On BBC 1 'Breakfast' yesterday (17th July) there was a report on the crisis in the British butterfly population. It was also widely reported in the press. Sir David Attenborough warned that butterflies could die out in this country unless something is done to help them, as he launched a rescue plan to establish 20 locations in areas like Dartmoor in Devon and the New Forest in Hampshire, where farmers and landowners will be encouraged to restore habitats and encourage butterflies. Butterflies are in serious decline and are at a record low because of the wet summer. Butterflies are an indicator of environmental health; they are in decline because the environment is suffering - for example, natural habitats have been destroyed by intensive agriculture and there is increasing pollution. However, it would be better to introduce less destructive agricultural practices over the whole country than establish small conservation areas.
You can help butterflies, by growing buddhleia, nettles and other butterfly-friendly plants in your garden.
For more information, go to www.butterfly-conservation.org/
Save Our Butterflies Week is 19th-27th July - go to www.butterfly-conservation.org/text/1996/save_our_butterflies_week.html
To read one of the press reports, go to www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/07/17/eabutterfly117.xml

On 16th July, a report was published in 'The Times' and also posted on timesonline about 12 British calves exported to Holland which are infected with TB. Dutch farmers have now imposed a commercial ban on imports of calves from Britain, and British farmers in the calf-exporting industry fear that the E.U. may impose an official ban on imports to the Continent. However, they may get lucky - the E.U may force DEFRA to go ahead with badger culling in England in an attempt to control TB in dairy herds - although badgers are not the cause of TB in dairy cows, but the bad conditions which they suffer in intensive farming.
Millions of calves are produced by the dairy industry each year, ie they are born to dairy cows and taken away so that the mothers can lactate milk for human consumption. The new-born male calves are exported to the Continent by lorry to be crated and slaughtered in the cruel white veal industry.
For more information, go to
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4340286.ece
and www.milkmyths.org.uk/
For the industry response, go to www.meatinfo.co.uk/articles/64503/Fear-of-calf-export-ban-after-
TB-outbreak.aspx?categoryid=9045
and www.thedairysite.com/news/23600/dutch-boycott-uk-cattle-over-tb-sale

A new web-site has been set up, called vegatopia, and it is 'dedicated to providing a comprehensive academic resource on all things vegan'. The web-site has been set up by Dr Matthew Cole and Dr Karen Morgan in the UK. The web-site has various sections including news, media archive, resources and bibliography, and you can sign up to join its research forum.
Go to www.vegatopia.org/

On 15th July, the first part of a new six-part series was shown on BBC 2 - 'Jimmy Doherty's farming heroes'. Jimmy Doherty is from Essex, and he is the farmer in the 2002 and 2007 BBC series 'Jimmy's farm', and also runs Jimmy's Farm, a rare breeds pig farm, butchery and farm shop near Ipswich in Suffolk on which the series were based. Amazingly, the farm is now a popular visitor destination.
The aim of this series is to look at diversity in British farming, be positive about farming, and remind us all how important farming is! The first part of the series went to the east of England.
The BBC press release about the series said that '... Jimmy Doherty... takes viewers on a revealing and entertaining journey around the UK to discover and celebrate the best of one of Britain's most diverse industries – farming... He looks at whether farmers can deliver food people can trust at a price they can afford, and how they are responding to the challenges of the 21st century... he'll meet the innovators and forward-thinkers. From high-tech agribusiness to organics and remote family farms, he's on a search for those striking out in new and original ways to keep Britain at the forefront of agricultural innovation ...'
More free promotion of the British agricultural industry by the BBC?
You can watch the programme online until 21st July at
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00cq4x1
Jimmy's Farm has its own web-site - you can send your comment to Jimmy at www.jimmysfarm.com/index.cfm/fa/guestbook
You can complain to the BBC via www.bbc.co.uk/feedback/

A book titled 'The end of food: the coming crisis in the world food industry', by Paul Roberts, a reporter on 'The Seattle Times' in the US, has been published. It was reviewed in 'the Sunday Times' Culture supplement on 13th July. Roberts looks at junk food, global food-producing companies and also industrialised agriculture. He concludes that mass epidemics like avian 'flu are inevitable, and will seriously affect humans, although caused by the conditions of the intensive livestock industry - ie the unnatural diets, drugs, dirt and over-exploitation forced on livestock animals.

On BBC 1 'Breakfast' today (16th July) there was a report on the UK's first 'no-take' fishing zone, around Lundy Island. This is a zone where no commercial fishing is permitted. It was established five years ago, and is proving to be a success - marine populations are recovering and even thriving within the zone. Conservationists now want a network of 'no-take' zones around the coast of Britain, and commercial fishermen are opposed to this.
The government is soon present a new Marine Bill, which should include legislation on 'no-take' zones.
The public consultation on the draft Marine Bill closed at midnight on 27th June, but you can still email your comments to DEFRA at MarineBillTeam@defra.gsi.gov.uk
Read more on the Marine Conservation Society's web-site at
www.mcsuk.org/mcsaction/marinebill/marine+bill+-+an+introduction?gclid=
CNe1n9ORxZQCFQbtlAodNg26FA
Read more at www.defra.gov.uk/marine/legislation/index.htm

The last part of 'The F-word' was shown on Channel 4 yesterday (15th July), and the series culminated with the slaughter of the two calves reared by Janet Street-Porter, at the age of 20 weeks, for 'rose veal'. Their short lives have formed a strand throughout the series.
Go to the Channel 4 web-site now, register as a member of Channel 4 Forums and vote on 'Eating veal - Dastardly or delicious?', both via
http://community.channel4.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=162603557&f=796602047&m=
3560061099&r=3560061099#3560061099

The Vegan Organic Network have set up a new web-site dedicated to Stockfree Organic agriculture and horticulture and their Stockfree Organic Standards (S.O.S.). It is still under construction but will include a forum moderated by Tim Carey.
Go to http://stockfreeorganic.net/

'The Case of Stockfree Organic', by Richard Taylor of the Centre for Policy Modelling at Manchester Metropolitan University and Piergiuseppe Morone of the University of Napoli is a conference paper which was presented to the Diversity, Inter-Connectivity and Sustainability Stream at the Complexity, Science & Society Conference, the University of Liverpool, in September 2005.
'... This paper argues that organic growing is associated with high levels of agricultural and ecological diversity, and should be understood as "complex systems of culture" compared to conventional farming. The objective of this paper is to use a framework of complexity theory to investigate the ability of organic systems to meet the contemporary challenges of uncertainty and change in food production, by testing for the properties of resilience, adaptivity and innovation. We present a case study of Stockfree Organic Services (SOS), a committee of organic growers who are trying to promote a new ‘higher’ standard of organic production called ‘Stockfree Organic’ (SO) in which the farms and commercial gardens are free of all animal inputs ...'
You can read the paper online at
http://cfpm.org/~richard/diversity_stockfree/paper_diversity_stockfree_1_1.pdf

The new Chelmsford Animal Aid group in Chelmsford have published a useful guide on their information web-site to products which you should avoid if you are opposed to vivisection - go to www.essex.veginfo.org.uk/articles/the_boycott_vivisection_guide_25