Iain Dunn
Author, blogger, conservationist and sustainability campaigner. Founder of Earth and Leaf Community Interest Company. Lifelong experience and career as a livestock farming expert backed by excellent qualifications in agricultural sciences and economics.
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No Mow May
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Why Inheritance Tax is Important in Farming
Inheritance Tax Charges for Farmers Taking Action on Inheritance Tax Charges for Farmers Inheritance Tax Charges Addendum – May 2026 – Burnham’s Land Tax Addendum – May 2026 The government, under pressure from the industry, has made changes to the legislation. The cap on 100% relief has been raised to £2.5 million. This is a retrograde step that will keep land prices too high for new entrants to the industry.
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Dead Trees and Their Future in the Environment
Trees have a finite lifespan. It varies from species to species. Typically in the UK Yew trees can live for thousands of years. Oaks can reach 800 years quite easily. Once very old they can appear partly dead, they can be hollow and they can even have other trees growing from them. Yet they will persist for very many years after that. One such ancient tree is the Oak at the Gate of the Dead in the Ceiriog Valley in North Wales. Its trunk has split into two, but the tree is still very much alive. It is known to date back to at least 802 AD making it at…
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The Future of Beef in our Diet
Tom Cheesewright, Sliced Bread, Radio 4 “…. in fifty years I think real meat is going to be a total luxury by that point. It will take that long, there are lots of scale up challenges with cultivated meat, cultured meat and some of these other things. The cultural shift it requires for us to drop it from our diet for many people, but I do think that that steak yeah, will be an occasion, a real occasion in the restaurant other than something that you are picking up in the supermarket … Tom Cheesewright, Sliced Bread, BBC Radio 4 26/03/26. Tom Cheesewright Tweet Beef in our Diet – A…
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An Urgent Rescue Plan
An Urgent Rescue Plan for Our Shared World – First Steps We need international agreement here and this will be impossible with the current president of the USA in power. There are a handful of other leaders who will be problematical too, in Argentina and Russia for example. Very few countries are net Carbon absorbers, they are Suriname, Bhutan, Gabon and Panama. All are heavily forested with mature rainforest. Modernise UK Sheep Farming End large scale Beef Farming End Dairy Farming with Cows Establish a World Just Transition Authority at the United Nations Establish a World Just Transition Authority at the United Nations Establish a World Just Transition Authority at…
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Do we Grow the Right Food in the UK?
Do we Grow the Right Food in the UK? The fact I am asking the question, do we grow the right food tells you the likely answer. A traditional British diet used to comprise a lot of bread, potatoes, root vegetables, meat, eggs and a limited amount of green vegetables. Sugar was a treat having originally been used as a preservative, but grew massively in consumption. This diet was developed as a result of the British Isles geography and consequently the climate. This still forms the basis for our current agricultural production, yet whilst our food tastes and climate are changing, our agriculture is not. The UK produces about 62%…
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The Boiling Frog Concept – The Absolute Truth be Told
It is the 31st July 2025. This morning the news is full of angry people who are unable to go on holiday due to an air traffic control failure. Amazing. Next officials are talking about expanding Heathrow airport. I’m stunned. Last week the news concerned itself with falling birth rates. Extraordinary. In 1976 I was concerned about our environment. I had decided to go into agriculture as a career, in fact I wanted to be a farm animal vet. That ambition evolved slightly differently and has eventually led to me writing this article. And in the fifty years since 1976 the worlds population has doubled. Attitudes to global warming are…
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This is it, our final chance
Our Final Chance, Save the Planet About eight years ago I had a discussion on with a local dairy farmer about feeding the world or saving the planet, our final chance. Which must we do first? Save the planet was and still is my answer and scientifically the correct answer, his was the opposite, biased of course in support of his industry. Since then things have changed, the Science has improved (of course, that’s what science does by definition) and the problems we face from climate change are far worse than we thought, even just five years ago. We need farmers who think. We need farmers who are well educated…
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The Alternative Happy Ending to a Heartbreaking Story
This is the sad sad end of an ancient tree in Rushden and it is the completely wrong solution. This solution sets an awful example to our children and grand children. This is the sad end of an ancient Beech tree and cutting it down is completely the wrong solution. No doubt parts that can be salvaged will be burned as firewood compounding the error. If unsafe in a public park care should be taken for public safety by fencing it off and putting up a warning sign. Even judicial lopping of dangerous limbs is great but leave them where they fall. An Unnecessarily Abrupt End of an Ancient Tree…
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The Incredible Significance of the Ancient Enfield Oak
The Enfield Oak is not as well known as the Sycamore which was wantonly vandalised at Sycamore Gap, but environmentally and ecologically it’s loss is far more significant. One of around only 20 ancient Oaks in London. It is irreplaceable. What is left of the trunk must be left in place, it may even sprout anew. If, as suggested, part of it was dying, it should have been protected by fencing. Once Oaks reach that age they start to lose branches. Some even stated it was dead; really, during the winter, with no leaves? On the other hand it sounds like financial and development pressures led to its destruction. So,…
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Food Grown in the Lab: Shocking or Revolutionary
Fantastic, we can now have meat, sugar and butter grown in the lab. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2ern1zjkvyo Mushrooms are the Future of Our Diet and of our Worldinternal link Meat, sugar and butter grown in the lab How efficient is it to grow meat? Lets have a look. Who is doing it? IFT? We talked to Ivy Farm Technologies in Oxford who are ready to go with lab-grown steaks, made from cells taken from Wagyu and Aberdeen Angus cows. Can you have a fatty steak or streaky bacon? It takes two years at least to grow most steaks.
