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Farming Today: 17/04/24 - Wet weather food impacts, farm microbrewery, tenant farmers and seabird dawn chorus

17/04/24 - Wet weather food impacts, farm microbrewery, tenant farmers and seabird dawn chorus

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 17/04/24 - Wet weather food impacts, farm microbrewery, tenant farmers and seabird dawn chorus

After months of rain, what will the long-term impact be on fresh produce supply chains?

A total wipeout of crops is now a possibility for some farms after record rainfall over recent months. What impact will this have on fresh produce supply chains?

A total wipe-out of crops is now a possibility for some farms - it follows the record rainfall over recent months. Crops on thousands of acres of highly productive land have been destroyed and even now fields are too boggy for machinery to harvest or plant crops for the months ahead. So what impact will this have on our fresh produce supply chains?

Tenant farmers "can't be left to go by the wayside" - that's the message from the NFU Tenant Farmer Conference. English farmers who rent some - or all - of the land they work face many challenges at the moment. From landlords taking land back for solar farms or the ELMs environmental schemes, to rising rents and the phasing out of subsidy payments under the basic payments scheme or BPS.

And we visit a former dairy farm where cattle barns have been turned into a microbrewery, a taproom and a wedding venue.

Presented by Charlotte Smith
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons

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17/04/24 - Wet weather food impacts, farm microbrewery, tenant farmers and seabird dawn chorus

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