Rural 21 - The International Journal for Rural Development’s Post

❌ 🐖 🐓 Stop the megafarm madness!!🐖 🐓 ❌ Please help us put a stop to plans for one of the biggest factory farms in Europe: 🥩 🏭 Industrial meat producer Cranswick PLC has lodged a planning application to create a huge industrial farming unit producing up to 6 million chickens and 56,000 pigs a year in Methwold, Norfolk. This is the complete antithesis of the type of farming the government and local authorities should be supporting in the UK: it's high-emissions, hugely polluting, concentrates power in the hands of big corporations and rides roughshod over the needs and wants of local communities. ✊ There's huge opposition to the plans at Methwold, as documented in this recent Daily Mail article: https://lnkd.in/evvfPbAW ✍ If you agree industrial meat production is a complete dead end for UK farming, add your voice by writing to the local Council at the link below! 👇 #farming #climate #emissions #animalwelfare #pollution #meat #food

🏭 We need you! Please take urgent action to stop a megafarm which is hiding its colossal climate impact. 👉 The local council’s public consultation is now open, and you can sign and send our letter objecting to the proposed megafarm in just a couple of clicks. Cranswick PLC is planning to build a huge US-style megafarm in West Norfolk — one of the largest factory farms in Europe. Despite the colossal climate impact of intensively rearing thousands of pigs and chickens, Cranswick has chosen not to include these greenhouse gas emissions in its planning application. This omission hides the true climate cost and risks irreversible environmental harm. With scientists warning that critical tipping points are dangerously close, we cannot allow industrial agribusiness to deceive the public about the scale of their pollution 🌍 ❗ We believe — having sought legal advice — the Council is acting unlawfully by not requiring a greenhouse gas assessment as part of this application. That’s why we are objecting to the megafarm by emailing King's Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council. 📣 Your voice can help stop Cranswick PLC's planned megafarm and set a critical precedent against factory farming expansion. Simply fill out your details to raise your objection and encourage them to address the full climate impact >>> https://buff.ly/493vM7x #FactoryFarm #Cranswick #IndustrialLivestock #Livestock #IndustrialFarm #AnimalAgriculture #Animal #Pigs #Poultry #AnimalWelfare #ClimateCrisis #ClimateChange #Environment

Agricultural sustainability, productivity, and competitiveness is critical to the livelihoods of our farmers and our export markets 🌾 That’s why the Australian Government has committed $302.1 million to the Climate-Smart Agriculture Program under the Natural Heritage Trust. Through effective on-ground projects, farmers will be supported to manage climate risks and invest in their on-farm natural capital and effective natural resources management, helping the sector to respond to climate change, better withstand future bushfires, floods and droughts and protect its productivity. 👉 To learn more about the program and stay up to date on grant announcements, visit: https://lnkd.in/ghRHBmRP Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry #Climate #SustainableAgriculture #NaturalHeritageTrust #AgClimate #AustralianAgriculture #farming

Did you know that many key decisions about our oceans are happening in secret, damaging people’s livelihoods and limiting sustainability? That’s why Accountability.Fish was created. We’re a global initiative promoting open governance in fisheries management. Follow us to see how we’re calling for change. Because there’s no sustainability without accountability. #RFMOs #transparency #fisheriesmanagement

Soil survey aims to help growers make informed decisions Recent climate extremes of drought and flood have only increased the impact of declining soil function, but anecdotal evidence suggests soils in a healthy condition cope better and recover faster from extreme climate impacts. The 2023-24 federal budget included $302 million over five years for climate-smart, sustainable agriculture under the Natural Heritage Trust – $36 million of which is allocated specifically for initiatives to improve soil health, while a further $158 million has been set aside for “impactful, on-ground, climate-smart, sustainable agriculture projects”. This funding also includes continued support for the eight regional soil coordinators attached to the Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hubs as part of a National Soil Community of Practice. Targeted investments The Australian Government’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) wants to target its investment to assist farmers to make well-informed soil management decisions.... https://bit.ly/3vudTPO Dr Peter Fisher Grains Research and Development Corporation #Australia #Agriculture #SoilSurvey