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Sugar and the Bees
Sugar and the Bees – Sustainable Food Production The use of neonicotinoids is controversial, but we know that they are absolutely lethal to bees. They are a class of neurotoxic pesticides, banned in the EU, loved by Sugar Beet farmers in the UK. Their use has sparked intense debate among scientists, environmentalists and policymakers. As their impact on ecosystems becomes increasingly evident, the call for a ban on these substances has gained momentum. This post will explore the effect of such a ban which finally appears to be in place on the UK Statute Book. On the other hand and rather dramatically, Sugar could be described as lethal to humans.…
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The Concept of Net Zero is Flawed
The concept of net zero is flawed, although achieving an equilibrium between carbon output and carbon sequestration is a fine ambition. However we don’t measure outputs properly or report them properly. This leads to what I refer to as Net Zero Nonsense. It is a political ambition whose date can rather conveniently be moved around to suit other policy choices. Let’s have a look at why the concept of Net Zero is terminally flawed. Introduction to Net Zero The term net zero has gained significant traction in recent years, particularly as nations, corporations, and individuals strive to address climate change. Simply put, net zero refers to balancing the amount of…
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How Many Climate Change Warnings do we Need
As storm Eowyn hits Yorkshire I wonder how many climate change warnings do we need. We are definitively in a climate emergency, despite the denials from international leaders and influencers who should know better. How Many Climate Change Warnings do we Need What are the 7 effects of climate change? What are 10 ways to reduce global warming? Government Trump
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Can We Build A Sustainable Future for Farming
Can we build a sustainable future for farming? We can if diet changes and farming is placed centrally by governments as part of the fight against environmental catastrophe
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Sustainability in Farming
Sustainability in farming is about growing the right food and about our diet. Just transition and education is critical for the future of our farming communities
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Feed or Save Our World ?
Feed or Save Our World; that is the question asked by farmers. The simple academic answer is we must save the world, then we can feed the humans. In trying harder and harder simply to feed ten billion we are destroying our home. It must also be pointed out that it is a shared home. We now know we cannot survive without the ecological support of stable, ancient and complex ecosystems. These ecosystems need land and water every bit as much as we do. Here are a few hard facts; Climate change is already responsible for more migration than conflict; Land is a scarce resource and becoming scarcer by the…
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Uncategorised
“Be aware that this is now a fundamental threat to humanity and we’ve really got to do something now.”
“Be aware that this is now a a fundamental threat to humanity”. This a stark warning to every being on this planet that we must act now. If we don’t we wont be here very much longer. There is now no doubt that this period of Earth’s history will be called the Anthropocene. This is likely to be the shortest era in over 400 billion years. If we don’t act now we are heading for mass extinctions and rapid further warming of the climate. This will lead to unprecedented migration of displaced populations and weather related natural disasters. Wars will ensue, mass starvation and disease will become normal across the…
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Net Zero and Carbon Credits Exposed for all to See!
Net Zero and Carbon Credits are both concepts that allow polluters to continue to pollute. Fact. Both ideas have been drawn up to not rock the boat, yet to appear as though governments are doing something about global warming. The glaring problem with Net Zero and Carbon Credits are the words “net” and “credits”. https://www.efeca.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/UK-RTSS-APR-2021.pdf I’m writing this because today I learned that an estate in Leicestershire will earn £120,000 by farming sustainably. Every farmer should be farming sustainably. There’s a dark side to the £120,000 though. The farm in question is selling the carbon credits. Some are being bought by the Mercedes Benz formula one team so that they…
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Our National Parks are Stunning First and Foremost but Flawed
Our National Parks are stunning but flawed. They are not quite what they seem. Yes they are beautiful, they preserve the heritage of their area at least physically, but not socially.
