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Farming Today: 04/10/2022: Conservative Party Conference, Trade Deals, Potato Harvest

04/10/2022: Conservative Party Conference, Trade Deals, Potato Harvest

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 04/10/2022: Conservative Party Conference, Trade Deals, Potato Harvest

The new Defra secretary Ranil Jayawardena addresses the Conservative Party Conference.

The new Defra secretary addresses the Conservative Party Conference. Plus more warnings that new post-Brexit trade deals will lower food standards.

The new Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Ranil Jayawardena took to the stage at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham yesterday. He told delegates a strong healthy environment and a strong healthy economy can go hand in hand, and from now on instead of Defra being a regulatory department, it is now an economic growth department. 

Meanwhile, farming and environmental groups have written to the Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch demanding guarantees that the Government will maintain a "level playing field" for food and animal welfare standards in future trade deals. It follows warnings from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) that the Government is entering Free Trade Agreements which will result in lowering food standards and putting consumers at risk. 

And all week we're talking about potatoes. Today we are discussing water and how the lack of rain this year has been impacting on yields - we find out how irrigation is used to both grow the crop, and to soften the soil. 

Presented by Anna Hill 
Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

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