Farming Today

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Farming Today: 24/01/24 Grocery debate; Review into farm assurance schemes; Alternative to neonicotinoids; Family farm in Northern Ireland.

24/01/24 Grocery debate; Review into farm assurance schemes; Alternative to neonicotinoids; Family farm in Northern Ireland.

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 24/01/24 Grocery debate; Review into farm assurance schemes; Alternative to neonicotinoids; Family farm in Northern Ireland.

Grocery supply chain; Review of farm assurance schemes; New treatment for sugar beet pest.

Grocery supply chain debate. Independent review of farm assurance schemes. New treatment for sugar beet that could make neonicotinoids redundant. Family farms.

After a Westminster debate, prompted by an online petition with more than 110 thousand signatures, the farming minister has said the government's due to publish its new regulations on fairness in the dairy supply chain before Easter. The debate called for a fairer power balance between farmers and supermarkets and a change to the Groceries Supply Code of Practice.

The National Farmers Union and the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board have agreed to commission an independent review of farming assurance schemes - they say 'to ensure the schemes are fit for purpose'. The two groups acknowledge that the Red Tractor Scheme will be part of the review, and say that 25 years after its creation it is now time to re-assess it. 

Neonicotinoid pesticides were approved last week for emergency use, that's an exemption to a ban that's been in place in the UK and the EU since 2013. The chemicals are coated onto sugar beet seeds to make them resistant to a crop virus spread by aphids, called virus yellows. Environmental campaigners say they harm plants and insects and shouldn't be allowed. Now, scientists at the John Innes Centre in Norwich are using techniques similar to the Covid vaccines, to kill the sugar beet yellow virus directly in the plant, without interfering with the aphids that spread it, or having an impact on the wider environment. They've managed to create an anti-viral which binds itself to the RNA in the cell, which cleans out the disease.

All week we're looking at family farms. Today we visit County Londonderry in Northern Ireland where hairdresser Kerry Glass stepped up to help run the farm after her father-in-law lost his sight.

Presenter = Anna Hill
Producer = Rebecca Rooney

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Farming Today

24/01/24 Grocery debate; Review into farm assurance schemes; Alternative to neonicotinoids; Family farm in Northern Ireland.

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