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23/01/2014

Presented by Charlotte Smith. Two separate summits search for answers on bees, rules and pesticides, but when will farmers and conservationists start talking to each other?

This week academics, beekeepers and environmentalists are holding a bee health summit in London to examine the latest research and try to reach an agreement on how to deal with declining populations. Meanwhile, leading figures from the farming and agri-chemical industries have held their own summit at NFU headquarters in Warwickshire to discuss pesticide regulation. The two summits come after one of the biggest battles of 2013 - the decision to ban neonicotinoid pesticides. It divided farmers, who use the seed treatment on crops such as oilseed rape, and conservationists, who believe the chemicals have contributed to a decline in the number of bees. Charlotte Smith asks both sides of debate whether they are talking to each other, and how meaningful consensus will be achieved.

Sarah Swadling reports from the slopes of the Tamar Valley in Cornwall and meets an organic beef farmer who looks after the microbes in his soil as much as his cattle.

And Jules Benham is at LAMMA, the UK's largest farm machinery show in Peterborough, where she hears from farmers in a spending mood.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced in Bristol by Anna Jones.

13 minutes

Last on

Thu 23 Jan 2014 05:45

Broadcast

  • Thu 23 Jan 2014 05:45

Podcast