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HALF OF EVERYTHING. "60% of over 3,000 species studied in the UK have declined over the past 50 years." https://lnkd.in/e8YUWEr View in LinkedIn

THIS CONCLUDES the section on the perilous state of UK's natural abundance. Some EU countries (like France) appear to have done worse with areas of giant industrial fields and record chemical use. View in LinkedIn

HACKATHON. "Among the compulsory standards in the GAEC rules is "avoiding the encroachment of unwanted vegetation on agricultural land". What this means is that if farmers want their money they must stop wild plants from returning. They don't have to produce anything: to keep animals or to grow crops there." https://lnkd.in/eiqJUcg View in LinkedIn

INCENTIVE. "The major funding that farmers receive is called the single farm payment, which is money given by European taxpayers to people who own land. To receive it, they must keep the land in what is called "Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition" (GAEC). It's a term straight out of 1984." https://lnkd.in/eiqJUcg View in LinkedIn

MADNESS. "But this is where the madness kicks in: much of the habitat destruction for which farm policies are responsible has little or nothing to do with producing food." https://lnkd.in/eiqJUcg View in LinkedIn

MORE MOUTHS. "You could argue that an intensification of farming is a response to rising population pressure: the need to produce more food has caused greater damage to wildlife." https://lnkd.in/eiqJUcg View in LinkedIn

"THE DOUBLING of England's barley acreage in the 1950s was just one sign of an aggressive drive to squeeze more out of the English soil which spelt doom for hedges." https://lnkd.in/eEGs6ZT View in LinkedIn

INDUSTRIAL FARMING. "Hedges were removed to create more cropland and to make way for the big new machines in which arable farmers were investing heavily." https://lnkd.in/eEGs6ZT View in LinkedIn

INDUSTRIAL FARMING. "In the 1950s and 1960s, it was on the arable lands of East Anglia and, to a lesser extent, on the mixed farming lands of southern England that most hedge removal was taking place." https://lnkd.in/eEGs6ZT View in LinkedIn

GRUBBING OUT HEDGEROWS. "The loss is continuing, as the hedgerow gets in the way of a wide range of new agricultural techniques." https://lnkd.in/eEGs6ZT View in LinkedIn