Today's News - 20 June 2012

“It’s our chance to say we don’t want to see our cows forced indoors, unable to graze in the summer fields, and to ask the EU to give them the protection they deserve. Other farm animals have specific laws, designed to guarantee a minimum welfare standard for them. Dairy cows don’t.”
Joanna Lumley – Farmers Guardian – 20 June 2012

Joanna Lumley joins campaign to make European cows happy
A campaign to improve the living conditions of 23 million dairy cows across Europe has been launched by animal welfare charities. Supporting Better Dairy aims to create new legislation which will make it mandatory for farmers to achieve a certain level of welfare, similar to the Welfare of Laying Hens Directive which came into force in January. Compassion in World Farming (CIWF), the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), and ice-cream company Ben and Jerry’s, who joined forces to start the campaign, said welfare standards varied greatly across the EU, with some animals suffering from poor health, inadequate housing and lack of access to pasture.
Farmers Guardian (20 June)

Half of teachers forced to feed pupils going hungry at home
Headteachers and senior doctors are calling for needy children to receive a free breakfast at school after a Guardian survey found almost half of teachers have brought food in for pupils who arrive at school with empty stomachs.
Four out of five teachers (83%) see pupils who are hungry in the morning and 55% said up to a quarter of pupils arrive having not eaten enough. More than half say the number of children involved has been rising in the past year or two, which have seen some families hit hard by the recession, unemployment and benefit cuts.
The Guardian (19 June)
Find out more about the Soil Association’s work to improve school food through the Food for Life Partnership

Good week for green agriculture and welfare
EU agriculture Ministers have decided to work for better animal welfare in the future and have endorsed both a proposal for the combating antimicrobial resistance and the progress report on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
The Poultry Site (20 June)

Apples top pesticide 'dirty dozen' list
Apples with no organic certification are the most heavily contaminated produce when it comes to pesticide residues, an environmental group has said. The Environmental Working Group said apples were once more at the top of its annual "Dirty Dozen" list of agricultural produce with unacceptable pesticide residues.
Healthcare Today (19 June)

Feeding nine billion people in 2050
Oliver Balch explores how to feed the world's expanding population by producing more food with less land.
The Guardian (19 June)

Somerset conservationists and farmers vent anger over flood recovery
One of the UK's most distinctive landscapes has been left devastated after it was engulfed by floodwater which was then left to stagnate for weeks. Many residents say the Environment Agency should have pumped water away from the moors sooner following the spring downpours.
The Guardian (19 June)

Most member states will comply with EU sow stall ban
Most member states, including the UK’s biggest competitors, will be fully compliant with the EU partial sow stall ban from the start date, according to new figures announced this week. A total of 18 member states are now expected to be ready by January 1 2013, the European Commission announced at a meeting of EU Ministers, in Luxembourg on Monday.
Farmers Guardian (20 June)

Acid rain all but eliminated over Britain
A new report on Britain's environment found that levels of sulphur in our atmosphere have dropped 90 per cent compared with their peak level in the 1950s, thanks to measures to control emissions from coal-fired power stations in the 1980s. Now a similar political drive is needed to tackle the problem of nitrogen emissions from cars, power stations and farms and prevent the pollution from killing off wild flowers, experts said.
The Telegraph (20 June)

Environmentalist Satish Kumar answers Guardian readers’ questions – video
The 76-year-old Indian-born activist who walked from India to the UK 50 years ago in protest at nuclear weapons answers your questions on everything from solutions to climate change, the thorny issue of population and whether eastern religions are greener than western ones. And why it's time we all used our legs more.
The Guardian (19 June)

Farming Today
Anna Hill finds out why British strawberry growers in some parts of the country are having their worst season in years. Some farmers report the wet weather has cost them hundreds of thousands of pounds. Also, just days before the judicial review is held into the Government's decision to allow badgers to be culled in England to halt the spread of TB in cattle, Farming Today looks at what other countries are doing to reduce and eliminate the disease.
BBC Radio 4, listen again (20 June)

And finally…outstanding in their fields
Which foods do you think are good enough to single out the place where they grew for special recognition?
The Guardian (19 June)