The Future of our Countryside
Dr Lindy Sharpe joins BBC Radio 4’s Costing the Earth, as Tom Heap chairs a debate around the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan focusing on “Public Money for Public Goods ” and asks what are public goods? Is food a public good?.
Lindy discusses how health is a central public good when it comes to food and delves into the idea that “agriculture that represents a public good which is about public health” is missing from both the Government’s Public Goods and Health and Harmony plans.
Lindy explains that the public health that arises from wholesome food being produced in a clean and healthy environment is a public good and thus this is something that we want to actively get into the new Agriculture Act explicitly, Agricultural Public Health.
If Agricultural Public Health is not there, Lindy explains that we risk being left with a highly curated landscape, publicly subsidised with iconic features while we import cheap lower quality food from places where there are fewer environmental and social protections which is too high a price to pay.
You can listen to the full interview at – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b42z8w – 22 mins in.
