Stop agricultural land being taken for other uses

IT WAS lovely to read the article in today’s [4 August] titled ‘The energy of youth’, which gives us hope for the future of dairy farming in Guernsey. New generation farmers, Robin and Rachel Le Cocq show skills and knowledge well beyond their years. Robin explains that plants and soils absorb significant amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. This puts farming potentially at the forefront of the fight against climate change. And Rachel explains how vital it is to protect our famous breed and biodiversity. It is high time the Environment Department and the Planning Authority listened to the young people and put a stop to agricultural land being taken for other uses such as gardens, horses, housing, playgrounds etc., sooner rather than later. I found it ironic that in the same paper of 4 August there was an article on the development taking place at Les Blanches field (now called Le Menage). This was a valuable field to the dairy industry and I would never accept that it was lost the way it was. I can only hope that the developer’s spokeswoman will be true to her words. She is quoted as saying ‘in undertaking this project we have also been sensitive to any impact on the environment both immediately surrounding the area as well as in the wider parish of St Martin’s’. Adjoining this building site are prime agricultural fields, top quality soil and vital to farming in the future. Let us hope that they will be protected as they should be.