Farming Today

Charlotte Smith hosts an "election special" looking at rural manifesto promises - she explores what's on offer on food, farming, the environment and rural services. She's joined by rural correspondents from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.Presented by Charlotte Smith Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons

All week we've been looking at party manifestos and politicians' pledges on food and farming. We've head from the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats - today we round up what the other parties are offering the countryside.We meet a family of flower growers in Cornwall who've been farming in the Tamar Valley for half a century. Barry Richards built his first glasshouses in the 1970s before the flower market became dominated by imports which pushed many British flower growers out of business. However the Richards have diversified to become importers and distributors. They've massively increased the number of varieties they produce and now grow all year round.This year's wet weather means farmers are seeing hemlock in places they wouldn't usually see the plant. It's extremely poisonous for animals and people. Agronomists say it's highly unlikely it will get into the food chain, but say farmers need to be vigilant.Presenter = Caz Graham Producer = Rebecca Rooney

All this week we're hearing from the main political parties on what they're offering farmers and rural communities this election. Today it's the turn of the Liberal Democrats who say they'll put an extra £1 billion a year into the agriculture budget.When the Groundswell show started eight years ago it was a small event for the then rather niche 'regenerative farming'. This year's show still held on the Cherry family farm in Hertfordshire expects thousands of visitors to discuss, debate and look at machinery, as regen ag is becoming far more mainstream. We hear from tenant farmer Andy Cato of Groove Armada and Wildfarmed on how to make it pay.Keep Sundays special or move with the times? That's the debate in Channel Island of Sark, as politicians consider whether to change a law that means tractor drivers have to have written permission to go out on Sundays.Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

A "New Deal for Farming" including better trade deals and more public procurement of home grown food - we hear what's in the Labour Party manifesto on farming, the environment and rural communities. It's part of a series of political interviews with the main parties that will run on the programme across the week.Groundswell is the biggest UK event for "regenerative farming" - and around eight thousand people are expected to attend this week's show. But some farmers worry that switching to growing food without relying on chemicals will lead to lower yields and less profit. So what's the solution?And, we meet the seed breeder who produced a variety of wheat called "Champion" which was used by the Lincolnshire farmer who holds the World Record for the most wheat produced per hectare of land. Presented by Anna Hill Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons

An extra billion pounds across the next Parliament for farming and legally binding targets on food production - we hear what's in the Conservative Party manifesto on farming, the environment and rural communities. It's part of a series of political interviews with the main parties that will run on the programme across the week.Learning about food and its link to farming can be a challenge in the classroom - but what better way than to actually farm your school dinners? We visit Maple Hayes Dyslexia School in the Midlands where they're doing just that. The school set up its own herd of deer in the grounds, some of which end up on the lunch menu.And the population of hazel dormice in the UK has declined by over two-thirds since 2000. Earlier this month 10 were reintroduced into a secret Bedfordshire woodland with the aim of creating a more genetically diverse population in the area.Presented by Anna Hill Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons

The 240th Royal Highland Show is taking place just outside Edinburgh, and more than 200,000 people expected to attend over the 4 days of the show. We hear from some of the breeders showing cattle at the show.In 2022, the UK grew 162,000 tonnes of lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet peppers and celery - worth more than 200 million pounds. This time of year is normally peak salad season, but the months of rain and below average temperatures have been bad news for the country's salad growers. We find out what that means for both field crops and those grown in glasshouses.An e-coli outbreak across the UK has been traced back to some salad leaves, which were used in a wide range of food, including sandwiches and wraps. The Food Standards Agency has not been able to say whether those leaves came from UK farms, or were imported. We ask what it means for farmers.And could the plant breeding achievements of the Green Revolution be started again from scratch? That's the hope of scientists at the John Innes Centre, who say modern commercial varieties of wheat used by farmers could be replaced with better ones, using wheat lines collected a century ago. Presented by Caz Graham Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons

Charlotte Smith visits the Royal Highland Show for its 240th year to talk cattle, politics and farmers' health.Produced by Beatrice Fenton.

Could the plant breeding achievements of the Green Revolution be started again from scratch? That's the hope of scientists at the John Innes Centre, who say modern commercial varieties of wheat used by farmers could be replaced with better ones, using wheat lines collected a century ago. Back in the 1920s, an enterprising plant scientist named Arthur Earnest Watkins sent out letters to other Brits around the world, asking them to collect locally grown wheat, hoping the traits in those local cultivars would come in useful in the future. That original Watkins Collection is now based at the John Innes Centre in Norwich - but a massive 60 percent of the genetic diversity held within it, has never been looked at.The Landworkers' Alliance is one of the smaller groups. It speaks for regenerative and sustainable agriculture, but with an emphasis on local production, and getting more people involved in growing food. We hear what they want from the next Government.And we visit a new "Centre of Excellence" in glasshouse growing at Hadlow College. It's been set up with Thanet Earth - the biggest greenhouse complex in the UK, growing salad veg. Presented by Anna Hill Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons

A recent E-coli outbreak is thought to have been caused by contaminated salad leaves. There have been over 200 confirmed cases of food poisoning across the UK caused by e-coli bacteria found in manure, with nearly half those affected admitted to hospital. So how does the bacteria get into the salad, and what are farmers doing to prevent it?As part of our week looking at salads, we visit Evesham Vale Growers in Worcestershire, where they grow 500 acres of spring onions outside and some 70 acres of premium tomatoes in glasshouses. Alongside salad production, they grow crops including maize and wheat to feed anaerobic digesters for gas and electricity, and there's a solar farm. Some of the gas and electricity is used to heat and light the glasshouses - insulating them somewhat from fluctuating energy prices.The Soil Association, which campaigns for sustainable and organic food and farming, has published it's list of demands in the run up to the election. It wants the next Government to 'grow green jobs' by backing sustainable British farming and protect the NHS by supporting healthy and sustainable food.Presented by Anna Hill Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons

With the rain continuing and below average temperatures, the outlook isn't so sunny for UK salad growers.We look at some of the detail in the main parties' manifestos to see what they're promising on issues like the agriculture budget, food security and England's badger cull. Sometimes described as a farmer's best friend, dung beetles consume, bury and break up dung, improving soils as they go. Earlier this month vets and farmers met at a conference in Somerset devoted to the dung beetle. Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.