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Letter: How to solve farming-conservation conflicts (2)

Published 12 July 2023

From Rob Christie, Latheron, Caithness, UK

Livestock farming – intensive or otherwise – is a very inefficient way to put calories on people’s plates and has a huge carbon footprint.

The farmers in the UK I know are incredibly hard-working and astute business people. How they farm is governed by the grant system. They would quickly react to changes in the, mostly perverse, incentives. This was shown when payments for sheep were changed from per capita to per area. The number of sheep quickly fell.

Issue no. 3447 published 15 July 2023

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