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Farming Today: 24/01/22 Mystery shellfish deaths; Food labelling; New farm support payments.

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24/01/22 Mystery shellfish deaths; Food labelling; New farm support payments.

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 24/01/22 Mystery shellfish deaths; Food labelling; New farm support payments.

Fishermen call for help after mass shellfish deaths; food labels; new subsidies system.

Mystery surrounds the mass death of shellfish, the fishing fleet in Whitby says it could ruin them. Food labelling. Farmers on Exmoor sceptical about new subsidy system.

It’s three months since  dead crabs and lobsters started washing up on beaches across the north east of England.  At the time, the Environment Agency said investigating the source of the deaths was ‘a top priority’ but since then thousands of shellfish have died and those deaths are still unexplained. Now fishermen say they’re losing their livelihoods and the government must help.  
 
Campaigners are calling for reforms to food labelling. A new organisation called OmniAction wants a new set of global standards. Tim Lang, Emeritus Professor of Food Policy at City University, London says better labelling, which offered consumers more details, would put pressure on companies to improve their standards.

Some farmers in the South West have described government plans for the future of farming as "confused and patronising". New Environmental Land Management schemes are replacing the previous system of support payments in England, rewarding farmers for ‘public goods’ like carbon capture and improving habitats. Communities in Exmoor National Park are sceptical about how the scheme will work for them.

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24/01/22 Mystery shellfish deaths; Food labelling; New farm support payments.

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