#519: Beanz meanz

This BBC News story from 2023 talks about a successful haricot bean harvest in Lincolnshire.

Baked Beans from companies such as Heinz are generally imported as the beans haven't traditionally done well in the UK.

In 2025 we also had rice successfully grown...

In the future we may see a very different English countryside to the one we have become used to seeing.

#293: Our diet and Climate Change

Our food has a dramatic impact on natural history at both local and national scales... and global too...

Elon Musk tweets, "Farming has no material effect on climate change."

This is wrong. If you look at the data, you find that a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are due to food production, the majority of these from farming.https://t.co/D7X9tu5Pyg

— Max Roser (@MaxCRoser) February 12, 2024

How high our emissions from food production are depends primarily on what we eat.

If you would like to see the data on this, you can find it
— here: https://t.co/cdxtINqHzI
— and much more here: https://t.co/nxmzE3lAVK pic.twitter.com/yoXgrtyFUR

— Max Roser (@MaxCRoser) February 12, 2024

What we choose to eat has an impact because of the water and energy required to produce certain items, and the amount of land that is put aside for its production.

Food should be more of a priority than it is for the government - as should water... we can get by without most things, but not food and water. 

The original draft specification for the GCSE Natural History mentioned the impact of our diet on the countryside. Choices such as organic food, vegetarian diets and alternatives to milk from cows all have an impact on the landscape...

Image: Jersey Royals, Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license

#215: Six Inches of Soil

Six Inches of Soil is a new film, which explores the value of this material, which many people undervalue - not understanding its critical importance. I studied pedology (soil science) in the final year of my undergraduate degree, spending quite a lot of time carrying out experiments and fieldwork, and know very well how important it is to look after it.

🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁
*Drum roll*
We’re extremely proud to present our new #filmtrailer. Huge thanks to award-winning creative agency @Chinagraph_L for producing it for us. We hope you love it as much as we do. Feel free to leave comments on our YouTube https://t.co/kXFW6ag15M pic.twitter.com/gRAHmDrpGA

— Six Inches of Soil (@sixinchessoil) November 16, 2023

Here's the original quote which inspired the title of the film:

“Despite all our accomplishments, we owe our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact it rains.”

Paul Harvey (1978) U.S. radio broadcaster

The trailer for the film can be viewed here:

#157: World Soil Day - 5th December

World Soil Day is on the 5th of December

This is a day designated by the United Nations.

Soils are where food begins.

#55: Natural History Reading List #3. 'Divide' by Anna Jones

Divide is a book by rural affairs journalist Anna Jones, which was published towards the beginning of 2022. It is now available in paperback. The book explores the relationship between urban and rural areas.

Anna Jones is a journalist who has written widely in this area.

Its subtitle is: 'The Relationship Crisis between Town and Country', and it has a series of sections exploring different aspects of the 'broken' relationship which means that many urban dwellers don't really understand rural life.

Anna Jones' own website includes some useful additional reading and some details of her journalism pieces, which would be of use for some elements of the proposed draft specification.

The publishers' description:

“Divide is a ground-breaking exploration of the urban and rural cultural division. This book is a plea and a call to action. It warns that unless we learn to accept and respect our social, cultural and political differences as town and country people, we are never going to solve the chronic problems present in our food system and environment. As we stare down the barrel of climate change, only farmers – who manage two thirds of the UK’s landscape – working together with conservation groups can create a healthier food system and bring back nature in diverse abundance. But this fledgling progress is hindered and hamstrung by simplistic debates that still stoke conflict between conservative rural communities and the liberal green movement.Each chapter, from Home and Work, Politics and Diversity to Animals and Food, Environment and Community, explores a different aspect of the urban/rural disconnect, weaving case studies and research with Anna’s personal stories of growing up on a small, upland farm.

A rural affairs journalist, Anna Jones has a unique perspective and insight into the cultural, agricultural and social issues that often divide rather than unite. Having grown up on a sheep farm in the Welsh borders, and later lived in urban settings, her media sensibility sees the reasons why these two disparate sections of society need to respect their differences and recognise each other’s strengths and work together to protect and preserve the land.”