Norway - farming without EU subsidies, Scottish tea at Chelsea, Anaerobic digesters
Farm life in Europe but outside the EU - the programme hears about the Norwegian model. Paul Murphy finds out whether leaving the EU means the cash would stop flowing.
Whatever the political arguments for being in or out of Europe, much of the debate boils down to money. And nearly 40% of the entire European Union budget is spent on supporting farmers in the form of subsidies. So would leaving the EU mean the cash would stop flowing? And if it did, how might farmers get on? Paul Murphy, who's the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's Rural Affairs Correspondent in the North East of England, has been to visit Norwegian farmers to find out how they fare without EU subsidies.
Most of the tea we drink is imported from China and India but there's a burgeoning British tea industry. It's grown from Devon and Cornwall in the south up as far as Mull and Perthshire in Scotland, and there are now five commercial tea gardens or plantations in the UK. With growers celebrating a bumper harvest this year, Caz Graham has been to south west Scotland to find out why this year's crop has been so good - and how a tea called Garrocher Grey is the flavour of the week in Chelsea.
Also, anaerobic digesters - loved by some, opposed by others. As part of Farming Today's collaboration with Radio 4's You and Yours programme, Rajeev Gupta meets North Yorkshire cattle farmer John Douglas to see the plant which he says helps him stay in business.
Produced by Mark Smalley.
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- Fri 27 May 2016 05:45Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
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