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Farming Today: 16/03/22 - Food security, animal sentience and organic duck eggs

US secretary of agriculture, EFRA Committee reports, haricot beans

16/03/22 - Food security, animal sentience and organic duck eggs

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 16/03/22 - Food security, animal sentience and organic duck eggs

What will rising input costs mean for UK food security?

Farmers are facing rising costs - for fuel, for fertiliser and for energy. Combined with the war in Ukraine hitting global wheat exports, what will this mean for UK food security?

Farmers are facing rising costs - the initial impact of gas price rises last autumn hit fertiliser costs and now the gas price hike has led some horticulture producers to close up their heated glasshouses. In Holland there are reports that Dutch glasshouse growers - have reduced their heating, and their yields will be down. At the same time, the war in Ukraine is disrupting global wheat exports and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations is warning of “serious food-security repercussions for some 50 countries that rely on Russia & Ukraine for wheat." So what does all this mean for UK food security? DEFRA says “the UK imports a very low amount of foodstuffs from Eastern Europe, with the majority of grains, meat, dairy and eggs produced in the UK, so the Government does not expect any significant direct impact on UK food supply.”

EU legislation enshrined that in law, and it was the foundation of animal welfare rules. Since leaving the EU, this ‘sentience’ legislation is now being put into the new Animal Welfare Bill, and a new Committee will be created, to ensure UK Ministers take account of animal welfare. This week, the government accepted an amendment to the Bill which would ensure recommendations from the committee respect religious rights, cultural traditions and regional heritage…that would include religious slaughter of un-stunned animals, and game-bird shooting.

And there’s only one certified producer of organic duck eggs currently operating in the UK.  Parc Carreg is a small 10 acre business in Carmarthenshire running some 500 ducks. We visit and meet farmer, Josh Heyneke.

Presented by Anna Hill
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons

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16/03/22 - Food security, animal sentience and organic duck eggs

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