Land Use Framework

The Greater London Authority has given the green light to a housing development on agricultural land occupied by an tenant in the Barnet area of London

The chair of Labour's Climate and Environment Forum Baroness Young said she hoped the ‘multi-functional' land use framework would be operationally ‘sustainable'

"Intensive farming, with its reliance on artificial nitrogen, vanishing peat and corrupting the soil, will not see many more tomorrows. It is literally unsustainable"

Despite previous promises by Government that the land use strategy document would be published by the end of the year, the Farmers Guardian understands it has been delayed to some point next year

Organic Farmers and Growers chief executive Roger Kerr said there was a ‘whole industry out there built around pesticides and fertilisers' which wants organic to fail, but organic is a ‘defined farming system that can deliver a ‘low carbon, nature-friendly, people-positive' food system

The Environmental Audit Committee has expressed concerns that the Government's ambitious tree planting target for the UK was significantly off track and there was no clear path for the private sector

OF&G said a 'three fold increase' in organic land use area would reduce total agriculture-related greenhouse gas emissions equal to the carbon sequestered by third of million acres of broadleaved woodland

The Environmental Audit Committee argued the framework must set out how land will balance producing food in a sustainable way that supports a resilient food system, while also responding to environmental change

The selected projects will now begin their two-year development phase to finalise arrangements