UK vineyards are sprouting as far north as Yorkshire and Scotland as investors cash in on tax breaks and hotter summers

“We’ve never had frost here,” says Adrian Pike, gesturing across rows of vines just starting to show signs of tiny buds in the weak Kent spring sunshine.

Westwell vineyard is on the site of a former monastery and sits close to the Pilgrims’ Way on the North Downs, the historic route to Canterbury that runs along the top of the hill behind the vineyard.

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Government’s farming recovery fund scheme stipulates proximity to designated major rivers

Farmers who have their entire cropping land submerged underwater have found they are ineligible for a government flooding hardship fund – because their farms are too far from a major river.

According to the Met Office, 1,695.9mm of rain fell from October 2022 to March 2024, the highest amount for any 18-month period in England since the organisation started collecting comparable data in 1836. Scientists have said climate breakdown is likely to cause more intense periods of rain in the UK.

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Visitors to the countryside objecting to a variety of rural noises are such a problem that legislators feel compelled to act

The French parliament is taking aim at noise complaints in the countryside. Lawmakers say they are well acquainted with the problem of residents who have moved to the countryside from the big cities bemoaning the way livestock, church bells and other rural sounds impinge on their newly claimed right to pastoral quiet.

A new law aims to stop these néoruraux (rural newcomers) from taking farmers to court over farming activities that were already happening long before they arrived. Opposition MPs have derided the new bill as hot air, because it mostly just reorganises existing bits of legislation. But what is new is an emphasis on what the justice minister, Éric Dupond-Moretti, calls le vivre-ensemble : living together in a respectful way – something I feel is sorely needed.

Dale Berning Sawa is a freelance writer based in London

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We want to know how livestock and crops have been affected by the weather in recent months and the impact on your livelihood

The amount of food being produced by British farmers has been badly hit by the record-breaking rainfall, it has been reported.

Farming groups say that both livestock and crops have been affected by the “exceptionally wet” past 18 months, meaning the UK will be reliant on imports for wheat in the coming year and potentially beyond.

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Reduction in yields means UK will be dependent on imports for wheat in coming year and possibly beyond

Record-breaking rain in recent months has drastically reduced the amount of food produced in the UK, farming groups have said.

Livestock and crops have been affected as fields have been submerged since last autumn.

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Retailer works on changing diet with aim of cutting 11,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year

Marks & Spencer is investing £1m in tackling the methane produced by cows by changing the diet of the herds that provide its milk.

The retailer is working with all 40 of the pasture-grazed dairy farmers in its supply base with the aim of cutting 11,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually produced by cattle burps and manure. It said adding a new type of feed to the cows’ diet would reduce the carbon footprint of its main fresh milk by 8.4%.

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Leaders need to persuade others of the need for environmental measures rather than capitulate in the face of political headwinds

Last month, a survey of public opinion in Germany, France and Poland found that a majority in each country would support more ambitious policies to tackle the climate emergency. The same study also found unexpectedly widespread support for pan-European action linking green goals to other priorities such as economic security. Who knew, at a time when warnings of a popular “green backlash” are rife?

Unfortunately, Europe’s politicians are now on a very different page. Rattled by farmers’ protests – which radical-right parties have swiftly co-opted as a new front in their culture wars – Brussels and national governments have been busily sounding a disorderly, panicked retreat on environmental targets. Since the turn of the year, the U-turns and capitulations have come thick and fast.

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Farmers lay carcasses in front of government building in Lausanne to press for resumption of wolf cull

Farmers in Switzerland dumped the carcasses of sheep that were killed by wolves in front of a regional government building on Saturday as part of a protest to demand more action against the predators.

About a dozen breeders came from the Saint-Barthélemy area in the western Swiss canton of Vaud to lay 12 carcasses in front of Lausanne’s Chateau Saint-Maire, the regional government headquarters, AFP reported.

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Lending to meat, dairy and feed corporations led to ‘significant proportion’ of banks’ emissions, Friends of the Earth found

American banks are “sabotaging” their own climate commitments by financing meat, dairy and feed corporations, according to a report.

The report analysed funding from 58 US banks to animal protein and feed companies in the form of loans and underwriting, such as share and bond issuance guarantees.

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