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Increases in food prices have raised consumer concerns around the affordability of food and our future food security. In today's blog, RSPB Environmental Economist Donal McCarthy tells us what recent trends in food prices might mean for food security and wildlife, both in the UK and more widely....

We've heard a lot this week about growing food in the UK and how British farmers can do their bit for wildlife. But what difference do our food choices make to the wider world? Today we hear from Laura Stevens about the effect our buying habits can have on rainforests and it's very special wildlife...

I walked in to my office this morning and found a cake tin sitting on my desk. I haven't seen the results of what came out of it yet, but apparently the polar bear it was used for made a little boy very happy on his 4th birthday! Funny really, as last night I was in a baking mood myself and made...

While researching my article for Birds magazine, I had lots of suggestions for farms to use as case studies from RSPB staff all over the UK. One suggestion that particularly inspired me was the work that Amanda, Chris and Denise are doing on Peelhams Farm. So much so that I’ve just placed my first...

If you’ve received the latest issue of Birds, you’ll know that I’ve challenged myself to shop in a way that means my cupboards are filled not only with tasty food that’s good for me, but also grown in a way that’s good for wildlife. I’ve always been conscious of what...

I've just read that "FARMSCOPER is a decision support tool that can be used for assessing diffuse agricultural-pollutant loads on a farm and quantifying the impacts of farm mitigation methods on these pollutants". Has anyone tried this free ADAS tool and what is it like in practice?

By Deborah Deveney, HNV Campaign Leader The concept of ‘High Nature Value’ (HNV) farming has been around for some time, but poor understanding of the terminology has meant little use of the phrase. In a UK context, HNV farming is mainly associated with extensive beef cattle and sheep...

Drinking water standards for all pesticides are set at 1ppm – in essence this is a surrogate for zero that dates back 20-30 years. This reflects an inherently precautionary approach to human health protection. Since then technology has moved on and we can detect pesticides at vanishingly small...

I read in BW that metaldyhyde pollution in watercourses is a growing problem for water companies, and that this comes from slug pellets used by farmers to protect oilseed rape. Since oilseed rape is a Hope Farm crop, how is this issue handled?

What do you get if you mix an enthusiastic and dedicated bunch of farmers, volunteers and RSPB staff and stick them in front of an international audience from across the agriculture sector for a day? Lots of interesting discussions, real insight to the value of our farmland conservation work and plenty...

The battle to save vital agrienvironment schemes continues - see Martin Harper's blog today to read what farmers are saying to David Cameron. And don't forget to sign the petition on www.rspb.org.uk/steppingup to help wildlife-friendly farmers if you haven't already - today is your last...

This spring we embarked on a new project with some of the dairy farmers who have contracts to supply Tesco with milk. We are working with these dairy farmers to find practical measures that they can integrate into their systems to help wildlife. The farms have received bird surveys through the Volunteer...

Two years ago, with the help of Smith Gore, we undertook some economic case studies of farmers creating habitats through agri-environment schemes to demonstrate the profitability of wildlife-friendly farming. You can see these case studies here . We would like to know whether these have been useful to...

A question: What do NFU Scotland, the Scottish Crofting Federation, the Scottish Agricultural College, The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, Scottish Land & Estates and RSPB Scotland all have in common?. The answer Waders – or to be more precise the Wader Friendly Farming Initiative...