Farming Today This Week

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Farming Today: 18/03/23 Farming Today This Week: Seasonal Labour; Environment Agency delays; Space tech used in food and farming; Lambing

18/03/23 Farming Today This Week: Seasonal Labour; Environment Agency delays; Space tech used in food and farming; Lambing

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 18/03/23 Farming Today This Week: Seasonal Labour; Environment Agency delays; Space tech used in food and farming; Lambing

Seasonal labour, delays at Environment Agency, space tech in farming, and lambing.

Major supplier of seasonal labour has licence revoked. Poultry farmer says delays at Environment Agency could jeopardise his business. Space tech in food and farming. Lambing.

One of the firms which operates the Government’s visa scheme for seasonal workers in food and farming has had its licence revoked. AG Recruitment was one of six companies which brought temporary workers from Europe and around the world to work on UK farms. We ask British Growers what this means for a sector which is already struggling to find workers to pick their fruit and veg this summer.

A farmer who lost all his ducks through bird flu, says delays with paperwork could jeopardize his plans to produce chickens instead. Tom McVeigh wants to house broilers on his farm in Suffolk after 95,000 ducks died because of avian influenza. He needs the Environment Agency to sign off on the the change of use but says they've told him staff shortages mean instead of taking six weeks to process the paperwork, it'll take six months.

All week we are boldly going beyond our world to talk about how food and farming can benefit from our exploration of space. From satellites guiding tractors and scouting for illegal fishing operations, to zero gravity crops. We speak to: the UK Space Agency about how space exploration already has an impact on farms; an Israeli company which has produced lab-grown meat in space; a tech start-up which is taking technology designed for exploring Mars to weed organic crops; and a campaign group which is using images from space to keep tabs on illegal fishing.

Early lambing's started, which means late nights and early mornings on some sheep farms. We join one couple who breed Texel rams in the lambing shed on their farm  in Gloucestershire.

Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney

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18/03/23 Farming Today This Week: Seasonal Labour; Environment Agency delays; Space tech used in food and farming; Lambing

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