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Farming Today: 14/01/21: Office for Environmental Protection, Sugar beet treatment, African locusts

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14/01/21: Office for Environmental Protection, Sugar beet treatment, African locusts

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 14/01/21: Office for Environmental Protection, Sugar beet treatment, African locusts

Dame Glenys Stacey outlines the role of new Office for Environmental Protection.

Dame Glenys Stacey outlines the role of new Office for Environmental Protection, plus swarms of locusts in East Africa.

Leaving the EU means it’s all change for the legal framework we use to protect the environment. In England there’ll be a new independent regulator called The Office for Environmental Protection to ensure government and businesses don’t break environmental laws. Yesterday it's new Chair, Dame Glenys Stacy addressed concerns from environmental groups who are worried the organisation might not have the right powers or resources to do its job properly at a stakeholder conference.

This week there’s been some very vocal opposition to the government’s decision to allow sugar beet growers a temporary relaxation in the law to let them use a neonicotinoid pesticide that’s banned across the EU. Farmers say they need it to control ‘virus yellows disease’ but environmental campaigners argue it’s harmful to pollinators and is banned for good reason. Today we hear from researchers at the John Innes centre, who have just secured funding to develop a 'vaccine-type' solution for the virus. 

We drop in on mixed-organic farmers Cate and George Bennett in Oxfordshire to see how the business has changed over the past year during Covid restrictions.   

And as we continue our week looking at international farming we go to East Africa, to find out how farmers are coping with swarms of locusts that are devastating crops. 

Presented by Caz Graham
Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

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