Farmers lay ‘bee roads’ in Co-op partnership
YORKSHIRE FARMERS who supply the Co-op have helped to lay more than 1,000 miles of hedgerows – enough to stretch from London to Lisbon.
The habitats form a network of ‘bee’ roads running through the countryside to support pollinators and promote biodiversity.
Some 400 farms across the country, including 43 in Yorkshire, are involved in the Co-op’s Enviro-Map scheme, and the hedge-laying as part of farmers’ individual agri-environment schemes represents just a portion of the work they have undertaken to restore habitats.
The retailer’s three-year Enviro-Map project charts the environmental impact of its farms. It uses the world’s first Carbon Trust-accredited self-entry carbon footprint assessment for farmers and aims to improve on-farm efficiency and reduce the carbon footprints of farms in a cost-effective way.
An early analysis of the environmental impact of participating farms found they manage 1,400ha of woodland, 455ha of watercourses and wetlands and 116ha of wildflower meadows. They have also installed 100 devices such as bird boxes and bee hives to encourage wildlife into natural habitats. Matt Hood, the Co-op’s trading director, said: “The need to create a more sustainable approach to farming and food production is just as important as producing high-quality, fairly priced food and we can only achieve this with regular and reliable measurement of our producers.”
Nigel and Sue Smith and their 16,000 hens supply the Co-op with about 100,000 eggs a week from their 96-acre farm near Arrathorne, Bedale. They have planted more than five acres of native trees to offer extra shade and shelter for birdlife. Mr Smith said: “We know chickens love trees but now the canopy has had a chance to mature we’ve seen a real increase in wild birds. It’s great to see so much activity on what would have been in the past just an arable field.”