20/03/21 Farming Today This Week: Litter picking, food fraud, pigs getting fatter

Farming Today

• Episode: 20/03/21 Farming Today This Week: Litter picking, food fraud, pigs getting fatter
• Website: Farming Today
• Feed URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj8q/episodes/downloads.rss
• Duration: 00:24:55
• Published: 2021-03-20 08:00

Today marks the spring equinox, the astronomical first day of spring ,and time for spring cleaning - outside as well as in. A group of litter pickers is trying to get everyone out cleaning their local green spaces, along roads and hedges for a national Spring Equinox Cleanup tomorrow. They have hundreds of people signed up around the UK to take part. Lambing is underway and around the country police are dealing with dog attacks on sheep and warning owners to keep their dogs on the lead. As lockdown eases there are fears that there will be more incidents of sheep worrying. The Kennel Club has joined with the National Farmers Union Scotland to work with farmers and crofters on this issue. There are concerns that the government’s move to ‘lighter touch’ border checks will result in more food fraud. Pig farmers want more help from processors and retailers to cope with the fallout from delays in slaughterhouses because of Covid restrictions, and indeed Covid outbreaks amongst workers, and the impact of Brexit. Its all led to fat pigs, more properly described as big pigs, as the pigs are staying longer on farms. Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.