do we know about the welfare standards of the meat we already import to the UK?

There's been much debate over whether future trade deals could mean we import food produced to lower standards of animal welfare than UK farmers have to adhere to. But how much do most of us really know about welfare regulations in the countries we already import meat from? In response to an email from a listener who was shocked to find chicken from Thailand in a supermarket ready-meal, Caz Graham looks into welfare and hygiene standards abroad.

In Scotland peat is a key part of the landscape; peat soils cover a quarter of the country and store around 16 hundred million tonnes of carbon, according to the Scottish government. But 80 percent of Scotland’s peatland ecosystems are degraded. Caz visits one farm in East Ayrshire, where deep holes and ditches in damaged peat bogs have been taking the lives of hundreds of sheep. Now, a government-funded project is underway to restore nearly 2000 acres of the peatland.

This week is National Apprenticeship Week. One of the country's biggest landowners, the National Trust, has launched its first agricultural apprenticeship to promote conservation farming. We meet 18 year old Ged Killen from Beverley in East Yorkshire, who is full of enthusiasm about a future in farming.

Presented by Caz Graham
Produced by Heather Simons

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06/02/2020 Chicken from Thailand, peat restoration in Scotland and attracting new blood into farming

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