| amacmil304@aol.com 2008-02-24, 1:25 pm |
| On Sun, 24 Feb 2008 07:26:32 +0000, "( _ /)" <00000@derty.com> wrote:
>Interesting story despite the fact farming budget has gone up in real
>terms.
>
>For decades farming has needed a kick up the arse to bring it in line
>with modern work ethics, and business model.
>
>Is British agriculture so incapable of standing on its own two feet
>that it needs to be treated like a lame duck; and if it is lame, does
>it need a pair of crutches or a surgical operation.
>Body (1982)
>
>We're slowly pulling the crutches away but it's not easy to let go.
>
>
>DEFRA WRITES OFF FARMING
>
>11:00 - 22 February 2008
>
>http://tinyurl.com/275qp6
>
>Environment Secretary Hilary Benn last night signalled a significant
>shift away from supporting farming and rural areas as his
>cash-strapped department vowed to focus its funding priorities on
>tackling climate change.Support for rural and farming businesses will
>be scrapped in favour of funding eco-projects in Africa and
>bankrolling inventions to provide alternatives to fossil fuels.
>
>Westcountry MPs last night called for the Department for Environment,
>Food and Rural Affairs to be broken up to end the unfair competition
>for money between the countryside and climate change.
>
>In the week that Gordon Brown praised farmers for their "ingenuity,
>marketing, innovation and the sheer quality" of British food, funding
>for the agency tasked with marketing UK produce overseas is to be
>slashed by a fifth - leaving a £1 million black hole.
>
>
>
>According to figures released by Defra, fisheries will also see a drop
>in funding along with Keep Britain Tidy, Natural England and some
>recycling schemes.
>
>A package of measures to make millions of pounds of savings will see
>some 1,400 staff take voluntary redundancy, much of the funding
>supporting rural and eco businesses ditched and agencies ordered to
>make tough efficiency savings. For many agencies in the South West,
>confirmation of the funding ends months of uncertainty.
>
>Challenged last night to explain why the emphasis was being placed on
>the environment element of its responsibility at the expense of food
>and rural affairs, Defra said it had made "no secret" of Mr Benn's
>priorities.
>
>Food for Britain - which works to boost Britain's £1.5 billion food
>export market - will see its Defra funding fall by 20 per cent to just
>£4 million, half the figure it received six years ago.
>
>Tory shadow farming minister Jim Paice said: "Just days after pledging
>his commitment to the British farming industry, Gordon Brown is
>slashing the budget of Food from Britain.
>
>"If the Prime Minister is serious about promoting British food he
>shouldn't be cutting the budget of the organisation that does just
>that.
>
>"Once more the rhetoric bears little resemblance to the reality and
>farmers are again left with the thin end of the wedge."
>
>But Mr Benn insisted the Government was working with farmers "to
>support a thriving industry".
>
>He told the WMN: "The increased Defra budget this coming year will
>help ensure we manage animal disease and environmental risks
>effectively alongside industry, including provision for future
>outbreaks."
>
>The livestock industry faces a multi- million-pound levy as part of
>"cost sharing" plans to deal with animal disease.
>
>"We will invest in responding to environmental and animal health
>challenges through a £60 million research programme as well as through
>CAP reform," Mr Benn added.
>
>The main areas to see increase are eco-projects, including millions of
>pounds being spent abroad.
>
>Some £800 million will be spent on "tackling environmental challenges
>in developing countries" while funding for low-carbon technology will
>rise to £400 million.
>
>Extra cash has also been found for dealing with rubbish and going some
>way to shoring up UK flood defences.
>
>Mr Benn said: "Now is the time to act together to tackle climate
>change and protect our environment. The Government must lead the way
>by ensuring we are investing in building a low-carbon Britain."
>
>Tory MP Geoffrey Cox said facing up to the challenge of global warming
>was admirable and necessary but rural areas should not lose out as a
>result.
>
>"Ministers have set these priorities that mean money will go into
>environmental schemes and come out of rural affairs and agriculture,
>but they shouldn't be competing.
>
>"Defra needs to be broken up - it is badly managed, financially bust
>and the consequences will be felt as a severe blow to rural
>communities."
>
>There will be increases in funding for the Rural Development Programme
>for England - but along with cash for farm subsidies, this is largely
>dictated by Brussels while the areas for which Whitehall is
>responsible are being squeezed.
>
>Last night National Farmers' Union director-general Richard Macdonald
>said: "Those budget headings over which the Government has a large
>measure of discretion, such as animal health and the Waste and
>Resources Programme, face significant cuts, in order to allow for
>increases elsewhere.
