From the Soil Association - News

"Putting Syngenta in charge of UK research into the causes of honeybee deaths is arguably the equivalent of putting the tobacco companies in charge of research into lung cancer."
Graham White, a beekeeper and environmental author, commenting on Syngenta funding research into the disappearance of honeybees, The Herald, 4 October 2009

Monty Don calls on gardeners to down spades and let nature take its course
Soil Association president, garden writer and television presenter Monty Don has called on gardeners to stop their diligent digging and weeding in favour of letting nature take its course…His comments come as scientific research revealed that the average British garden often contains more wildlife than the countryside, which has been stripped of life by intensive farming.
Daily Telegraph (3 Oct, p.7)

'I've had it with conventional gardening'
The thinking woman's pin-up, writer and former TV presenter Monty Don reveals his a change of heart. “Fighting nature is a losing battle,” he says, “whether you are growing wheat or wisteria.” Cassandra Jardine reports: ‘This comes as a shock, not least because Monty spent years at the BBC’s Berryfields garden preaching about how to keep down weeds or divide irises. His new role as president of the Soil Association was bound to reinforce any eco-leanings, but his obsession with getting things precisely right was never just a pose. That much is evident from every page of his new book, The Ivington Diaries…’
Daily Telegraph Gardening (3 Oct, G.1-3)

My secret life: Monty Don
The Independent Magazine (3 Oct, p.7)

Beekeepers tell pesticide firm to buzz off
One of the world’s biggest pesticide companies, Syngenta, has been accused of a “howling conflict of interest” for funding research into the disappearance of honeybees – a problem which some people claim it may have helped cause. Syngenta, based in Basel, Switzerland, last year clocked up £7.3 billion worth of sales in more than 90 countries. Among the products it markets to farmers are insecticides which have been blamed for harming honeybees. It now also co-funds a £1m project in the UK, announced last week, to research the decline of the bees…A film due to open in cinemas this week highlights the global plight of the honeybee and argues that insecticides are partly to blame. Called Vanishing Of The Bees, it is backed by the Co-operative retail group, which has a strict policy on the use of pesticides on the fruit and vegetables it sells, including a total ban on the use of several chemicals… A coalition of environmental groups has launched a campaign for a ban on neonicotinoids in the UK. The group includes the Soil Association, which certifies organic food. Its Scottish director, Hugh Raven, said Syngenta had made its position clear by opposing a ban on neonicotinoids: “The taint of commercial interest has undermined this research before it’s even started.”
The Herald (4 Oct)

Would David Cameron be green in government?
David Cameron has insisted that the environment features strongly in preparations for power, says Geoffrey Lean.
Daily Telegraph (3 Oct, p.22)

No truth in 'mischievous' bird life reports
Organic Farming's supporters have slammed ‘mischievous and misleading' newspaper reports alleging that some farmland birds winter less well on farms managed to organic guidelines. The story, first carried in The Times newspaper - but reproduced in The Scottish Farmer 19 Sept - alleged that organic doctrine required farmers to plough in their arable fields before winter, denying several bird species the winter feed offered by spilled grain in stubble. Furious organic farmers wasted no time in contacting The Scottish Farmer to point out that the exact opposite is true - organic farmers traditionally undersow and leave their stubbles in place - and that whoever was propagating the story had brazenly turned the facts on their heads.
Soil Association Scotland director Hugh Raven condemned the story as 'seriously misleading', and pointed out that it was recognised scientific fact - backed up by exhaustive research - that organic systems encouraged all types of wildlife: “The benefits of organic farming for biodiversity are well-known, and recognised in the Scottish Government's support for organic farming.”
Scottish Farmer (3 Oct)

Hunger for biofuels will gobble up wheat surplus
Britain’s self-sufficiency in wheat will end next year, because a giant new biofuel refinery needs so much of the staple crop that home-grown supplies will be exhausted feeding both the factory and the nation.
Environmental campaigners have voiced concern about the planned biofuel plant. A spokesman for Friends of the Earth said that the organisation was opposed to the use of biofuels in petrol. “Using wheat for fuel involves the displacement of agricultural land used for food production. At the end of that displacement chain you need to create new farmland and that usually means cutting down forests.”
The Times (5 Oct, p.43)

United we stand, divided costs more
The past few years have seen a surge in the number of co-operatives formed by small firms and sole traders with the aim of improving their performance — by cutting overheads, boosting purchasing power and strengthening their hand in negotiating contracts. Known as co-operative consortia, they work in the same egalitarian way as other co-ops, such as housing and community groups, with all members sharing the benefits, but the emphasis is squarely on the bottom line. In North York Moors National Park, seven hill farmers have joined forces to gain greater negotiating power when selling their traditionally reared lamb to Asda. The co-op — called, Seven Hill Farmers — began supplying 300 lambs a week to 32 Asda stores last month.
The Sunday Times (4 Oct, p.11)
Click here to find out more about food buying groups and community supported agriculture.

The great drought: Disaster looms in East Africa
Rotting carcasses testify to the scale of the disaster looming in East Africa.
Daniel Howden reports from Marsabit, Kenya where an extraordinary drought is drying up rivers, and grasslands, scorching crops and threatening millions of people with starvation.
The Independent (3 October, pp.4-5)

Sauvignon blanc comes to Britain
A winery is to plant Britain’s first commercial sauvignon blanc grapes in potentially the clearest demonstration yet of how climate change could transform the countryside and agriculture.
The Sunday Times (Oct 4, p.11)
England’s winemakers enjoy bumper crop
The Independent (Oct 3, p. 23)

Homer Simpson to teach us healthy living
The Department of Health is to sponsor episodes of The Simpsons in an attempt to improve the nation’s diet and increase exercise levels.
The Sunday Times (4 Oct, p.7)

Will compost bins bring ecological salvation?
How can we reduce the estimated 4.1m tonnes of food which goes to landfill every year in Britain? Lucy Siegle on the return of the slop bucket.
The Observer Magazine (4 Oct, p.65)

Farming Today
Website summary:It is conker season, but children may be disappointed this year as horse chestnut trees face a little invader with big consequences. Charlotte Smith finds out what is being done to control the rapid spread of 'leaf miner'. Also, Charlotte asks whether NIMBYS (Not In My Back Yard) are friend or foe of the countryside.
BBC Radio 4, listen again (5 Oct)

And finally...
Nudes take root in vineyard
Naked volunteers pose for Spencer Tunick in a vineyard in Fuisse, Burgundy. The US photographer, best known for his installations that feature large numbers of nude people in unorthodox settings and artistic formations, held the session for a Greenpeace campaign highlighting climate change.
The Guardian (5 Oct, p.25)