Farming Today

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Magazines & Reviews

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside

BBC Radio 4 LW

Farming Today: 23/02/23 - Salad grower, Defra secretary at NFU conference, Reintroducing hoverflies

23/02/23 - Salad grower, Defra secretary at NFU conference, Reintroducing hoverflies

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 23/02/23 - Salad grower, Defra secretary at NFU conference, Reintroducing hoverflies

Tomato grower on salad shortages, Defra secretary at NFU conference, and re-introductions.

A tomato producer on salad shortages and what help the sector needs; Defra secretary Therese Coffey at the NFU conference; and re-introducing rare hoverflies in Scotland.

As supermarkets ration salad, one tomato grower tells us what that what the sector really needs is government help to invest in hi-tech greenhouses. Flavourfresh near Stockport produce tomatoes under glass. They have their own power plant, selling energy to the grid. They use the excess heat to warm the glasshouses and the carbon dioxide to help plants grow bigger. However, large modern greenhouses like theirs cost millions. Producer Andy Roe says the sector needs help to finance state-of-the art sites like theirs, then he says they'd be able to grow more for the British market.

The Defra secretary, Therese Coffey, has been addressing farmers at the NFU annual conference in Birmingham. She said the ELMS budget did not need to be increased to help farmers meet government environmental targets, and she also said that the challenges faced by pig and poultry producers did not equate to market failure and so she would not be using new powers under the Agriculture Act to intervene.

Re-introductions of animals and birds usually feature high-profile species like beavers or wild cats, but there are others like the pine hoverfly - a  small, elusive and very rare insect, whose habitat is among Scots Pine trees. The last population in Britain is in the Cairngorms National Park - and that's where conservationists from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland are involved in a breeding programme which  has been releasing pine hoverflies  back into the wild for the past two years.

Presenter: Caz Graham
Producer: Rebecca Rooney

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Farming Today

23/02/23 - Salad grower, Defra secretary at NFU conference, Reintroducing hoverflies

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4