Challenges

Chris Packham and the Nature Friendly Farming Network

I recently visited Martin Lines, UK Chair of the Nature Friendly Farming Network. Martin invites large numbers of people to his farm each year to show them what he is doing to improve the state of nature on his farm. One of those guests was Chris Packham who organised a bioblitz to take place onContinueContinue reading “Chris Packham and the Nature Friendly Farming Network”

Searching for Common Ground at the ORFC and the OFC

I will be spending the next couple of days at the 10th Oxford Real Farming Conference and the 73rd Oxford Farming Conference and my mission is simple, but also overwhelmingly complex: to search for common ground between the two. How are these two conferences similar and how are they still fundamentally different? Is there aContinueContinue reading “Searching for Common Ground at the ORFC and the OFC”

The Hare, why I love it and why we might lose it

Working on a mixed farm with a mosaic of arable cropping, tussocky grassland, marshland and hay meadows I am lucky to be able to see a wide variety of species, although I would love for wildlife abundance to be still greater, a difficult prospect when wildlife is under threat from so many angles. Hares haveContinueContinue reading “The Hare, why I love it and why we might lose it”

The East of England Farming Conference

Last week I attended the East of England Farming Conference which was held at the East of England Showground near Peterborough. For a farming conference with such an established sounding name you might be surprised that it is only a few years old, with this event only the fourth to take place in its history.ContinueContinue reading “The East of England Farming Conference”

The Rural Youth Project

I came across the Rural Youth Project in this week’s Farmers Weekly, a small paragraph on p.8, and this led me to their website. In short the RYP is a research project that aims to better understand the current ‘aspirations, opportunities and challenges’ of young people (18-28), mostly in Scotland but also in England, Wales,ContinueContinue reading “The Rural Youth Project”