大象传媒

Radical changes to food safety are being proposed. The Food Standards Agency is discussing removing responsibility from cash strapped councils and relying instead on data collected by food companies and supermarkets. Under plans discussed yesterday by its board the FSA would take direct control of things like hygiene and food standards for large companies, leaving local authority inspectors to concentrate on smaller businesses. It has piloted the idea, working with five retailers and says the system is 'suitably robust and proportionate' and gives more information on compliance than the current approach. Chris Elliott, professor of food safety at Queen鈥檚 University Belfast and Vice President of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, says more work and more consultation is needed.

Technology should be used to combat food crime; the call comes from the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers and follows a report from the Food Standards Agency which highlighted 'new opportunities' for criminals.

The number of curlews has dropped by more than聽half since 1995 and the bird is high on the聽Red List of endangered聽species.聽We hear how the farming community in North Wales is getting involved in conservation.

How a charity which takes young carers farming and camping on Dartmoor is giving them a rare opportunity to get away from their responsibilities and out into the countryside.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.