Biogen hosts climate change meeting

Waste management company Biogen hosted a meeting between agriculture representatives and politicians on the topic of the relationship between agriculture and climate change.

Members of the Shadow Secretariat for the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) and the Agricultural Sector Association’s Climate Change Task Force met at Biogen offices in Milton Ernest in Bedfordshire.

Ahead of the publication of a CCC report, representatives of farmers and country businesses urged the politicians to recognise the role of agriculture in providing renewable natural resources and other environmental services.

A report from the CCC will be used as evidence when the committee sets carbon budgets for the UK economy up to 2022 and 2050 and the agriculture sector urged members to take its possibilities and needs into account.

Peter Kendall, NFU President explained: "We are urging the Climate Change Committee to take an economically viable and evidence-based approach to greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. BIOGEN is an excellent demonstration of the way forward for agriculture …integrating livestock with environmental services in the form of low-carbon energy, sustainable waste management and precision farming."

Biogen has developed integrated anaerobic digestion which it claims enables a ‘closed loop’ approach to food waste recycling.