Farming Today

01/10/24 New kept-bird register, US certification scheme for regen ag, deer cull.

From 1 October, all owners of poultry in England and Wales, must be registered with the Animal and Plant Health Agency, even if it's just one hen in the back garden. This can be done online, through the DEFRA website. The aim is to be able to track all kept birds, in the event of more bird flu outbreaks. The new rule also applies to pet birds such as budgies, cockatiels, parrots and finches, if they are given access to the open air. All birds either kept outdoors, or taken outdoors, must be registered. Failure to do so could result in a fine of £2,500. However some owners say it’s unfair that they have to comply in the same way as poultry farms which house almost a million birds.

Waitrose says the orchard and vineyard on its Leckford farming estate in Hampshire is now certified as regenerative, as defined by an American certification scheme called 'Regenified'. Currently around 1.8 million acres are signed up to the scheme, most of it in the USA but 32 UK farms are signed up with the company. We speak to the American founders of the company and find out why Waitrose has signed up to it.

All week we're taking stock of deer. They may look wonderful in the wild, but in large numbers they can damage woodland and crops. In England and Wales there is no national strategy for managing herds, but the Scottish Government is encouraging land managers to shoot deer in a controlled way, to keep numbers down. So far it’s just a pilot scheme, run in three areas. If it’s a success it could be rolled out across Scotland, but there are already questions over whether the extra venison can be handled.

Presenter = Anna Hill Producer = Rebecca Rooney

This programme has been edited since broadcast.

