Farming Today

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Farming Today: 21/05/2020 - Pick for Britain, trees or food production and the power of nature.

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21/05/2020 - Pick for Britain, trees or food production and the power of nature.

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 21/05/2020 - Pick for Britain, trees or food production and the power of nature.

British Growers says farmers now have enough pickers to harvest fruit and veg this summer.

Has the Pick for Britain campaign come too late? British Growers says farmers have already recruited most of the staff they need for the season.

After the Prince of Wales asked people to Pick for Britain, over 300 thousand people visited the website. But the industry body, British Growers, says farmers have already recruited most of the workers they need for the season. So has it all come too late?

Which is more important - growing woodlands to combat climate change or growing food? 13 percent of the country is currently woodland - to reach 17% cover by 2050, as recommended by the Climate Change Committee, we’d need to plant 30,000 hectares a year. So some hard decisions will have to be made about where all those trees should go. We speak to a farmer who is losing arable land that he rented from the University of Cambridge, because it’s just been sold to Forestry England for planting trees. And Charlotte Smith asks the Woodland Trust where the balance should lie.

And an evaluation of the past five years of the Wildlife Trusts’ ‘30 days wild’ campaign by the University of Derby says being connected to nature makes people both happier and healthier. Could that be a hidden benefit of lockdown for many?

Presented by Charlotte Smith
Produced by Heather Simons

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21/05/2020 - Pick for Britain, trees or food production and the power of nature.

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