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http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29037804
Watchdog group Natural England reports that an EU regulation, the Common Agricultural Policy, which is meant to preserve Europe's dwindling remaining natural meadowlands, has backfired as UK farmers have begun ploughing their wild fields under before the regulations take effect.
Nearly twice as many farmers as the annual average applied for permits to plough grassland in 2012.
Watchdog group Natural England reports that an EU regulation, the Common Agricultural Policy, which is meant to preserve Europe's dwindling remaining natural meadowlands, has backfired as UK farmers have begun ploughing their wild fields under before the regulations take effect.
Nearly twice as many farmers as the annual average applied for permits to plough grassland in 2012.
Officials said they had received an influx of calls from farmers worried that reforms to improve nature protection under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) would prevent them turning meadows into more profitable arable land.