Watch again: The green farming debate

What the panellists said on…

Heroes or villains

“Is the UK farming industry a hero or villain? I say unequivocally a hero. But the challenge remains how we become smarter, and produce more food in the future and continue to improve the natural environment.”
Peter Kendall

“There are plenty of farmer heroes, but the odds are stacked against them because the English ELS scheme needs a bit of tweaking in order for wildlife to get full benefit from all those efforts.”
Mark Avery

“I’d like to see some real international, cross-country analysis of what caused the decline in farmland birds. Most of this was three decades ago. Is Europe the only territory that have seen this? What happened in N America for example?” 
Allan Buckwell

“Blame is not a breeding ground for partnership. Hard-won trust on the ground between local RSPB and NFU farmer members is fatally undermined by outraged headlines or an overheated statement in a TV studio interview.”
Peter Kendall

 “If I were keen to slag off farmers - then I would do it here. Read these comments. We love farmers to bits! The RSPB is working with thousands of farmers and we can’t help farmland wildlife without them.”
Mark Avery

Common Agricultural Policy

“We seek to defend the CAP under the slogan that it is essential for Europe’s Food and Environmental Security, with a budget to match. This means ensuring that we have the production capacity to satisfy the EU’s growing food needs - and maybe export some food too – and at the same time significantly raise our game in terms of reducing any negative impacts on the environment and positively supplying public environmental goods and renewable energy too.”
Allan Buckwell.

“If we are running into food insecurity big time - as the Foresight study said, then will it be necessary to pay farmers in the EU Single Payments IF they are getting $300 plus for their wheat production?”
Allan Buckwell

“What I am looking for is a CAP reform that supports farmers and growers to become more competitive and self-reliant able to invest in their farm businesses and produce food the market wants.”
Peter Kendall

“Peter - SPS is important for farmers’ incomes, but the money comes from taxpayers’ incomes. That’s why the taxpayer should expect a good return on their considerable investment.”
Mark Avery

Skylark numbers and the pub

“Skylark patches are tiny tiny tiny - and yet they have a big big big impact on skylark numbers. That’s the type of solution we need.”Mark Avery

“Mark, why don’t you go and sit in a pub and tell them about skylarks? We’re trying to have a serious discussion about the CAP reform, and the food needs of 500 million Europeans.”
Allan Buckwell

“Allan - thanks! Your round? Who says I’m not in the pub?”
Mark Avery

Solutions

“Show taxpayers that their investment is producing food and a better environment. That way farmers and consumers benefit. We can defend CAP subsidies (farmers’ incomes) by improving the environmental protection that comes with it.”
Mark Avery

“How about all supporting the CFE for starters? Working with environmentalists, farm advisers and agronomists, to meet Sir john Beddington’s challenge of sustainable intensification. We need smart R&D to increase production without damaging our environmental or welfare record.”
Peter Kendall

“Reward farmers for the environmental services they provide, and get much better at helping farmers put into practice the existing science and technology which could help them improve their productivity and competitiveness and reduce water pollution and GHG emissions.”
Allan Buckwell

Reader comments

“I have a great relationship with my local RSPB staff…  However I keep getting knocked back by other farmers who have a negative view of the RSPB, because of the comments by Mark Avery. Does Mark appreciate the harm he is doing his local staff?”
Charles Tassell

“I’m just back from a morning of crop walking on a beautiful spring day. On that walk… I counted over fifty species, including five species of raptor. Of those fifty species, according to RSPB figures, over half of those species have increased nationally since 1970. Then I get back to hear Mark Avery with his usual dismal broadcast about the paucity of wildlife on British farms.”
Guy Smith

Come on, Guy and Peter, we’re off to a bad start - are you really going to spend this opportunity complaining about some official (let’s say it again, OFFICIAL) Government stats that say farmland birds are declining? It’s hardly the RSPB’s fault if Govt figures don’t show you in a good light, is it?”
SexBittern

“The question is - is our current model of farning that relies hugely on imports to feed animals the best way of securing a future food supply?”
Kirtana Chandrasekarankirtana