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Farming Today: 13/03/23 Fruit growers giving up on apples, the Precision Breeding Act, Wild Isles.

13/03/23 Fruit growers giving up on apples, the Precision Breeding Act, Wild Isles.

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 13/03/23 Fruit growers giving up on apples, the Precision Breeding Act, Wild Isles.

Why apple growers are digging up their orchards.

The rising cost of food production is hitting farmers and growers all over the UK, from salad producers to livestock farmers and the fruit growers cancelling orders for new trees.  Now some orchard owners say contracts to grow apples for supermarket chains are so uneconomic they're forced to destroy their existing trees. 
Later this week it's expected that the law on gene editing will officially change as the Precision Breeding Act gets Royal Assent.  The Act allows the use of gene editing technology to create new plant varieties.
Last night the UK got the big glossy nature programme treatment with the first episode of Sir David Attenborough's Wild Isles.  With that in mind, all this week here on Farming Today we'll be talking about biodiversity. 

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13/03/23 Fruit growers giving up on apples, the Precision Breeding Act, Wild Isles.

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