When Britain left the European Union, the Government said food and drink exporters had a 'golden opportunity' to put British food at the 'top of the global menu'. But the reality is that UK food is still lagging behind its European counterparts, both in terms of sales and reputation.  Tourism brings £14.5 billion into the rural economy every year - according to the Country Land and Business Association. But while visitors bring much needed cash they also create problems - from the pressure on housing and roads to the challenges of finding enough staff to look after them.  And we visit a new processing plant specifically for Welsh milk, which is due to open this month. Pembrokeshire Creamery aims to end the journey Welsh milk currently has to take: transported to England for processing and then brought back. It'll be the only large scale liquid milk dairy in Wales, since Wrexham-based Tomlinson's went bust in 2019.  Presented by Charlotte Smith
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons

13/05/2024 - Food exports, rural tourism and new Welsh creamery

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside

Science

House prices in the Lake District are likely to fall because of plans to control the number of homes being turned into holiday lets, according to the most senior planning officer at the national park authority. This is already being done in Wales where it has been causing a lot of controversy.  A ten year study of beavers in Devon shows that they are having a positive impact on flood and drought alleviation – according to researchers at Exeter University who have been following the beavers on the river Otter, some farmers disagree with the findings. And a grandfather and grandson team of bee keepers rent hives to apple growers in Northern Ireland so the bees can pollinate the crop.    Presented by Charlotte Smith Produced by Alun Beach

31/05/2024: Beavers and flooding, Bees, Second Homes

A Welsh cheesemaker which described itself as innovative and with the highest sustainability standards has announced it cannot continue in its current form. The 321 farmers who supply milk to Mona dairy on Anglesey have been reassured that an interim buyer for their milk has been found, while the dairy's owners search for new investment.   The Campaign for National Parks and the Alliance for Welsh Designated Landscapes has produced a 10-point National Parks Action plan for the new Welsh government.  The proposals include increased funding, an end to water pollution, improving sustainable travel links and a new National Park for North East Wales.  Amidst fears over reduced numbers of earth worms across the UK, one farmer who supplies them to gardeners, is increasingly supplying to other farmers.  Presented by Charlotte Smith Produced by Alun Beach

30/05/2024: Dairy, National Parks, Worms

Scotland is to get at least one new national park - due to be designated in 2026. Groups in Tay Forest, Loch Awe, Lochaber, Galloway, and the Borders have now submitted formal bids for the Scottish Government to consider...but not everyone’s keen on the idea.  Farming traditional native breed cattle with horns, like Gloucester’s and Longhorns, is becoming increasingly difficult because abattoirs don’t have the facilities to deal with those horns. We hear from one farmer who says his herd of 80 longhorns may no longer be viable. And we head out on a night time, biofluorescence safari to see the natural world in a whole new light. Presented by Caz Graham
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons

29/05/24 - A new National Park for Scotland, horned cattle and biofluorescence

Environmentalist Ben Goldsmith blames sheep grazing for turning the UKs National Parks into ‘dead zones’.  Neil Heseltine the chair of National Parks England responds, and explains what role he sees for these institutions. One of the two scientists who was instrumental in creating a back-up vault of the world’s crop seeds to protect global food security, explain how it works. Presented by Charlotte Smith Produced by Alun Beach

28/05/2024: National Parks and International Seed Banks

To mark the  80th anniversary of Vernon Harwood tells the story of Britain's D-Day farms.  As dawn broke on the morning of the 6th June 1944 thousands of Allied ships and landing craft carrying more than 150,000 troops approached the beaches of Normandy in Northern France as the largest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare got underway. Meanwhile the airborne assault involved more than 11,000 aircraft making it the single largest aerial operation ever seen. D-Day had arrived. Code-named Operation Overlord, it would eventually result in the liberation of Western Europe, the defeat of Hitler’s Germany and the end of the Second World War. But what part did the fields, farms and country estates of England have in the success of the Allied invasion?  Landowners, farmers and their families played a vital role in the crucial months leading up to D-Day. Large parts of rural England were taken over by the military and transformed in the process.  The journey starts at The D-Day Story in Portsmouth where the museum archives and exhibits help reveal the background to this complex strategic and logistical exercise. At Chavenage House in Gloucestershire, the Lowsley-Williams family moved out of their home to make way for an American unit working on ‘ultra-secret’ maps. The Hampshire village of Southwick hosted General Dwight D. Eisenhower while U.S. troops helped with the haymaking and in Dorset an historic farm at Tarrant Rushton was flattened in favour of an airfield.    
 
Produced and presented by Vernon Harwood.

13/05/2024 - Food exports, rural tourism and new Welsh creamery

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