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Farming Matters!

Farming Information for Rural Ministry

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Updated
August 03

The aim of the FIRM project is to support those working in rural ministry with background information about farming and other rural matters. It provides concise briefings about current issues by weekly emails. The project runs from January to September this year and is partly financed by Defra's Rural Support Initiative Fund and is an Arthur Rank Centre project.

There is no copyright on these papers - please feel free to forward them to anyone who might find them useful. If you would like copies of any of the papers listed below or to be put on the list for regular briefings by email contact alan.spedding@tesco.net.

The FIRM papers are also immediately accessible on the Arthur Rank Centre website along with a lot of other useful material illustrating the Centre's roles of Christian concern for the wellbeing of rural people and as the church's rural resources unit.

List of papers at August 29th, 2003. Further papers will be listed as they are published.

Easy Guides
  1. Beef Farming
  2. Cereals
  3. Dairy Farming Facts
  4. Farm Animals and their Names
  5. Farming in Britain
  6. Horticulture
  7. Milk Quotas
  8. Oilseeds
  9. Pigs
  10. Poultry & Eggs
  11. Set aside - questions and answers
  12. Sheep Farming
  13. Sugar beet
  14. One Thousand Years of English Agriculture summarised in a paragraph
  15. Budget 2003
  16. Biosecurity
  17. Farm Woodlands
  18. UK Agricultural Review
  19. Cattle Health

Briefings
  1. Agricultural Tenancy
  2. Biofuels (updated April 03)
  3. Changing support for farmers? The Mid-Term Review of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
  4. The Common Agricultural Policy
  5. The Curry Report and resulting policy
  6. Notes from “The Strategy for Sustainable Farming and food - facing the future”
  7. Farmers and Debt
  8. Genetic Modification
  9. Globalisation
  10. Livestock Quotas
  11. Mid Term Review of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy
  12. Organic Action Plan
  13. Summary of Government Response to Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) enquiries
  14. TB and cattle - A brief overview (updated June 26th)
  15. We should shout more about the achievements of farmers
  16. You don’t need to be a farming expert to help farmers
  17. January briefing
  18. What’s all this about broadband?
  19. Government Support for Rural Areas - The England Rural Development Programme
  20. Scope for poultry production on more general farms
  21. Alternative enterprises for farmers
  22. Support for cropping - the Arable Area Payments Scheme
  23. Sugar, European Farmers and Fair trade.
  24. March Briefing
  25. New pilot agri-environmental scheme
  26. Plans for a better Planning System
  27. The UK food market and local food
  28. Rural Economies
  29. The Future of Rural Areas
  30. What Biotechnology might do for us
  31. People in the Hills
  32. National Carcase Collection Scheme
  33. Statistics 1 - Agriculture in the economy, crops, livestock subsidies and income
  34. State of the countryside 2003 - summary
  35. Statistics 2 - Some statistics for Wales
  36. Statistics 3 - Some statistics for Scotland
  37. State of the Countryside 2 - People and communities
  38. Statistics 4 - UK Income from farming
  39. Statistics 5 - Labour force, crop areas, livestock numbers, milk production and consumption and product prices
  40. State of the Countryside 3 - Services and Lifestyle
  41. June Briefing from Nick Read
  42. State of the Countryside 4 - environment and recreation
  43. State of the Countryside 5 - economy and enterprise
  44. Code of Good Agricultural Practice for the Protection of Air
  45. Code of Good Agricultural Practice for the Protection of Soil
  46. Code of Good Agricultural Practice for the Protection of Water
  47. Groundwater Protection Code: Use and disposal of sheep dip compounds
  48. Code of Practice for the safe use of pesticides, ‘The Green Code’
  49. Fisheries
  50. CAP reform, summary of agreement of 26 June 2003
  51. Farm Diversification
  52. Integrated Farm management
  53. End of Over Thirty Month Scheme in sight
  54. Public views about genetic modification
  55. Farm Assurance Schemes
  56. GM Science Review Report
  57. Ragwort Control
  58. Sheep health calendar
  59. Unlevel playing fields
  60. Government Consulations
  61. Invasive plants
  62. Environmental Crime Statistics
  63. Affordable Rural Housing

Glossaries
  • Rural Terms
  • Rural Organisations

Alan Spedding, August 2003

Main index

Farming Matters!		 Facts about Farms - 2003
Facts about farms - 2002
Also see Updates		Facts and Figures
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