Our new UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is Elizabeth Truss. Er… who? She’s been working for improvements to education, very important, yes, but I haven’t seen much to suggest that she knows anything about the land. Where will you lead us, Ms Truss? We’re watching you.
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Science on the Land 
hahaha Someone ought to send her a welcome basket including a pair of wellies and a copy of Silent Stream. =)
Today I found out that, after Mr Paterson wore a suit and smart shoes to visit the floods, heaps of wellies were placed on his doorstep. By Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth, I forget which. It made the point well! but I hope they collected the boots afterwards, for people to use, and didn’t let them be sent to a landfill site.
I have a nasty feeling that Ms Truss has been appointed because a) our Prime Minister wants to show female faces, and b) she might be easily pushed into bad policies. GM, TTIP, neonics.
I saw a picture of that protest. It was pretty cute. I have heard a lot of people express reservations about her. I suppose the one good thing that has come about is that people are talking about the importance of a sound environment policy.
For some reason 6 new posts appeared on my feed today even though they were dated as early as July 13. I got a kick at the comments about wellies. The only time I’ve ever worn them was in the Amazon. The mud was way too deep for any other kind of boots.
It has always interested me that these are so common in England and rare here, personally I garden in old running shoes. Whenever I watch an English gardening show, people are dressed more formally than anyone I know dresses when they garden on this side of the pond. Men are normally wearing nicer pants,, shirts and sports jackets, usually the kind academics wear on this side of the pond, corduroy with patches on the elbow.
Not sure what the comment about “easily pushed into bad policies. She’s a political appointee, right? They do what they are told by and large. Unfortunately in the US political appointees who run agencies regulating industries, come from those industries and return to them after they serve. Or what is almost worse, are accedemics who’s research is “sponsored” by the industries that they are meant to regulate. I just hope that if you do agree to accept GMOs that you will get something valuable in return.