Broadcast on:: 01 Oct 2024
Audio Format:: other

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Our job is to be able to protect the narrative around regenerative agriculture, to avoid the risk of greenwashing. We'll have more on that a little later. First, all week, we're taking stock of wild deer. They may look wonderful, but in large numbers, they can have a detrimental impact on woodland and crops, and they can damage the environment for other wildlife. As we heard yesterday in England and Wales, there's no national strategy for managing herds, but in Scotland, the government there is encouraging land managers to shoot deer in a controlled way to keep numbers down. So far, it's just a pilot scheme running three areas. If it's a success, it could be rolled out nationwide, but there are already questions over whether the extra venison can be handled. Richard Baines has been finding out more. Trees like this, which could be oak seedlings, highly palatable to deer. Jamie Hammond is deer operations manager for the government wildlife agency NatureScott, trying to keep Scotland's 800,000-odd deer under control. Two of the pilot areas for the incentive scheme are in the Highlands. The third is here, west of Stirling and north of Glasgow. This particular scheme will have a minimum coal rate of four deer per hundred hectares, so the key for that is ensuring the additionality. We're not going to pay for what people are already doing, so essentially if their farm's a hundred hectares, they need to shoot four females and juveniles first, and then deer's number five, six, seven and onwards. There would be an additional payment for that, which is 70 pounds per female, 35 pounds per juvenile. A new mobile app will let stalkers log each animal's shot. The development of the whole incentive approach, the processes, the systems that we've developed, that's key and effectively allowing us to see, would this kind of thing work if it was used at a national scale? It's a three-o-eight calibre. Put the magazine in, then life will become life. Alan Kirk is a part-time stalker, helping a local farmer keep deer numbers down. He's signed up for the pilot. It gives you a benefit, if you know that there's something coming back, you can afford the fuel to get to the places you have to get to and everything that can offset what you're having to begin with is good. Deer managers in the Highlands are already calling for a nationwide extension to the scheme. But here in the Lowlands, where stalkers like Alan may take only three or four animals a year to give meat to family and friends, it's not so straightforward. I had the old dairy. When it became redundant, we converted it into anything I could get. Farmer John Bruce chairs the Lowland Deer Network, a stalking group which covers the Stirling Ship pilot. He welcomed it, but he warned that small operators will find regulations get in the way of shooting extra animals. As soon as he intends to either provide it to a venison dealer or to try and process it for public use, he has to enter the regulation ladder, which starts with his premises being registered with a local authority. If he's going to sell anything he produces himself to anybody else, he must procure a venison dealer's license. He introduced costs of possibly about 300 pounds for the venison dealer's license and maybe seven and a half thousand pounds to spend on a chill. Alan Kirk has one answer to that. It would be nice if there was possibly a community alarm that made available. They've done something similar down south and that has helped with the problems they have. But stalkers will have to organise that themselves after the Scottish Government scrapped proposals to subsidise such a scheme. It's facing 500 million pound budget cuts to balance its books and said it had considered dear larders as part of its efforts to boost the cull, but had been unable to fund such infrastructure. I think it's a missed opportunity that I know a lot of the stalkers in this area especially could make you sort of, if I had an opportunity to shoot more dear here and take it to a local establishment where I knew it was going to go through the system, it would be much easier to shoot more dear. Alan Kirk, they're ending that report by Richard Baines. Wheat Row says the Orchard and Vineyard on its farming estate in Hampshire is now certified as regenerative, as defined by an American certification scheme called Regenified. At the moment, 32 UK farms are signed up with the company and it says it's expecting about 200,000 hectares will be certified across the UK next year. Wheat Row's lekford estate produces food for its shops and sells direct consumers too, its apples, pears and vineyard are now certified by Regenified, which was founded by Gabe Brown and Salar Shemerani. Gabe Brown farms in Dakota and developed what he calls the 634 system on his mixed farm back in 2018. It includes protecting the soil, diversity in crops and ecology and care for water, nutrients and the energy cycle. The system also carefully measures the difference it's making. I asked him what the essence of regenerative farming is for him. The essence of regenerative farming is working in harmony with nature to restore ecosystem function, increase profitability, showing these farms can both be profitable while doing what's right for the landscape. And by so doing that, they will revitalize rural communities, take massive amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere, put it back into the soil, and they will produce nutrient dense food, which is for the betterment of all. And how would you like to see this? I believe that it's imperative that we regenerate landscapes globally. We're in a crisis, we're seeing loss of biodiversity, we're seeing soil degradation. I don't think we have a choice. Salar Shemerani, you are CEO of Regenified. From a company point of view, would it be really lucrative for you to be able to certify millions of farms across the world? Is that why you're doing it? No, at Regenified, our mission is simply to be able to transition the supply chain to regenerative agriculture, assist them by way of which farmers are recognized and rewarded for the regenerative practices they implement. And our job or our role is to be able to protect the narrative around regenerative agriculture, as are many other organizations, to avoid the risk of greenwashing. At Regenifying, you are at a stage that... That is the fear of many people, isn't it? That big companies will say that they are now doing regen and they can greenwash their companies. How do you guard against that? We simply need to put the control back into farmers' hands and help them to be recognized as they make improvement over time. We have to get to the point of being able to create a supply chain that rewards farmers more fairly. So for us, it's important to be able to use our framework to measure the progress that these farmers are making over time and be able to enable brands, retailers, grocery chains to have access to that data and information to be able to back the claims they are putting on products. Salah Shemirani from Regenified. So why has Waitrose decided to use this American regeneration certification for their apples, pears and vines? Andrew Hoad is head of the Lechford Estate. We have been talking to our farmers about the six principles of regenerative agriculture and that is very aligned to the work that Gabe and his team are doing. We really sort of got them onto the farm when they were over here for our Waitrose farming conference and we wanted to see the progress we were making on our own farm. And so given that we have been practicing aligned to those principles for the last few years, we wanted to see whether we were able to demonstrate that we were making progress and that's really what we did. What I should say though, this in no way is any commitment in terms of a long-term change across the Waitrose supply chain. This is very much about Lechford and our role within our overall supply chain in terms of innovative learning and testing new ideas. Many organic farms are certified in the UK by the soil association, but the soil association itself, they say they are cautious about the risks of greenwashing when it comes to the term "regenerative" and they recognise organic certification as the most comprehensive, verifiable, legally protected benchmark for regenerative agriculture. So there's a bit of a conflict there, isn't there? They think the term "regenerative" can be used for greenwashing. So how do you guard against that? We are, if you like, conventional farmers here and that's how we've always found. I understand the point. I think we would agree with the soil association around this sense that we need a farming system that's kind to nature. We need one that really does respect and understand the potential of soil. And I hope we would agree that therefore adopting regenerative principles that are very clear and increasingly around standardisation of approach is a good thing to do. And I think there is room for both. I really do not see that we are trying to, in any shape or form, step into organic space here or to blur the boundaries. And of course, we all have a responsibility to avoid being in any situation around greenwashing. And that is where, you know, potentially, certainly standardisation, certainly assurance and potential certification is a route to be able to get beyond that. Andrew Hoad from Waitrose's Lechford Estate. From today, all owners of poultry in England and Wales, even if it's just one hen in your back garden, must be registered with the Animal and Plant Health Agency. This can be done online through the Defra website. The aim is to be able to track all kept birds in the event of more bird flu outbreaks. The new rule also applies to pet birds such as budgies, cockatiels, parrots and finches if they give an access to the open air. So all birds, either kept outdoors or taken outdoors, must be registered. Failure to do so could result in a fine of £2,500. But some owners say it's unfair that they have to comply in the same way as poultry farms housing almost a million birds. Lindsey Smith from BBC Look North reports. Then I'll put that down there. They're up. They're tread more like pets than poultry. Six rescue hens who live on an allotment off a busy hassle road. They're now registered. Here's their owner, Ray Holmes. I filled it in. I found it difficult. I had a big difficulty with the postcode. I don't think we should be penalised on a smaller plot like this when we've got wildlife flying all over. There's geese flying over in the morning now. They're going away. Who knows what's dropping from the sky? The deadline to register is a hot topic here as is the penalty if you don't. Derek Smith has four rescue hens. Here we go for the date and we have four eggs. Quite a high risk of a £2,500 home fine. I think it's just bureaucracy gone crazy, yeah. It's hoped the register will enable the government to quickly inform keepers if there's another bird flu outbreak. The winter of 2021 to 22 saw the worst on record. George Martin Almagro is the UK's deputy chief veterinary officer. It's a top priority because if we do not know where those birds are kept, then we have to spend resources in trying to find them. But actually we're also trying to deal with the disease. There is a threat out there of avian influenza. As we know, it's in wild birds and it's been already making an impact in certain parts of Europe. And that risks the supply of the nation's favourite meat. I produce for Sainsbury's we produce meat birds around about 7 million a year. James Porter runs one of Lincoln's biggest poultry farms with a flock of 880,000 birds. We weren't allowed inside James's chicken sheds. They take the spread of viruses so seriously. But he says it's vital to register after watching fellow farmers whose birds caught the disease. I know what kind of effect these diseases can have on people's livelihoods. It took their whole flock out of production and they had to come back from that or most potentially didn't come back at all. Come on girls, this way. The government say they want to encourage rather than enforce this law ultimately to remain disease free. Lindsay Smith from BBC Look North. That's all from us today, I'm Anna Hill, the producer is Rebecca Rooney. Farming today is a BBC audio Bristol production. Hey there. Looking to level up your shopping experience? Let me introduce you to Amazon Live. If you haven't heard, it's a shoppable video experience where influencers and creators showcase the latest must haves all while you shop in real time. And for those who love some celeb gossip, reality stars like Kyle Richards, Lala Kent, and Friend of the Pod, Paige Disorbow. 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