´óÏó´«Ã½

A cross party committee of MPs has warned that failure to tackle labour shortages in agriculture, ‘will permanently shrink the food sector.’ The Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee took evidence over several sessions, to hear how lack of staff are affecting farms, food-processing, and distribution, and today it publishes its report. We hear from EFRA Committee Chairman Neil Parish about his concerns.

This week we're talking about leaving farming, and another industry facing staff shortages is farm vets. A survey by the British Veterinary Association taken last autumn asked whether vets would choose to pursue a career in the veterinary profession again, ‘knowing what they know now’ - 56% said that they would, but 19% said they wouldn’t choose the same career. We hear the reasons behind why the industry is struggling to retain workers.

And the Scottish Government Agency NatureScot has launched a four year plan to boost biodiversity and manage large scale landscapes for the environment. It aims to halt nature loss and protect 30 per cent of the country’s land and sea habitats by 2030 by restoring a quarter of a million hectares of damaged peatland, reducing deer numbers, and extending its current Nature Restoration Fund to include bigger projects for landscape-scale recovery.

Presented by Anna Hill and produced for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Audio by Caitlin Hobbs