Today's News - 28 May 2012

“…it's not just GM critics who are raising concerns about the Rothamsted trial. Guy Smith, himself a former GM trial farmer as well as a long-time member of the biotech industry lobby group CropGen, recently declared that the wheat trial is not just a massive waste of public money but little short of insane.”
Jonathan Matthews, founder and director of GMWatch – The Ecologist – 25 May
 

The inside story on the GM wheat trial debate
Despite intense media coverage and protests over the GM wheat trial at Rothamsted, Jonathan Matthews asks whether we are being given the full facts.
The Ecologist (25 May)

Anti-GM protesters kept from tearing up wheat crop by police
Police use trespass order and mounted officers to halt hundreds of activists at entrance to land owned by Rothamsted Research. The event on Sunday, which attracted hundreds of protesters including farmers, politicians and activists from the UK and abroad, had prompted the local council to obtain an order making it a criminal offence to trespass on the land.
The Guardian (27 May)
The GM scientists' risky strategy that won public support
The Guardian (27 May)
European activists link up against GM wheat
Farming UK (28 May)
Beddington: GM protests threaten world's poor
BBC News (27 May)

Monty Don in row with BBC over pledge he will ‘promote non organic gardening’
Monty Don, the television gardener and Soil Association president, has become embroiled in a row with the BBC after it pledged he would do more to promote non-organic methods on his Gardeners’ World Show, following criticism that his advice was biased.
The Telegraph (27 May, p.16)

How EU farming policies led to a collapse in Europe's bird population
New survey shows devastation to farmland birds caused by policies – and experts can see no sign of improvement.
The Observer (26 May)

British veal poised for an 'ethical' comeback
British rose veal has already won the ethic¬¬al stamp of approval from the RSPCA and Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) but it remains a niche market in the UK, just 0.1% of the meat we consume each year. Now TV farmer Jimmy Doherty, as part of a new series starting on Channel 4 this week, has persuaded Tesco to start stocking the veal in the hope that it will catch on with British meat-eaters.
The Guardian (27 May)

Quality dinners put catering firm top of the class
Healthy dinners being served up in eight North Somerset primary schools have landed an award. The Food for Life Gold Catering Mark is awarded by the Soil Association to caterers which provide pupils with healthy, freshly prepared food using local, seasonal and organic ingredients.
This is Bristol (24 May)
Find out more about the Food for Life Catering Mark here.

Feeding the Olympics: menus to take Games visitors around the world
Offering everything from goat curry to frosted cupcakes, South African barbeque to fish and chips, the spectators' menus to be unveiled next week aim to cast the London Games as a festival of food. Basic environmental and ethical standards have been set, but the original aspiration to serve largely organic produce has not been met.
The Guardian (25 May)

Sunny weather alleviates wet weather pain for farmers
Forecasts of sunny weather continuing into the weekend are likely to cheer farmers concerned that after drought damage, they were facing a double whammy with the wettest April on record threatening a rise in pests and diseases.
The Guardian (25 May)

Rachel Carson and the legacy of Silent Spring
Fifty years after the publication of the book that laid the foundations for the environmental movement, what have we learned from the biologist who saw the need for science to work with nature?
The Guardian (27 May)

Celebration concerns from animal charities
The RSPB, RSPCA and the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), along with the National Farmers' Union (NFU) and the Soil Association are teaming up to warn people in Gloucestershire of the dangers of fireworks, balloons and sky lanterns.
This is Gloucestershire (28 May)

Bumblebee lost to UK makes comeback on Dungeness shingle
Natural History Museum scientist leads reintroduction of Bombus subterraneus with insects imported from Sweden.
The Guardian (27 May)

Farming Today
After protests at Rothamsted Research Centre, Charlotte Smith discusses the future of GM crops in agriculture. The price of wool is now at a 25 year high. Malcolm Corbett from the British Wool Marketing Board explains why the price has increased. And Caz Graham visits a hay meadow in the North Pennines which has such unusual biodiversity that it attracts visitors from Transylvania.
BBC Radio 4, listen again (28 May)

And finally…I eat a plate of insects a week
Marcel Dicke enjoys nothing more than a lovely plate of fried locusts and says “if McDonald's served up a Bug Mac rather than a Big Mac I would be overjoyed”.
The Guardian (25 May)