DANGER CONservation crooks at work. That next BeefBurger y..

Welcome to the world of the CONservation hooligans. Con the public out
of money to protect wildlife and woodlands, then use that money to
start up big business meat production units, where animals are breed
and slaughtered for the table. Is this really where you thought your
bequest would go, or your donations?

Thinking of leaving some land to the Woodland Trust? don't, they sold
the last lot for a housing estate.Crooks.

The Woodland Trust acquired a farmhouse from the nation in Glenrothes
for charity use as a administration centre and sold it for a housing
development.


THE BIG CORPORATE MONEYMAKING RSPB DIVERSIFY QUICKER THEN TESCO.

WHEN WILL WE SEE RETAIL SHOPS BY RSPB?

ALL FUNDED BY PUBLIC DONATION OR GRANTS.

UNFAIR COMPETITION

CROOKS AND MONEYGRABBERS?

IS THIS WHAT YOU REALLY DONATE TO A CHARITY FOR?

May 2001
After decades protecting Britain's rarest birds from extinction, the
Royal
Society for the Protection of Birds is moving into meat production.

The society, which has harried farmers and supermarkets over their
intensive
farming practices, is in talks with Marks and Spencer about an
exclusive
nationwide deal to sell RSPB-branded organic lamb from a hillfarm in
north
Wales.

The RSPB, Britain's largest mass membership organisation with more
than one
million supporters, is just one of a number of prominent conservation
charities
preparing to sell farm produce to Britain's environment-conscious
middle
classes.

MEMBERS OUTRAGED.

The National Trust and the Wildlife Trusts are also planning to market
organic
or wildlife-friendly beef, cereals, milk and dairy products.

But the development is likely to lead to conflict with the powerful
farming
lobby. The charities claim they can now prove to conventional farmers
that
"green" farming is economically viable. The National Farmers Union
derided their
proposals simply as niche marketing for wealthy consumers.

If its deal with M&S succeeds, the RSPB will corner an eighth of
Britain's
organic lamb market, which is rapidly growing thanks to consumer
panics over
food safety. It has 4,000 sheep on a farm close to Lake Vyrnwy in the
Cambrian
Mountains, which will be certified as organic this summer.

The charity is also in talks with another manufacturer to sell
"skylark
friendly" bread, made with cereal from farms which use strict
wildlife-friendly
methods, such as providing nesting spaces among the crops and natural
hedgerows.

The National Trust ­ Britain's largest private landowner, controlling
roughly
500,000 acres of farmland ­ is developing a national labelling scheme
using its
oak-leaf logo to endorse a range of environment-conscious beef, lamb
and milk
products.

The Wildlife Trusts, a network of local groups, which own reserves
across
Britain, has plans to market endorsed milk from its tenant farmers
within the
next 12 months, sold at a premium price.

It already sells beef from the Ruby Red Dorset cattle, which graze on
the Culm
grasslands in Dorset, and "Woodland pork" from a herd of pigs used to
control
brambles in Treswell Woods, Nottinghamshire. Its next step could be
breakfast
cereals.

The foot and mouth epidemic, and the series of crises, which have
gripped,
farming, are seen by greens as a perfect opportunity to push for more
environment-conscious agriculture.

Some new arrivals see it as a trendy market ripe for exploitation. But
Phil
Rothwell of the RSPB said its intention was to allow greens to prove
by example
that their proposals were effective and viable. "This is a
conservation tool,
not a marketing tool. This isn't about raising money but to
demonstrate you can
have sustainable farming, using the market place rather than subsidy."

This is just rubbish claims welsh farmers it's unfair competition
subsidised by
charitable donations unauthorised by it's membership.

Critics within the green movement argue that moving into food
production will
inevitably weaken their ability to attack the farmers they hope to
befriend for
using unacceptable practices. But the charities' executives believe
this
position is too purist. "Our reserves are small islands in a great sea
of
conventional farming," said John Cousins, the Wildlife Trusts' farming
adviser.
"We have to help conventional farmers to do what we want"

David Riddle, an agriculture specialist at the National Trust, said it
planned
to use existing approval schemes such as the Royal Society for the
Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals' "Freedom Foods", for the best of its 700 farm
tenants. Using
the trust's name would allow its tenants to charge premium prices, as
a direct
financial reward for improved standards.

Its sister organisation, the National Trust for Scotland, is already
marketing
"own brand" venison to up-market restaurants and by mail order from
the 700 deer
culled last year on its 72,000 acre Mar Lodge estate in the
Cairngorms.

These initiatives have irritated the NFU ­ which has launched its own
Red
Tractor logo to label produce that meets stricter animal welfare, food
safety
and industrial safety standards. A spokesman said the green
initiatives would
inevitably become middle class niche products, out of reach to the
majority of
British consumers. "While certain segments of the market will pay
more, not
everybody has the luxury to do that, so it has to be farmed in a
cost-effective
way.

"If we didn't we would become uncompetitive against foreign imports,
effectively
pricing ourselves out of the market."

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So, you dont like reasoned,
well thought out, civil debate?

I understand.

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