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Essex set to be the home of Europe's largest low-carbon horticulture site
Essex set to be the home of Europe's largest low-carbon horticulture site

Sky News

timea day ago

  • Business
  • Sky News

Essex set to be the home of Europe's largest low-carbon horticulture site

Forty hectares of greenhouses, heated by the burning of rubbish, are set to be built in Essex - making it the largest low-carbon horticulture site in Europe. These greenhouses will be the first of their kind and could provide around 6% of the tomatoes consumed in the UK. It should begin operating in 2027, when almost all the county's household rubbish will come to the Rivenhall site, where it will then be burnt in an incinerator. Gareth Jones works for waste company Indaver, which is building the facility. He said: "The boiler produces steam and some of that steam we'll divert to our new heat exchange, and that will produce the hot water that we'll be sending over to our greenhouses. "The rest of the steam goes to the turbine, so it produces electricity from the substation, and some of the electricity will go directly to the greenhouses." Currently, Essex's household waste goes to landfill where it gives off greenhouse gasses, particularly methane. Indaver claims that the CO2 emitted at the Rivenhall site is 20% less than if the rubbish had gone to landfill, and there are additional environmental benefits. According to Defra, almost half of the UK's fresh vegetables are imported. Tomatoes often come from Morocco, Spain and the Netherlands. But there is growing concern about the vast number of plastic polytunnels in the south of Spain. Almeria's 'Sea of Greenhouses' are even visible from space, and there are regular droughts in the area. Trucks then bring the produce all the way to the UK, releasing thousands of tonnes of CO2 en route. Rivenhall Greenhouse project director Ed Moorhouse says the UK's reliance on importing fruit and veg is not sustainable. "Water porosity in north Africa and in southern Spain is a key issue, extremes of temperature and the effects of climate change," he said. "What we're seeking to do is, if it was tomatoes, to reshore 6-8% of tomato imports by growing in Essex." But the National Farmers Union says further projects like Rivenhall could be hampered by the government's new biodiversity net gain strategy, which forces all developers to benefit nature through their builds. Martin Emmett, chair of the NFU's Horticulture and Potatoes Board, says the policy was "originally designed around housing estates, larger factories and commercial developments". Consequently, companies may have to buy extra land to offset biodiversity impacts, which would affect similar investments across the country. A Defra spokesperson said: "We are working closely with the sector to make Biodiversity Net Gain work more effectively, whilst investing £5 billion into farming, the largest ever budget for sustainable food production to bolster our food security."

Ireland's remaining bogs can have a second tale - of creation rather than extraction
Ireland's remaining bogs can have a second tale - of creation rather than extraction

Irish Times

time2 days ago

  • Business
  • Irish Times

Ireland's remaining bogs can have a second tale - of creation rather than extraction

