31/01/20 Environment Bill, Cheesemakers and Brexit, US Agriculture Secretary, Sustainable scallops.

Farming Today

• Episode: 31/01/20 Environment Bill, Cheesemakers and Brexit, US Agriculture Secretary, Sustainable scallops.
• Website: Farming Today
• Feed URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj8q/episodes/downloads.rss
• Duration: 00:13:40
• Published: 2020-01-31 07:00

Today is the last day the UK is part of the European Union. As we prepare to leave the environmental jurisdiction of the EU, the government's Environment Bill is now passing through Parliament. What will it mean for farming and for the countryside? Caz Graham asks a parliamentary specialist from the environmental coalition, Greener UK, for her opinion. We hear from Sonny Perdue, the United States Agriculture Secretary, who explains how he sees trade deals between the US and the UK developing after Brexit. Meanwhile, we visit a Devon cheesemaker, who will be watching those trade talks with interest. Cheese producers are facing a double hit of difficulties because of a battle going on over trade tariffs in American-European aviation. Scallops are usually harvested by dredging - a process which can cause serious damage to the seabed and to marine ecosystems. We hear about a new aquaculture project off the Yorkshire coast, which is trying out the idea of farming scallops in cages. They are harvested by hand, doing away with the need for dredging. Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Emma Campbell.