Some sheep farmers have burned or composted fleeces to help offset wool handling and haulage costs, after Covid-19 caused the wool price to collapse.Continue Reading
A combination of political, economic, socio-cultural and environmental factors could see demand for land use change increase like never before. So how can you get the best return from your most valuable asset?Continue Reading
Warburtons has announced it will cease its milling wheat contract with Openfield from July 2022 and move forward with Frontier Agriculture, following an internal review of its wheat supply chain.Continue Reading
A farmer from North Yorkshire has been killed after he became trapped under a mower.Continue Reading
Covid-19 has seen a spike in labour costs of up to 15 per cent leaving British growers in an ‘unsustainable’ situation, a new report has revealed.Continue Reading
Defra Secretary George Eustice has admitted the Government was slow to issue guidance on how to keep workers safe in food manufacturing plants at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.Continue Reading
Bacterial changes could lead to serious diseases. vchal/ Shutterstock E-cigarettes are a popular alternative to smoking, but we still know very little about the effects of them on our health. While numerous studies have explored the effect of e-cigarettes on our lungs, heart, and overall health, one important and often overlooked consideration is what effect they have on our microbiome. But a recent study has found e-cigarettes change the bacteria in our mouths. These bacterial changes can lead to disease, if left unchecked. Our microbiome is the living community of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that keep us healthy. We often hear a lot about our gut microbiome, but our oral microbiome is probably just as important to our overall health.Continue Reading
Iakov Kalinin/Shutterstock It has been suggested that taking vitamin D may protect people from getting COVID-19. But should we be using supplements to ward off the virus? We need to separate fact from fiction. Vitamin D is essential for maintaining overall health, especially for bones, teeth and muscle. It regulates the body’s stores of calcium and phosphate and helps us maintain a healthy immune system. While we can get vitamin D from oily fish, egg yolks, red meat and supplemented foods in our diet, the vast majority of vitamin D in the body is produced in the skin due to sunlight exposure. Vitamin D concentrations are lower in people with obesity, those with high blood pressure or diabetes and inContinue Reading
The coronavirus pandemic has triggered what has been described as a “sanitary pad crisis” in India. Priya, a 14-year-old schoolgirl, considers herself lucky: her parents can still afford pads. But several of her friends will have to go without. In some parts of India, schools are a critical part of the supply chain, providing a pack of pads to girls each month. With them closed, along with other supply chain issues, as few as 15% of girls had access to sanitary pads during the lockdown. This is not only the case in India. Women in Fiji, the US, UK and other parts of the world have also reported severe supply shortages and hiked up prices for disposable menstrual products. ButContinue Reading
Dalits remain at the mercy of ancient social mores that see them as “less than” Dalits joining in a land rights campaign in 2013. Dalites are often conned by uppercaste landowners. Image via Flickr by Action Aid India. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Indians are attempting to awaken their fellow citizens with social media action around #DalitLivesMatter, in the fashion of #BlackLivesMatter. The hashtag was first used in November 2014, shortly after #BlackLivesMatter started trending. But since May 2020 #DalitLivesMatter had more engagement than the entirety of 2019 (engagement measured as the number of posts with 10 or more replies, likes and retweets). For Dalits, people from lower castes who are considered and treated as “untouchable” in India, the fight against systemic and social subordination by AfricanContinue Reading