>
>"Overall, it would say more for the Government's commitment to
>fighting climate change if new money was being found... rather than
>having to be cobbled together from cuts imposed on other important
>areas of work."
>
>Natural England received £181 million this year but Mr Benn confirmed
>that will fall to £176 million. Although the cut is not as bad as
>feared - plans were drawn up in December to find £12 million of
>savings - the agency tasked with safeguarding the countryside and
>coastline has admitted "a mixture of reducing activity spend and staff
>spend was the only acceptable solution in the short term".
>
>The RSPB warned there would be a lack of funds for reversing the
>decline of many birds including skylarks, lapwings and stone-curlews.
>
>The conservation charity said some £300 million was needed to
>implement the biodiversity action plans that would ensure the survival
>of at-risk species.
>
>Defra officials acknowledged the settlement was "tough" despite a 1.4
>per cent increase in real terms on this year's budget.
>
>The budget announcement for 2008-09 comes after Defra's permanent
>secretary, Helen Ghosh, told a committee of MPs in November last year
>that savings of between £130 million and £270 million were needed to
>meet new ministerial priorities.
>
>A recent crisis meeting with ministers was forced to consider making
>£1 billion of cuts over three years.
>
>Wrap, the waste reduction and recycling agency, will see a 30 per cent
>reduction in its funding on 2007-08.
>
>It said the cut was "disappointing" but in line with expectations, and
>its final budget of £43.2 million remained a substantial sum to
>deliver its programme to promote efficiency and lessen the impact of
>climate change.
>
>The Environment Agency, which is in charge of much of the flooding
>measures, welcomed the settlement of £796 million, up by around £130
>million on last year.
Farming should be treated as any other business and sell their
products at realistic prices if people want to buy them.
It looks like the beginning of the end for fake conservationists. The
planting of trees is being seen as a con and if the RSPB can't stop
the decline in birds brought about by man's actions with an income of
over £1m a week the money should be put to better use.
Conservation - as fake as a £9 note
At a time of economic instability, spiralling prices and cuts in
essential services across the board, one industry seems to be escaping
much of the hardship.
Never mind our armed services without proper equipment, prisons
stretched to capacity, hospitals being sources of infection, schools
failing future generations, social services not able to cope,
inadequate flood defences, precipitous potholes in our roads, and last
but not least the seemingly unstoppable rise in violent crime.
Despite all the political posturing, essential services are largely
being starved of cash, whilst millions of pounds are being thrown at a
relatively new industry which feeds off fears and prejudices and is
about as fake as a nine pound note. Indeed, if this industry operated
in the high street, it would probably be closed down for
misrepresentation or downright fraud.
The industry of course is "conservation" which:
· Passes off the planting of nursery grown saplings (baby trees)
as "ancient woodlands".
· Claims planting trees combats climate change - where
scientific evidence concludes they do not above 20 degrees latitude
and that the money would be better spent protecting tropical forests.
· Promotes historical assumptions and speculation as "facts" in
respect of identifying "native" species where it has no evidence to
support its claims.
· Introduces animals that have evolved abroad and claims they
are "native" to this country because they are in the same paper
classification of "species".
· Emotively uses words like "extinct" when it really means an
animal is not established in certain locations.
· Promotes and carries out ethnic cleansing by killing plants
and animals it deems inappropriate because of origin or abundance, for
the benefit of those it favours.
· Solicits donations from the public for conserving the natural
environment, yet indulges in and encourages environmentally damaging
activities to fund its existence.
· Sends out large quantities of unsolicited junk mail, which is
environmentally damaging by its production, distribution and disposal.
· Canvasses for volunteers to do menial tasks, but pays its
executives up to and over £100,000 a year.
· Contributes virtually nothing in rates and taxes to the
economy because it hides behind charity status.
· Creates its own crises, advises politicians what to do, and is
paid by the taxpayer to solve them - a "gravy train" ring.
· Is responsible for increasing the environmentally damaging
human footprint in wild places by buying large tracts of land for
tourism and recreation.
· Is backed by a forestry authority and other government quangos
that would be largely redundant if it wasn't for "conservation" -
bureaucrats keeping themselves in jobs.
· Promotes and allows blood sports on "reserves" that should be
wildlife havens.
All this and more while our country is descending into "third world"
status at an alarming rate.
The CON in conservation is there for all to see - for those who look
closely enough.
Angus Macmillan
www.roots-of-blood.org.uk
www.killhunting.org
www.con-servation.org.uk
All truth passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed;
Second, it is violently opposed; and
Third, it is accepted as self-evident.
-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
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