Geography - Farming and the Countryside

Divesification - make money other ways than farming

Why? -

• Seen a fall in profits from his dairy herd (milk cost 60p a litre but he only gets 16p per litre)
• Sold his dairy herd (kept 300 sheep & breeds bulls)
• income has dropped by £40,000

What has he done?

• Old cow sheds converted into bed and breakfast (£55 for singe, £65 for double)
• £300 a year to store a caravan 
• Rents fields (£40 for pony grazing a month or £100 with a shed)
• rents out advertising signs at £250 a month due to his farm being next to the M42 motorway
• £3000 a year from Vodaphone to have a mast on his land
• money from the environmental stewardship scheme

Grown to product engery either:

• Electricity & heat (willow and popular trees grow in 3 years, elephant grass grows 3.5m per year)
• Produce fule for transport (cereals/wheat and suger beet can be turned into bioethanol, oilseeds can be used to produce biodiesel)

Why biofuels is better than burning fossil fuels:

• Carbon neutral 
• Renewable

Downsides?

• Takes up a lot of space (less space to grow food results to prices increasing)
• Reduces biodiversity (wildlife affected)

Food miles - Today our food is travelling increasing distances from the plough to the plate.

Example:

• For every calorie of carrot flown in from South Africa, we use 66 calories of fuel.

Global Warming - Too much CO2 causes the earth to warm causing the Greenhouse effect.

How could we reduce our food miles & CO2 emissions?

• Grow our own food
• Eat foods within seasons
• Eat foods closer to home
• Get food without packaging

The spiral of decline begins when farmers don't need as many workers due to improved technology. These people will move from a place like Great Broughton to urban areas for easier, well paid work taking their families. Due to the decrease in families, Great Broughton primary school will close as there are very few children going, meaning families in Great Broughton will have to travel to Stokesley Primary School, which will cost in petrol. Due to the worsening quality of life, more people will move out of the village, the general store and post office will close due to loss in sales and an elderly population will be left. 

Footsteps Lodge in in the North West of Gambia. The footsteps lodge provides many attractive nature and bird reserves, so due to their increasing tourist numbers, they have worked to manage tourism to protect the environment. The methods they have used to manage tourist to protect the environment are compost toilets to avoid pollution and to use as fertillister, food is imported from locals such as papayas and vegetables so it does not have to be imported by aircraft using fuels and producing harmful greenhouse gases as a result. They use solar power to work in freezers and the location is fairly small, there are only 8 lodges so less power needs to be used than for a large location with several apartments, for example, in electricity, water, etc. They conserve their water, using 'grey water' systems to irrigate crops so less water is needed. 

What is the ESS?

• A scheme where farmers earn points by being environmentally friendly 
• The points are converted into money as being environmental is costly for the farmers

Hedgerows 

• The EU encorages farmers to increase the amount of hedgerow that was heavily affected by intenive farming during WW1 & WW2
• Farmers are provided with money to plant & restore hedgerows

Why?

• Hedgerows provide shelter in exposed areas for cattle that is left alone for long periods of time (also help to contain cattle)
• Provides essential habitat for over 47 species that are protected/endangered (e.g. bees)

Beetle Banks

• Also referred to as 'buffer strips' 
• Areas of land which are purposely left to encourage/support habitats (allow beetles to thrive)
• An inexpensive technique for farmers (also earns money - £736 per hectare per year)
• Requires little maintenance due to it just being an area left to its natural devices