Government’s food security push is said to rely on animal feed imports with vulnerability to supply chain shocks
The government’s planned poultry sector growth plan is a risk to national security, campaigners have warned.
Earlier this month, the environment secretary, Emma Reynolds, told the Groundswell agriculture festival that the key to improving food security was consuming more homegrown produce, and said this was why the government had set up the Farming and Food Partnership Board, whose members include industry leaders such as the president of the National Farmers’ Union and the chief executive of the Food & Drink Federation.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/18/2026 - 05:00
07/18/2026 - 02:00
CEO’s pay packet surges to £791,000 as union says public ‘sick of obscene pay’ and bosses ‘feathering own nests’
Wessex Water awarded its chief executive an above-inflation pay increase even as the company was banned from paying bonuses because of sewage spills, it has emerged.
Ruth Jefferson received a 14% base salary increase in October, from £590,000 to £670,000, before other benefits, according to accounts published this month. It was far above the 3.5% given to workers, and put her pay at 18 times that of the company’s median employee.
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07/18/2026 - 01:58
Former tube network cleaner says tribunal vindicated his health concerns, including about asbestos, that could affect public
A London Underground worker who was unfairly sacked after whistleblowing about his concerns over exposure to asbestos and other toxic dust has said he wants all tube passengers to know about the potential hazards his case has revealed.
Micky Steeds, a former professional boxer from Aveley in Essex, started working for London Underground in 2018 cleaning up decades of dust from vents, lift shafts and inverts – confined channels underneath station platforms for cabling.
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07/17/2026 - 15:31
109 million people face another day of poor air quality as smoke from blazes in Ontario drifts over the US
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Tens of millions of Americans are enduring another day of smoky skies, irritated eyes and bad air quality, as Canadian wildfire smoke spread again over huge swathes of the US, affecting about 109 million people across the midwest, mid-Atlantic and north-east.
The pungent smoke blanketed cities such as Chicago and Detroit, where residents on Friday were warned to stay indoors and reduce activity levels after the air-quality index reached a “hazardous” 361, according to the government website AirNow.
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07/17/2026 - 09:56
Firm pleaded guilty to 13 offences over discharges at Margate and Broadstairs wastewater pumping stations
Southern Water has been fined more than £7m after illegally dumping sewage off the Kent coast between 2019 and 2021.
The company, described by the judge as having a “record of criminality” that was “an exceptionally serious aggravating factor”, pleaded guilty to 13 offences at Medway magistrates court last April over sewage discharges at Margate and Broadstairs wastewater pumping stations between 2019 and 2021.
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07/17/2026 - 09:00
Escaped flowerhorn cichlids are causing concern for native species and about parasites capable of infecting humans
Escaped ornamental aquarium fish have integrated into a local ecosystem in the Philippines, but scientists say they may be threatening the native biodiversity of the lake.
Flowerhorn cichlids – human-bred hybrid fish prized for their bright-gold colour and prominent head humps – are believed to have escaped from breeding facilities into Lake Sampaloc, which sits in a volcanic crater, during a typhoon.
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07/17/2026 - 07:30
Campaigners say field will bring minimal benefit for UK economy, as industry lobbies Burnham for go-ahead
More people can fit on to the top deck of a standard London bus than will be directly employed on the new Jackdaw gasfield in the North Sea, industry documents show.
Only 27 direct full-time jobs would be created by Jackdaw, one of the biggest gasfields remaining in the North Sea, according to an environmental impact assessment filed publicly by its owner, Adura, a joint venture between Shell and Norway’s Equinor.
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07/17/2026 - 05:00
Young great white sharks are returning in large numbers, but researchers say humans are not on the menu
Surfers, swimmers and fishermen across California will be sharing the waves with an influx of visitors this summer: young great white sharks.
Juvenile white sharks are already appearing along the coastline, fleeing warmer than usual waters in Mexico during what’s expected to be an incredibly strong El Niño.
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07/17/2026 - 05:00
Over the last month, states across the country have experienced record rainfall and flash flooding
Climate change is driving increasingly common bouts of heavy rain in the US that cause deadly and damaging flash floods that will only become more frequent and intense as the crisis worsens, experts say.
A year after deadly flooding in central Texas that swept through a children’s summer camp, the state and other parts of the United States are again experiencing unusually heavy rain. Over the last month, states like Alaska, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania have all experienced record rainfall, causing flash flooding across the country.
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07/17/2026 - 02:00
This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world
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