02/07/24 - Danish methane tax, Electric Berries and rural/urban voting habits

Labour have won the General Election - so what does it mean for food, farming and the environment across the UK?We visit a soft fruit farm where flexible solar panels are being draped over the polytunnels to produce both electricity and strawberries from the same land.And most beekeepers sell honey - but we visit a pair who also sell queen bees, which they send to customers through the post.Presented by Helen Mark Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons

Reading University has bought £16m worth of farmland to improve its research into food and farming. The 635-acre site at Tanners Farm, Farley, includes pasture, arable land and woodland and is an addition to the farmland and facilities the university already owns. The university's vice-chancellor said the purchase would help secure the future of agriculture at Reading for the next century to come. As more people flock to the countryside, paths are becoming eroded. Add to that the wet weather and many tracks need urgent repair. We join the North York Moors National Park as they transport stone to the top of a local viewpoint by helicopter. We're looking at the soft fruit industry this week and today it's the blueberry. Hard to grow because of its acidic soil requirements, it does thrive in some regions. We visit two farms, in Devon and Cornwall. And we meet Jim Smith, the beef and sheep farmer from Perthshire who's turning his hand to stand-up comedy. He draws on his own experiences to show the funny side of what can be a difficult and stressful job. Presented by Steffan Messenger, and produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sally Challoner.

A creamery which has been producing Stilton since 1780 is due to close its doors with the loss of 60 jobs. Tuxford and Tebbutt in Melton Mowbray is owned by the farmer co-operative Arla, which has been trying to sell the creamery as a going concern. They've blamed the closure on what they say is a decline in the speciality cheese market. Dairy industry analyst Chris Walkland explains what's happened. There's been some debate about whether this wet spring has had an effect on the bee population. Ian Campbell is a spokesperson for the British Bee Keepers Association. He says this has been a challenging year for honey bees. A farmer who switched from intensive cereal production to wildflower meadows, and open access to walkers, says the farm is now just as profitable as when he was feeding people. Chris Skinner runs High Ash Farm just outside Norwich. He says even though he’s not producing food, he feels he’s still giving people a valuable benefit...and many visitors are happy to donate to support his wildlife work. Anna Hill joined him for a walk in the meadows. Scottish raspberries are famed for their flavour and quality...But disease, labour costs and supermarket prices mean the industry is taking a beating, with some growers pulling out or cutting production. Now the James Hutton Institute is developing varieties and growing techniques which can solve at least some of these problems. Richard Baynes has been to Invergowrie on Tayside to find out more.

Danish farmers are facing a tax on methane from cattle, pigs and slurry. The charges will be based on how many animals a farmer has, and what sort of farming system they use. There will be money available for farmers to introduce technical solutions, such as covering up slurry storage, to reduce emissions.We visit a soft fruit farm in Kent which is part of a trial to generate electricity by draping lightweight, flexible solar panels over some polytunnels.And a study by researchers at the University of Cambridge has looked at the urban / rural divide in voting habits - and found what it called a gradient of disenchantment and distrust in democracy, that increases as it moves from urban centres through suburbs, towns, villages and out into open country.Presented by Anna Hill Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons

"Fishing is about food - it's not a conservation problem, or heritage activity, or a hobby" the words of the fishing industry to politicians as we enter the final few days of campaigning before the general election. The National Federation of Fisherman's Organisations is calling for an incoming government to develop a national fishing strategy. Now most beekeepers sell honey - unless they eat it all of course - but few also sell bees. We speak to a pair of commercial bee keepers who produce honey and queen bees for sale. The pair produce 18 hundred queens a year and sell them to other bee keepers for breeding.Wimbledon is upon us, and with it an appetite for strawberries, but there are warnings that there will be millions fewer punnets of British strawberries on supermarket shelves this year, and that long term the amount of soft fruit we grow here could half. All this week we'll be looking at soft fruit, predominantly homegrown strawberries which were worth more than £470 million pounds last year and raspberries which were worth £180 million, both those figures from DEFRA. However the industry's warning that growers are reining in their planting plans.Presenter = Charlotte Smith Producer = Rebecca Rooney

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