Earlier this week a family friend shared a newspaper article from the early 1980s by the late UK gardening correspondent Graham Rose. In it he wrote about Ireland's 10,000-year-old bogs, many with a carpet of peat 30ft deep. Over 100 sq miles, the bog was all he could see; a vast, 'horizon-to-horizon emptiness' that held a 'strange, eerie beauty'. Rose didn't dwell on the bog's splendour . Instead, he said it was a hostile, lifeless expanse. 'An undrained bog is 95 per cent water, a hazardous place for large animals and for man.' His words reflected the narrative of the time, which I remember as a primary school kid in the late 1980s. The story of Irish bogs was one of dull, empty wastelands: bleak and sodden places with a menacing edge. If you wandered too far in, the bog might swallow you whole. Rose described the 'peasant farmers' who, for generations, had cut peat as a vital fuel source. Then, in 1946, the establishment of Bord na Móna marked the beginning of the industrial-scale extraction of peat to power Ireland's electricity stations. When European gardeners discovered that peat was a 'wondrous new horticultural elixir', Rose wrote, a new market was created. In 1965, Bord na Móna opened a moss peat factory at Cúil na Móna bog in Laois to produce horticultural peat. By the 1980s, when Rose visited, British gardeners were buying more than a million bales each year. Rose gives an unflinching description of how a virgin-raised bog is drained. 'The attack is mounted by giant ditch-cutting machines and – more dangerously – by dynamiting and digging.' The bog is left to dry and shrink for five years, after which it's ready for removal. Mechanical cutters with 'steel teeth' carve blocks of peat, which are then lifted by '375ft arms suspended by hawsers from 60ft steel towers'. The peat is then 'simply torn apart' before being compressed into bales and sold. READ MORE A Cúil na Móna Laois peat factory manager told Rose that peat extraction would cease after 30 to 40 years, after which the 'fine new' land would be reclaimed for agriculture. 'At farms and nurseries on recently-reclaimed bog, magnificent beef cattle are fattening on knee-high grass, vegetables are flourishing, and hybrid rhododendrons and azaleas are growing more rapidly than anywhere else in the British Isles.' For decades, bogs offered locals opportunities, and peat shaped their lives. In the peak production years (the 1950s to the 1980s), employment in the peat industry spared thousands of workers an otherwise inevitable fate of emigration. They worked hard, earned a decent living and brought economic vitality to towns and villages. These workers contributed an immense amount to their communities and Ireland's energy needs at the time. When Rose wrote his piece, the term ' biodiversity ' had yet to be coined. At that time, voices urging us to understand and cherish the bogs, like those of film-makers Éamon de Buitléar and Gerrit van Gelderen, were too few and easy to ignore; in later years, even legal threats from the European Commission didn't stop the Irish government in its tracks. The dominant narrative endured: bogs were places to be drained and their sods sold for profit. We now understand the greater cost. Home to unique species of spiders, insect-eating plants and birds on the brink of extinction, such as the curlew , industrial peat extraction has left bogs – what David Attenborough calls 'cradles of biodiversity' – stripped bare and emptied of life. Bogs act as industrial-sized natural sponges, soaking up water and shielding lowland areas from floods. Unlike trees, a living, healthy bog will capture carbon indefinitely, with no time limit; they'll soak up more carbon per square metre than almost any other ecosystem on Earth. [ Loving our Irish bogs: 'Once you conserve the habitat, the biodiversity will right itself' Opens in new window ] The language of extraction, drain blocking and industrial peat production is quickly fading, replaced by a new vocabulary centred on creation – of restoration, rehabilitation and rewetting. This shift has occurred at pace; for many people in the midlands, peat was more than just a fuel for their homes or a source of income – it became woven into their cultural heritage. Their stories must not be forgotten or left unheard. The midland counties are now included in the EU's €392 billion Just Transition Fund, which supports regions across Europe historically dependent on coal, oil shale, peat and other fossil fuels. Ireland's allocation totals €169 million, co-funded by the Irish Government. In Abbeyleix last week, at a gathering for the €12 million Tóchar Wetlands Restoration Project, funded by the Just Transition initiative, Offaly geologist, botanist and writer John Feehan recalled his time spent on the bogs in the 1950s. Back then, he said, the bogs stretched on forever – places so vast you'd need a compass if you got lost. In today's world, it's hard to fathom the 'immense silence' offered by such great stretches of wilderness. Under the three-year Tóchar project, a select group of degraded bogs will be put on the path to restoration. Bringing a bog back to life is a gradual process that will unfold over a timescale way beyond our own lifetimes. Feehan describes it as a recovery 'not easily hurried'; one that, over centuries, will see these habitats become 'richer as time goes by, as nature re-establishes its green hold over the bog'. [ 'Thanks to the bogs, life will continue. Just not ours': The Irish bog and our national psyche Opens in new window ] Bogs have offered us so much, and many are now lost forever. For the small fragments that remain, it's a blessing that we can at least attempt to bring them, in Feehan's words, 'back to the local embrace'. Their story – one of abundance and life – will continue; all they need is for us to step back and allow time to do its work.

Primary sector not impressed with government's horticultural product approval targets
Primary sector not impressed with government's horticultural product approval targets

RNZ News

time5 days ago

  • Business
  • RNZ News

Primary sector not impressed with government's horticultural product approval targets

