Farming Today

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Farming Today: 28/10/22 Red Tractor scheme 'a farce', growing hemp, agroforestry

28/10/22 Red Tractor scheme 'a farce', growing hemp, agroforestry

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 28/10/22 Red Tractor scheme 'a farce', growing hemp, agroforestry

The Red Tractor farm assurance scheme dismissed as 'a farce'.

The Red Tractor farm assurance scheme is 'a farce' according to clean water campaigners.

The Red Tractor farm assurance scheme is "a farce" according to clean water campaigners. We reported yesterday on Environment Agency inspections of dairy and beef farms in Devon between 2016 and 2020.  In a report revealed by the Guardian, the EA found that the majority of the 187 farms were polluting on the day of inspection, and were not complying with rules on storing and spreading slurry. Most of those farms were in the Red Tractor scheme, a label that tells consumers means "the food you buy has been responsibly sourced, safely produced and comes from crops and animals that have been well cared for".

All this week we've been talking about nuts and seeds and hemp is growing in popularity.  Farmers have to get a licence to grow it, so while it's a good cover crop and its seeds can be used for oil or protein powder, you won't find many fields of it. 

We visit one of three finalists in the Farming for the Future category of this year's BBC Food and Farming Awards.  Wakelyns is a 56 acre agroforestry farm in Suffolk, growing fruit or nut trees in rows in fields of crops, providing shelter, biodiversity and an added food crop alongside cereals. 

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28/10/22 Red Tractor scheme 'a farce', growing hemp, agroforestry

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