24/11/21 - Pesticide regulation, breeding disease resistance in seeds, regenerative dairy farming

Farming Today

• Episode: 24/11/21 - Pesticide regulation, breeding disease resistance in seeds, regenerative dairy farming
• Website: Farming Today
• Feed URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj8q/episodes/downloads.rss
• Duration: 00:13:40
• Published: 2021-11-24 07:00

New research questions whether the rules assessing the toxicity of pesticides are doing enough to prevent harm to pollinators. Regulation of pesticides usually focuses on the impact of the active ingredients of a product, but this study found a additional chemical used in commercial fungicides in the UK can damage the health of bumblebees. We visit a seed breeding organisation where they're developing winter wheat that can resist diseases like yellow rust and septoria. And ‘regenerative farming’ has been gaining attention around the world as a means of improving soils, increasing biodiversity and mitigating climate change. Big companies like Nestle, Unilever, McCain and Pepsi have announced they’ll be investing in the idea, but so far there’s little data-driven proof of its impact. We find out about a project run by the dairy co-operative Arla which will gather data from 24 farms across Europe. Presented by Anna Hill Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons