BY CHARLES FARROW A Country Squire’s Guide to the Incomprehensible Stupidity of the Incomer Let me get this straight. They move out from London—Islington, usually, or that bit of Clapham where the sourdough costs more than a good collie—and within a fortnight they’ve got the RSPCA on speed dial and a Facebook post accusing us landowners of “livestock negligence.” The cheek. The absolute bleeding cheek. … Continue reading Not Again!
BY ED ANDERSON “We are facing a crisis.” The words of Victor Manuel Martín López, head of Eurocaja Rural, were blunt on Tuesday at El Español’s ‘Wake Up Spain’ on Spain’s economic future and uncertainty. It was certainly a different note being struck by Julián Conthe (Director General of Commercial and Economic Security in Spain) last week at the Fundación Alternativas event ‘La entrada en … Continue reading Disaster or Opportunity? Spanish Farming´s New Reality
BY NICK PEARCE Farmers and landowners across the UK have been given a last-minute opportunity to take part in the national census of farmland birds, as the organisers extend the deadline due to adverse weather. The Big Farmland Bird Count (BFBC), an annual event coordinated by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), will now run until March 1st, 2026. The extension comes after the … Continue reading Big Farmland Bird Count
BY JOHN MUSGRAVE As Advent begins – notionally a fast, but more often a progression of parties and good cheer – spare a thought for meat-dependent merrymakers. We are all under threat from the mean-green vegan party-poopers who want to ban meat-eating altogether. Halal meat is now in the crosshairs as the soya-bean sallies plot further Herodian bedevilment. Any move to ban halal slaughter is … Continue reading Hands off Halal
Strategies that work for global companies Understanding the Brazilian Agricultural Landscape With a $2.31 trillion GDP, Brazil stands as the world’s tenth-largest economy. While the services sector dominates the economic landscape, agriculture remains a cornerstone of the nation’s prosperity and global influence. In 2023 alone, the agricultural sector generated $101.59 billion for the economy and employed 9.7% of the country’s workforce. These figures underscore why … Continue reading How to Scale Sales in the Brazilian Agricultural Sector
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN We walk on concrete, but we live on bread. The modern world hums with the illusion of self-sufficiency – our smartphones deliver groceries with a tap, restaurants materialise meals on demand, and supermarkets present endless abundance as if by nature’s own hand. Yet this is a collective delusion. The truth is simpler, starker: every society rests upon the bowed backs of farmers. … Continue reading Why We Should All Respect Farmers
BY ED SAYER The RSPB’s solar farm study is a shameless greenwash—a PR stunt masquerading as science. They brag about ‘three times as many birds’ on solar farms as compared to arable farmland while ignoring the thousands fried alive by solar flux or smashed into panels. Ivanpah alone incinerates 6,000 birds a year, and even standard PV farms kill up to 580 birds annually per … Continue reading RSPB Solar Farm Propaganda Debunked
A farmer was leaning on his field gate, looking out over his animals, all scattered quietly around the field in the sunshine. He was pondering the choices of every family farmer these days. Since actual commercial farming is gradually becoming impossible on UK family farms, he was wondering whether he should become a subsistence farmer—by turning the farm into a Trust and then leasing it … Continue reading At the Farm Gate
BY DANIEL JUPP Today, I’m taking an unnecessary 10-mile round trip just to get some milk. I’ll be doing this about three times a week from now on. I live in the heart of a town with 100,000 people, and there’s a shopping centre just two minutes’ walk from my flat. I can easily walk to two or three supermarkets. Yet, instead of using these … Continue reading Poisoned Cows of Clown World
BY ED ANDERSON Teruellian Tractors and Aragonese Agriculture show the best of Spain, its politicians show the worst With all eyes on the USA, it would have been easy to miss the unfolding and continuing tragedy taking place in Spain and more specifically in Valencia from the DANA. Over 200 have died from the flash floods caused by the cold air heading over the warm … Continue reading Teruellian Tractors
