FARMERS have planted over 87 million trees over the last 10 years, helping ensure that woodlands now cover twice the area of Britain than in 1920, and at the same time planted or renovated 40,000 kilometres of hedgerow.
At the end of the 1990s there were 12,200 more lowland ponds than 10 years previously, and since the 1970s, wild bird numbers have increased by five per cent.
The little-known farming facts are to be found in a new booklet, designed to help farmers and others argue the positive case for modern British agriculture. "Get your facts right..100 points of information in support of modern agriculture," is being distributed throughout the farming industry with the backing of Strutt and Parker, farm business consultants, the National Farmers Union and Arable Farming magazine.
Richard Greasby, of Strutt and Parker's Moreton farming department, believes the booklet could represent an important step forward for the farming industry
"Farming can feel a depressing occupation when the public does not understand, the Government does not care and the media get their facts wrong. The object of this leaflet is to start putting the record straight, but the momentum needs to be continued forward."
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