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Farming Today: 04/12/23 COP28 food and farming, pollock, wet crops

04/12/23 COP28 food and farming, pollock, wet crops

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 04/12/23 COP28 food and farming, pollock, wet crops

Today food, farming and climate diplomacy.

Farming and food is on the official COP agenda for the first time. It's taken 28 years but there is now a declaration from COP on the future of food, the Emirates Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action. All this week we'll be looking at what that means for agriculture and at some of the action being taken on farms here in the UK to reduce farming's environmental and climate impact. The COP declaration was signed by 134 world leaders and means they have promised to consider greenhouse gas emissions from food and agriculture in their national plans to combat climate change. There are no targets and no mention of how countries will tackle the emissions related to food production.  

Christmas may be just around the corner but there's little seasonal cheer in the fishing community. It seems likely that the government will very soon announce a complete ban on fishing for pollock, one of the key species on which fishing livelihoods in the South West of England are based. In a very strongly-worded letter to the Fishing Minister, the Cornish Fish Producers Organisation says the move would be catastrophic and swiftly lead to people going out of business. 

'The worst year we have ever known', that’s what many farmers are saying about 2023, and while this year is drawing to a close the impact of failed or ruined crop will of course have an impact of next year.  

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

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