To Brian Angell

Dear Brian - and copied to the Chronicle editors.

Thanks for your email.

My wife, Linda is the younger sister of Chrissie Verduyn, who passes on her copy of the excellent, the very professionally produced, month after month, 'Clun Chronicle'.  We live in Halesowen on the edge of the Black Country and next to our NW Worcestershire green belt.

Chrissie presented the Clun Climate Action Plan from the CCEG in June and your good self, on behalf of the Town Council, endorsed it and gave every encouragement for progress to be made in three areas that Alison Weeks wrote about in the July issue.

My concern is that human-induced climate change is still not making a difference in every area of our lives.  Climate science is now 160 years old but we still carry on regardless with business as usual, of economic growth at the expense of the planet's fast changing life support systems.

The NFU produced their brochure about net zero CO2 emissions that I picked up at the Minsterley Show.  It was produced two years ago.  I read that 10% of our nation's greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture.  Now, the first-rate, Adam Henson on BBC's 'Country File' is getting down to making further changes on his farm in Gloucestershire.  

Matt Jones, in the July Chronicle, wrote that his Acton Farming Company goes in for a four-year rotation of crops, minimum tillage and, practices that reduce "the reliance on man-made and mined fertilisers - often produced halfway around the world".  That is excellent as, it seems, is everything else he is doing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and impacts.  Your farmers are probably way ahead of Adam Henson!

As for me, I'm more in favour of Matt's arable farming because I think we need to eat much less meat and more plants for a more sustainable lifestyle that would give lower impacts from our fossil fuels/greenhouse gases intensive lives.

Now we have heard from Matt, can our livestock farmers boast of their farming practices that are "treading more lightly on the planet" (Jonathon Porritt)?

With best wishes

Tim