GREEN issues are everywhere, the news, the papers, the shops - all are paying anything ranging from lip service to real attention to the threat of climate change and ecological disaster caused by humans.But look through Smallholder from the seventies and eighties and smallholding books written at this time, and you will see that even then there was a desire to protect the planet, to not over-use precious resources and to take responsibility for your own food supply. So much of what was once considered "cranky" and "hippy fringe" is now accepted as main stream.

In July 1984 Smallholder had a flash on the cover "Shock Report, Facts about Crop Sprays" and inside, "Could Veterinary Acupuncture save your animals life?" Both of these would have been issues not discussed in main stream agriculture in the way they are now and certainly not discussed amongst those outside the countryside.

Jan/Feb 1983 Smallholder talks about selling at WI markets, an early move towards the current enthusiasm for local food and Farmers Markets.

Splashed across a news page is "Plant a tree for your grandchild." Somewhat more alarmingly I turned to April 1983, to an article entitled "Grow Your Own Weed." To my surprise it was about growing your own tobacco - I wonder if the Scottish Amateur Tobacco's Growers Association is still in existence!

Maybe this is slightly out of step with current thinking! But on the whole, the ideas and passions reflected in these more than 20-year-old issues are still very alive today, the only difference being that a much larger slice of the population now believes in them. Over the next year we are planning to look at alternative energy sources but first we have gone right back to basics to examine how we actually reached this point.

This was partly the result of a conversation with the author, Dr Chris Ashton, who mentioned that there was a question on global warming on O' level geography papers years ago but that it has taken businesses and adult consumers a long time to catch on to this. So to begin our series on green issues and alternative energy, we look at what actually is global warming. But one thing we can pat ourselves on the back for is that smallholders have always been more than aware of the problem and have been trying to find solutions for many years. Now, at last, we are being taken seriously!

Turning the Red' Book Green

Chancellor Gordon Brown used what is likely to be his last budget to highlight green issues, with varying degrees of success according to interested parties. Perhaps the biggest point to take away is the overall impression of environmental concerns as never before have green issues been so prominent in a budget. Yet in a pre-budget statement by MPs, the view was that these measures were "not green enough." The Soil Association were quick to respond to the budget with their belief that "Brown's green budget ignores climate impact of agriculture." They had serious concerns about biofuels which they believe to be heavily dependent for the crop production on fossil fuels and also on the use of farm inputs such as nitrogen. They say manufacturing the fertiliser is heavy in carbon dioxide - with seven kilograms of carbon dioxide produced per one kilogram of nitrogen produced. But most of all they wanted to remind Mr Brown that organic farming typically uses 30% less energy per unit of food produced. They also pointed out that it was the fastest growing area of farming, achieving a growth in sales of 30% last year.

The NFU though, while upset about the increase in car tax on 4 x 4's and the increase in red diesel, were pleased about biofuels and said, "the budget provided some good news for this sector." They made the point too that energy efficient homes would also see tax relief, with carbon neutral housing receiving exemption or reduced stamp duty. They say that "together with the announcement of additional funding for low carbon buildings, this will give extra incentives to encourage the market for farmers to provide fuel for rural homes. In real terms, a carbon neutral home worth £300,000 would receive a tax break of around £9,000- more than enough to install biomass heating."

The Countryside Alliance saw the budget as a blow to controlling fly-tipping - saying that as a result it will become "endemic." They put this down to the rise in landfill tax, making the disposal of rubbish for businesses increasingly expensive. (They are running a "Fly-tipping - scrap it" campaign). Smallholdings are by their nature small businesses and the Forum of Private Business feel that what they call a political budget has done little but create more red tape for small businesses. Me? Well I'm glad to see green issues recognised at last but the question in my mind is always is it too little, too late?

Livestock and dead stock

Where there is livestock, there is dead stock, so they say, and it is conveniently easy to forget this warning until it happens to you. This spring our much wanted Exmoor foal was born dead, dashing our hopes and casting a gloom over the beginning of spring. We are old enough to know this happens, to know nature's reality, but it comes hard. As you glance at the breathtakingly beautiful spring weather you can't help but feel that something is missing; that foal skipping in the spring sunshine. The mare has had three foals, is not old and is, obviously, well cared for. This was not our first foal and we like to think we know what we are doing. The questioning of what went wrong is always heart breaking but sometimes there was nothing human intervention could have achieved.

I suppose this sort of ties in with climate change in that man can control most things but we really cannot totally control nature, however hard we try. Nature can be very humbling but we as smallholders work with her daily and value our environment as a result.