Access to agricultural and horticultural products is managed under the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines (ACVM) Act and the Hazardous Substances and New Organisims (HSNO) Act. Photo: AFP/ Costfoto / NurPhoto Those in the primary sector say the government's new targets to reduce the queues to approve new agricultural and horticultural products don't go far enough. It follows a regulatory review which found the approval process for the agricultural and horticultural products, like pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers, wasn't always allowing timely access to the products. Cabinet has agreed to all 16 of the recommendations from the regulatory review, including updating the Environmental Protection Authority's risk assessment models, reducing efficacy requirements for inhibitors to the minimum required to manage risks and introducing targets to reduce product queues. Access to the products is managed under the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines (ACVM) Act and the Hazardous Substances and New Organisims (HSNO) Act. Environment Minister Penny Simmonds said she had set a target to reduce the HSNO queue by 10 percent in 2025-26 and would set a more ambitious target once additional staff were appointed. Environment Minister Penny Simmonds. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver Food Safety Minister Andrew Hoggard said he wanted a 20 percent queue reduction for ACVM products by the end of June 2025, compared to October 2024. By the end of June 2026, he wanted to see queues reduce by a further 30 percent. The ministers would be responsible for an Omnibus Bill to accelerate the improvements. However, Animal and Plant Health New Zealand (APHANZ) chief executive Dr Liz Shackleton said the targets to reduce product queues seemed unlikely to deliver the rapid change that industry needed. "While it's positive that Ministers have answered industry's calls to set targets that hold regulators to account, hitting the bullseye requires a bold focus on the targets that matter most. "Industry keenly await the more ambitious target signalled by the Minister for Environment and hope it's not too little too late." Dr Shackleton said the priority should be parent products with new active ingredients in the queue already, rather than just increasing approvals for generic products. She said this would allow farmers and growers to rotate products to manage resistance, improve environmental outcomes and phase out older chemistry. Many of the products - which have been in the queue for years - are already being used by countries like Australia, Canada and the United States, she said. "Let's look at blackspot. It's in the queue, there's a solution for that. Apple growers it's their number one barrier to trade and it's been sitting under assessment for almost four years." Dr Shackleton feared manufacturers of agricultural and horticultural products would exit the New Zealand market unless more bold action was taken. ""The companies that make the new stuff are talking about pulling out of New Zealand. "New Zealand had once been seen as a desirable place to get early registration. That's no longer the case, the global view is we're now well behind." Dr Shackleton said time was running out. The Environmental Protection Authority says the proposed rule changes for hazardous substances would give the industry a clearer path for making use of new chemicals in New Zealand. Photo: supplied Horticulture New Zealand's general manager of strategy and policy Michelle Sands also felt the targets to reduce product queues didn't go far enough and would not make a difference to the existing backlog. "We have a situation in New Zealand where other countries have access to newer, softer innovative actives and in New Zealand our process is very slow and so that means we don't have access to those sort of things. "What that means is that we're actually missing out on things that might have lesser impacts on the environment, on human health." Sands was also worried that manufacturers would stop providing agricultural and horticultural products to the New Zealand market because of the delayed approvals process. Chief executive of the New Zealand Veterinary Association Dr Kevin Bryant said under the current system New Zealand was "missing out". He said the proposed changes were a good start but more was needed to get products into the vet clinics faster. "For vets on the ground treating animals and coming at it from an animal welfare perspective, we know there are products available in Australia that are not available here that are needed. "The issue we have is why can we not have a process that enables products that have been approved in other jurisdictions which New Zealand trusts, that they cannot be actually fast-tracked in terms of registration in New Zealand." Dr Bryant said there was a balance to be achieved between speed and effectiveness, which was why he wanted to see the ACVM better resourced. "We want to see government prioritising resourcing for ACVM so that new medicines and vaccines can be approved and in our vet clinics as fast as possible." The Environmental Protection Authority said the proposed changes to the rules for hazardous substances would give the industry a clearer path for making use of new chemicals in New Zealand. It said the proposed changes would make it easier for applicants to apply in cases where chemicals had already been used safely in other countries, allow the temporary use of some new products and improve transparency around application timeframes and processes. Meanwhile the Environmental Law Initiative's senior legal advisor Tess Upperton said the EPA's focus must remain on rigorously assessing the possible risks to human and ecosystem health, especially as hazardous substance approvals did not expire. She said decisions must be "carefully made" and the EPA shouldn't become too focused on having to "shorten the queue" of products waiting for assessment which may divert the EPA from its core environmental obligations. Upperton agreed with the review that the EPA was "significantly under-funded". "The best way to streamline applications would be for the EPA to be fully funded to perform as an effective regulator through recovery of the costs of its HSNO (Hazardous Substances and New Organisms ACT) functions from applicants. As it stands, the public is subsidising private interests through majority Crown funding of these EPA functions." 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