''Farming Today'' is a radio programme about food, farming, and the countryside broadcast on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of Talk radio, spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history fro ...

in the United Kingdom. It is broadcast each weekday morning (having been recorded the day before) from 5.45 to 5.58, and a longer programme (''Farming Today This Week'') is broadcast on Saturdays between 6.30 and 6.55. Around one million people listen to the programme.

History

''Farming Today'' began life on 20 September 1960 as a weekly 15-minute programme subtitled ''A review of current affairs in agriculture at home and abroad'' and broadcast at 19.15 on Tuesdays as part of the BBC's Third Network's sequence of educational broadcasting known as Network Three. From 3 October 1961 the programme's start time was moved to 19.00, and from 7 January 1964 it changed again, to 19.45. The run of weekly programmes on Network Three came to an end on 25 August 1964 and from 31 August ''Farming Today'' (now subtitled ''News, market trends, and current topics'') moved to a 6.35–6.50 slot on Monday to Saturday mornings on the

BBC Home Service The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4. History 1922–1939: Interwar period Between the early 1920s and the outbreak of World War II, the BBC ...

(later to become

in 1967), where it replaced the 10-minute ''Farm Bulletin'' which had been broadcast on that network at 6.40 on six mornings a week since 10 July 1962. Between 1964 and today, with the lengthening of the Home Service / Radio 4 broadcast day, the start time of the weekday programme (which has varied between 13 and 20 minutes in length) has gradually shifted earlier, and now stands at 5.45.BBC Genome Project
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Content

The programme explores matters of current concern to

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mig ...

fishermen A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or recre ...

, and others with an interest in

countryside In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

issues. Farmers, environmentalists, politicians, the

Soil Association The Soil Association is a British registered charity. The organisation activities include campaigning – against intensive farming, for local purchasing and public education on nutrition – and certification of organic foods. It was establis ...

, and National Farmers Union leaders are amongst those regularly interviewed for the programme.

Range of topics

Recent topics have included * Farming and Brexit * Badger culling * The EU

Common Agricultural Policy The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the agricultural policy of the European Union. It implements a system of agricultural subsidies and other programmes. It was introduced in 1962 and has since then undergone several changes to reduce th ...

* The EU

Common Fisheries Policy The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is the fisheries policy of the European Union (EU). It sets quotas for which member states are allowed to catch each type of fish, as well as encouraging the fishing industry by various market interventions. ...

Foot-and-mouth disease Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) or hoof-and-mouth disease (HMD) is an infectious disease, infectious and sometimes fatal virus (biology), viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild Bovidae, bovids. The virus causes ...

* GM food and crops (biotechnology) *

Pesticides Pesticides are substances that are meant to pest control, control pest (organism), pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microb ...

* Organic farming * Rural social issues e.g. housing, broadband, shops, schools, churches

Presenters

The programme's main presenters are Anna Hill and Charlotte Smith. Caz Graham, Sybil Ruscoe and David Gregory-Kumar also present occasionally.

Former presenters

*Robin Hicks - from 1968 to 1977, when the programme was live and transmitted from London.Herald Scotland Interview 1993
Retrieved 31 October 2014 Later the programme team moved to Birmingham and produced a recorded edition with presenters Miriam O'Reilly and Mark Holdstock.

References

External links

BBC Radio 4 website

Farming Today podcasts

News items

{{Agriculture in the United Kingdom Agriculture in the United Kingdom BBC Radio 4 programmes Food policy in the United Kingdom Radio programs about agriculture 1960 radio programme debuts