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Packham launches plan to save wildlife

A new People’s Manifesto for Wildlife has put forward 200 proposals to revive the natural world and prevent an “ecological apocalypse”.

The manifesto is the brainchild of naturalist and TV presenter Chris Packham and includes a number of measures to reduce the impact of the food chain on the natural environment. They include a focus on increasing domestic fruit and vegetable production with special support for small-scale producers; paying farmers a fair price for the food they produce in return for producing it more sustainably; and a massive drive to reduce food waste at all points in the system.

Other, more specific proposals include the launch of a public education campaign to shift diets towards less meat and more fruit, vegetables and pulses; and for all fruit and veg to be labelled with the pesticides used in their cultivation or for the information to be provided on the company website.

The recommendations are published in a manifesto ahead of the People’s March for Wildlife that Packham is organising in London on 22 September.

“It’s time to wake up,” said Packham. “We are presiding over an ecological apocalypse and precipitating a mass extinction in our own backyard. But – vitally – it is not too late. There is hope we can hold to, and there is action we can take.”

Last week, the government published the UK’s first Agriculture Bill in 50 years which proposed a shift in subsidies paid to farmers away from land-based rewards towards the provision of public goods such as clean water and healthy soils.