Food Fraud; Wind Farms; Farming for the Future; Apprentices

Fraud is costing the UK's food industry £11bn a year according to a report by Professor Lisa Jack of the University of Portsmouth's Business School. She presented her findings to the Food Crime Conference in London yesterday. Anna Hill hears what can be done to reduce food fraud.

One of Britain's biggest wind farm developers says he's giving up applying for new schemes in England, because the Government is making it too difficult. The owner of Ecotricity, Dale Vince, tells Farming Today that he's spent millions of pounds on applications and appeals, only for the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles to refuse them. For their part, the Department for Communities and Local Government said the Government had intentionally and transparently changed official planning guidance and appeal rules, to ensure that the issues created by inappropriately-sited wind turbines are better taken into account.

This week on the programme we're looking in depth at how young people train to become farmers, and what opportunities are available to them. Some choose to take up apprenticeships where they not only learn, but earn as well. The EDGE apprenticeship scheme in East Anglia was set up in March 2013 by a large group of partners including County Councils, agricultural colleges and farmer buying groups. We hear that so far it's placed more than 150 apprentice as we meet some of those who started in September at Easton and Otley College.

'Sustainable Intensification' sounds contradictory - but the term tries to describe how farming can increase food production while minimising its effect on the environment. It's the subject of the 'Farming for the Future' conference being held today, by the Institute of Agricultural Management. Among the speakers will be Professor Jude Capper of Washington State University, who is a consultant on sustainable livestock farming. She believes her task is to debunk some of the myths around the environmental impact of meat production.

Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Mark Smalley.