My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, and indeed all the speakers in this group. On Amendment 103, I have to draw to noble Lords’
attention a study published about three weeks ago by the Woodland Trust and the National Trust of a trial that found that there are practical alternatives to plastic tree guards. I note that the Woodland Trust is planning to stop using plastic tree guards by the end of this year. Given how much we have debated plastics in other parts of the Bill and much discussion of the problem of microplastics, that is very much to be appreciated, while also offering support for the need to make sure we protect young trees.
I will also briefly comment on Amendment 104, so very ably and expansively introduced by the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone. I fear electronic sheep may be wandering through my dreams.
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It is also worth highlighting the economic benefits and the local community benefits to strong local economies if we establish tree nurseries up and down the land. We are mostly focused on talking about environmental benefits but let us not forget the potential economic benefits as well. However, given the time, I want to comment chiefly on Amendments 92 and 102, both on agroforestry, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, and signed by the noble Earl, Lord Dundee, and me. If noble Lords have not seen a picture of Wakelyns Agroforestry in Fressingfield, founded by the late Martin Wolfe, there is an aerial photo showing this wonderfully rich, verdant patch of agroforestry in the midst of a desert of industrial monoculture. That photo is just so powerful a demonstration of the biodiversity benefits, the sheer productivity benefits, of agroforestry.
The noble Earl, Lord Dundee, ran through a list of organisations that are promoting agroforestry. I will not repeat that list, but it is worth noting that none is particularly large. We are seeing agroforestry being trialled—with, for example, trial plots being run around the country and doing spectacularly good things—but we need to see a massive scaling up of that across the British countryside. If noble Lords have not seen it, I particularly recommend the Soil Association’s Agroforestry Handbook. To pick just one example from that, really interesting research has been going on for decades, through the Open University in Buckinghamshire and Essex, using walnut trees. This is an example of how we can use our countryside far more productively for nature and for farming products. Walnut trees obviously produce nuts, but they also produce dyes, abrasives and oils, as well as saw logs and veneers. I return to the point I started with: think of all the jobs and small business opportunities that arise from a far more diverse countryside, not just producing mass, identikit commodities but products that can then develop whole local industries.
Finally, I am aware of the hour and I could wax very lyrical about agroforestry for a long time, but noble Lords will be pleased to hear that I am not planning to do that. I point to the fact that a great deal of interesting research is being done about the benefits to animals of producing trees as forage crops, benefits that can particularly see the replacement of anthelmintics, which are significantly damaging chemicals—medicines and drugs—that produce problems of resistance that can wipe out many of our arthropods. Indeed, instead
of using those drugs, we can actually feed animals a mixed, varied diet. I have to look at the noble Baroness, Lady Boycott, here. Both of us often speak about the benefits to humans of a varied diet; we also need to think about the benefits to animals of a varied diet, something on which there has been insufficient focus.