This week from Farmers Guardian editor Olivia Midgley
In today's Farming in Five, chief reporter Rachael Brown reports on the latest reaction to Government's land use announcement, which the TFA claims could see agricultural land drop by 10%; 13 dairy producers in the South West have been handed their 12 months' notice by Saputo Dairy UK, and the Welsh Labour MP who is standing up for farmers over family farm tax row. She also looks ahead to next week with NFU Scotland's annual conference, Dairy-Tech and YAMS machinery show all taking place
The Defra Secretary will launch a consultation on a new strategic approach to managing land use in England today (January 31)
Labour has a 'cast-iron commitment' to food production and highest quality land will be protected vows Steve Reed
The Greater London Authority has given the green light to a housing development on agricultural land occupied by an tenant in the Barnet area of London
The chair of Labour's Climate and Environment Forum Baroness Young said she hoped the ‘multi-functional' land use framework would be operationally ‘sustainable'
"Intensive farming, with its reliance on artificial nitrogen, vanishing peat and corrupting the soil, will not see many more tomorrows. It is literally unsustainable"
Despite previous promises by Government that the land use strategy document would be published by the end of the year, the Farmers Guardian understands it has been delayed to some point next year
Organic Farmers and Growers chief executive Roger Kerr said there was a ‘whole industry out there built around pesticides and fertilisers' which wants organic to fail, but organic is a ‘defined farming system that can deliver a ‘low carbon, nature-friendly, people-positive' food system
The Environmental Audit Committee has expressed concerns that the Government's ambitious tree planting target for the UK was significantly off track and there was no clear path for the private sector