03/02/20 Peat, Wildlife volunteers, EU farming unions

Farming Today

• Episode: 03/02/20 Peat, Wildlife volunteers, EU farming unions
• Website: Farming Today
• Feed URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj8q/episodes/downloads.rss
• Duration: 00:11:39
• Published: 2020-02-03 07:00

Peat is our largest carbon store, so its health is crucial in meeting our climate change commitments. It also brings other benefits, both for the environment and for humans. All this week, Farming Today will be looking at peat. Anna Hill talks to a soil specialist from Reading University, who explains why it's so important and what can be done to preserve it. Today is the start of a new era in Brussels. While British MEPs no longer exist, UK farmers are hoping their interests will still be heard in the EU's corridors of power. We ask the head of Copa Cogeca, the umbrella organisation for European farming unions, how the future looks for them without their British colleagues. Does the role played by volunteers in monitoring the UK's wildlife get the recognition it deserves? A leading naturalist says policy-makers don't realise how much they rely on the data gathered by volunteers. We find out why. Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Emma Campbell.