We are urgently developing research requirements with other European laboratories to make sure we understand and the disease (Schmallenberg) better.Agriculture in the national news - February 8
A DAILY look at how agriculture has caught the headlines across the country (Monday, February 8).
Met police recover stolen lambs
Forty-four of the 50 two-week-old lambs that were stolen from a Hampshire farm have been found by Metropolitan Police officers on the London/Surrey border.
They were taken from three sheep pens at a farm in Upton Grey, near Basingstoke, overnight on Friday.
The animals, which have now been reunited with their owner, were found near New Malden, Kingston-Upon-Thames.
BBC Online
http://tinyurl.com/y9vnp2e
Meat from rustled sheep in Northumberland ‘on sale’
Meat from stolen livestock could be on sale in Northumberland following a spate of sheep rustling in Tynedale.
About 150 animals were taken from farms in Kirkwhelpington, Harle and Bardon Mill between the end of November and early February.
BBC Online
http://tinyurl.com/y9efpub
Fewer Than 1% of U.S. Farms Are Organic
Fewer than 1% of American farms are organic, and generated $3.16 billion in sales in 2008, the U.S. Agriculture Department found in its first in-depth survey of organic farming.
The USDA said Wednesday that it tallied 14,540 organic farms and ranches that were either certified by the USDA or exempt from those rules
because their annual sales fell below $5,000.
Wall Street Journal
http://tinyurl.com/yzprm75
FPB and Iceland’s Malcolm Walker at war over suppliers
The Forum of Private Business (FPB) has hit back at comments made by Malcolm Walker, the chief executive of supermarket chain Iceland, which branded a new code of conduct to protect farmers and small suppliers “a complete waste of time”.
Speaking in The Daily Telegraph on Thursday, Mr Walker said that the new Grocery Supplier Code of Practice (GSCOP) and a proposed supermarket ombudsman were “madness”.
Daily Telegraph
http://tinyurl.com/yk7hfhs
RSPCA face legal bill after losing battle over
The RSPCA has been ordered to pay the majority of a £1.3m legal bill after losing a battle over a £2m estate left to it in a will.
The charity faces costs of up to £1m after Dr Christine Gill from Northallerton, North Yorkshire, overturned her parents’ will.
Dr Gill won the case after a court found her father had coerced her mother into making the document.
BBC Online
http://tinyurl.com/yf2yz9r
Red squirrels conservation plan for Wales
A conservation plan has been approved to help save red squirrels from extinction in Wales.
The plan includes designating as focal sites for urgent strategic action three areas in north and mid Wales where the species still thrives.
BBC Online
http://tinyurl.com/yf9kcvh