BY THEODORE BRUN A tax raid on farmers is raising more trouble than revenue “Better red than expert.” That was one of the slogans touted through the national propaganda channels in the early days of the People’s Republic of China shortly after Chairman Mao came to power. In other words, professionalism should be subordinated to politics. It seems a pretty accurate description of the current … Continue reading Raiding the Fields, Lessons from History
CSM STAFFER Today at the Welsh Labour Conference in in Llandudno, Conwy, the hundreds of gathered farmers, protesting against the Labour Government’s recent and dangerous inheritance tax rule changes for farms, were expecting Keir Starmer to come and meet them so they could get their points across. Starmer did not have the guts. He left without meeting them. This was in stark contrast to Rishi … Continue reading Chicken Starmer Dodges Meeting Welsh Farmers
CSM EDITORIAL As readers of this magazine will know very well by now, there is a farmer protest organised for Tuesday 19th November in London. The organisers are claiming, soundly, that the planned rally will “help deliver a strong and clear message to the government while in the heart of London, that family farms and the rural community stand united against the government’s catastrophic Budget.” … Continue reading Met Police Farmer Protest Strategy Backfiring
CSM EDITORIAL A Disastrous Blow to Family Farms Labour’s inheritance tax (IHT) reforms, announced today by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, have sparked anger and deep concern within Britain’s farming community, confirming that this government has abandoned its commitment to rural stability. The Chancellor’s decision to freeze the IHT threshold until 2030, coupled with severe changes to Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR), amounts … Continue reading Farm Wrecker Reeves
BY ROBIN JOHNSTON Introducing inheritance tax on farms in the UK would be disastrous for the agricultural sector and the wider rural economy. Farming is not just a business; it is a way of life for many families, passed down through generations. The imposition of inheritance tax on farmland would not only threaten the viability of family farms, but it would also undermine the broader … Continue reading Inheritance Tax on Farms – You Want to Starve?
BY ANTONIA FILMER At the end of June the Cherry families hosted their ninth Groundswell Festival on their mixed farm in North Hertfordshire, this is the only UK event that encompasses the soup to nuts of regenerative farming and conservation agriculture. The point is to aid farmers and those curious about regenerative agriculture to discover more, and to build relationships with likeminded people; it had … Continue reading A Festival Of Sustainable Farming in Hertfordshire
BY NICK PEARCE Wild Haweswater is a partnership between the RSPB and United Utilities, in the beautiful eastern Lake District National Park. On the website promoting the partnership, there is plenty of optimism for the two organisations’ plans: ‘Haweswater’s valleys and fells hold a rich collection of memories, past and present. It is a landscape long loved by residents and visitors alike. But what of … Continue reading Naddle and Swindale in the Money
BY JOANNA BLYTHMAN A very serious attack on traditional food and farming is underway, a major threat to the artisanal, non-GMO, organic, and traditional food sectors. Here below is what you need to know and do, urgently, to defend your right to eat time-honoured ingredients in their natural forms and protect authentic small-scale food culture. This government intends to force genetically modified organisms (GM) food … Continue reading An Important Warning
BY EILEEN STUART Warning: Graphic images Following an appeal by the high-profile farmer Gareth Wyn Jones, sheep farmers across Britain have amassed hundreds of images and reports of bird attacks on lambs during this year’s lambing season. Pest birds, such as carrion crows, magpies and jackdaws, are spreading in their millions and face only one enemy: farmers with their shotguns. The problem is, farmers with … Continue reading Corvid Lamb Persecution Now Out of Control
BY CSM STAFF WRITER Crop yield is an important agricultural metric that determines the amount of produce per land unit that ultimately gets on our tables as food. Needless to say, it has a direct impact on global food security constantly threatened by conflicts, natural hazards, economic shocks, and a growing population. By 2050, there will be an estimated 9.8 billion people, and to provide … Continue reading Strategies for Navigating Productivity Hurdles and Maximising Crop Yields