Latest hub news – funding, activities, events and more The latest #SNSWInnovationHub newsletter ‘SPOKE’ is out now. Catch up on all our #droughtresilience news, project updates, announcements and upcoming events from the past month. The May issue covers: • Ongoing funding for the hub – giving us the certainty to develop projects and deliver value for Southern NSW! • News from the Hub Board, where we are farewelling two longstanding members and welcoming two more. • LLS Drought Adoption Officer update, with details of how to contact your local DAO to discuss drought preparation and mitigation. • A report from last month’s Mulloon Conference, where participants discussed many aspects of landscape rehydration and launched a new catchment evaluation tool for NSW. • Updates on our Long-term Field Trials of Drought Resilience Farming Practices projects for mixed enterprise farming and West Hume Landcare’s On-Farm Water Management workshop at Burrumbuttock. • Improving your co-design and facilitation techniques, for better engagement and outcomes. • Upcoming events and programs, including a Seasonal extremes farm planning workshop in Wagga and a new technology commercialisation grants. If you have an interest in drought resilient farms, communities and landscapes in Southern NSW, you need to read SPOKE. Each month, we’ll keep you up to date with what’s happing across our region and how you can get involved. If you haven’t seen it, check your inbox or read and subscribe here: https://loom.ly/Y_YmHbM #farminginnovators #farmingforthefuture Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry #futuredroughtfund

Conway alums have been all over the news lately: Big River Chestnuts, the agroforestry farm started by Jono Neiger '03, was one of two farms toured by Massachusetts' first Climate Chief, Melissa Hoffer. This was coordinated by CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture) as part of its third annual Climate Change and Farming Week, as reported by the Daily Hampshire Gazette. During the tour Hoffer and others were able to view the practices and approaches that Big River Chestnuts is using to create more resilient farms as the impacts of climate change grow in scale and frequency. “Trees are just going to be, in a lot of cases, more resilient,” Neiger said, noting that while conditions got extremely dry amid the 2022 drought, the five-year-old chestnut trees were able to get through without signs of stress. “The strategy here is to create a system resilient to droughts and floods that’s baked into the crops.” Read the full article at https://hubs.li/Q02Qvn820 #agroforestry #resilient #farms #climatechange #ecologicaldesign #regenerativedesign #pioneervalley #masssachussetts #climatechief

Wind breaks are part of the concept of biological buffer zones that help reduce heat, increase rain and buffer for extreme windy weather events.

Wetland Crisis Much has been written regarding the challenges of protecting wetlands from development, but with the evolving climate change crisis and increased incidence of drought, we are seeing losses escalate at a frightening rate. Our ranch and farming communities are needed more than ever. Agricultural families are fiercely independent, and most dislike being told by government regulators or environmentalists what they should or shouldn't do on their own lands. Thankfully, many are very cognisant of ecosystems and conservation, especially after working with non-profits since the 1930's to protect and enhance wetlands and waterways, and see how their own production is dependent on elements of watershed management and soil conservation. These same land managers see the links between riparian buffers, low-impact cattle grazing and watering, and snow-catchment woodlots and windbreaks. When money and markets get tight, these same managers resist the temptation to drain wetlands and clear every square acre of land to maximize cultivation, and then protect bird species that prey on rodents and grasshoppers. Where culvert obstruction is not at play, these same families protect beaver ponds to provide more water reserves for grazing livestock, wildlife and for ground water recharge, not to mention to supply water for wildfire response. Old oxbow stream bottoms are kept intact, as are all historical marshes, sloughs and potholes. Farmers and ranchers...we need your wisdom and action more than ever. Stay the course.

This is better management, but shows there is always a requirement to balance the needs of all stake holders, eventually you will achieve the best balance possible and maximize the returns for every bit of biomass and solar energy captured and get the most out of the land mass, but the hard limit is definite so we also need to reduce growth in demand and focus on fair distribution of what is available so the system remains sustainable for more than a few hundred more years at most (our current trajectory). We have a choice between growth to collapse followed by dark ages, or managed controlled world (fairness and laws that apply equally to all) with sustainability and biodiversity as the goal and a gradual change from wealth and power and luxury to a fair days work for a fair days pay for everyone. Communism has never delivered on this, socialism has always failed because the nature of man is not to value what he gets for free and is naturally lazy and won't work for the common good as much as for personal enrichment. But uncontrolled capitalism always ends with uncontrolled greed and exploitation and injustice and slavery and war, and we are stuck with that today to the extent that capital is not controlled (it is still working better in some places than others). We can become happier and more successful if we find sustainable ways to reward success, while reducing waste like war and excessive stupid luxury like; man made islands, Bugatti Veyron's and mega yachts. Make land ownership dependent on occupation and use of the land, give freedom and reward to those who find better ways to enrich the lives of all peoples and protect the common wealth and nature and preserve what is given to us to look after not waste and despoil in haste. How do you keep the benefits of hard work without allowing Gina Rinehart to exploit non-renewable resources, that are none of her doing and really belong to the nation and humanity, and use them to become the richest person in the country? How do you protect individual freedom and motivation for action, even happiness from achievement, while preventing the bad excesses of wealth and power?