18/11/24 - Intensive farming, indoor beef production and NI Food Strategy Framework

There’s a global trend for farms to scale up and intensify their production and the UK is no different. We ask why it’s happening and what impact it’s having.

We visit a beef finishing unit in Yorkshire, which fattens 4,000 cattle a year in pens. The farmer reckons this intensive system can produce beef more efficiently and in half the time of extensively grazed systems.

And the Northern Ireland government has launched its first "Food Strategy Framework". Its aims include tackling diet-related health problems, increasing resilience in the agri-food supply chain, building the "food economy" and creating more of a food culture in Northern Ireland. An "action plan" will follow early next year, setting out what changes the Government will make to meet those aims.

Presented by Caz Graham
Produced by Heather Simons