Pesticides are killing plants, insects and animals that they're not aiming to control, the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the University of Sussex have joined international researchers to analyse 1,700 lab and field studies of 471 insecticides, herbicides and fungicides used in agriculture or commercially around the world. Their report identifies 'wide ranging negative effects' on a range of species and while the authors acknowledge that without pesticides global food production would likely collapse, they conclude that these chemicals are a major contributor to the biodiversity crisis.

A tractor protest disrupted the Prime Minister's visit to a building site in Buckinghamshire. Farmers campaigning against the reintroduction of inheritance tax on farms took their tractors to the site near Milton Keynes yesterday, sounding their horns, Sir Keir Starmer then abandoned plans to make a speech. Speaking afterwards, he said the protest highlighted the difficult choices the Government had to make.

This week we have been featuring rural champions, unsung heroes making a difference to the lives of people in rural communities. Barkley Thompson, from a farming family in Co Antrim, is a music teacher at Ballymena Academy and it’s there of an evening that as musical director, he gathers some 60 or so men and women from the surrounding community under the banner of The Farmers’ Choir of Northern Ireland. 

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.