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23/12/2022: Water quality, pigs, potatoes and Christmas trees

Some supermarkets are selling potatoes for less than it costs to produce them over Christmas. It's good news for consumers, but farmers fear it devalues the product.

Potatoes are being sold for less than it costs to produce them in some supermarkets as part of a Christmas promotion. Good news for consumers facing a cost of living crisis, but farmers fear it devalues the product.

And it really wouldn’t be a proper Christmas lunch without pigs in blankets, but the price of producing them is coming at a cost to the farmers themselves.

All this week we've been celebrating the work rural communities do to help their neighbours - today we're in the picturesque village of Great Rissington in the Cotswolds for a Christmas tree festival.

The government is to spend £5 billion on improving England's rivers over the next five years. The Environment Agency has announced eight River Basin Management Plans which will update existing plans and, it says, 'tackle the impacts of pollution and climate change'.

Campaigners point out there have been two sets of plans before this but currently only 16 per cent of England's rivers and lakes are in good ecological health and none meet chemical standards, Charlotte talks to a campaigner from the Wildlife Trusts.

Presenter: Charlotte Smith
Producer: Alun Beach
Editor: Dimitri Houtart

13 minutes

Broadcast

  • Fri 23 Dec 2022 05:45

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