Tree planting for climate change: Coverage in the UK farming sector press. (August 2022)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Tree planting for climate change: Coverage in the UK farming sector press. (August 2022)
- Main Title:
- Tree planting for climate change: Coverage in the UK farming sector press
- Authors:
- Hardaker, Ashley
Bodner, Theresa
Dandy, Norman - Abstract:
- Abstract: In recent years tree planting as a response to climate change has acquired a very high profile amongst policy-makers, scientists, the media, and the public. This 'afforestation', however, requires space: that is, land. Agriculture currently occupies very large areas of land globally meaning that it is commonly targeted as needing to make way for tree planting, and making farmers important gatekeepers to this climate change mitigation strategy. Given the importance of farming sector media outlets in reflecting, shaping and leading values and attitudes amongst the agricultural community, this paper investigates how tree planting is presented within the UK's two leading sectoral publications, Farmers Guardian and Farmers Weekly . We sample coverage at four points over a two-year period (2019–2021) which began with high-profile national media and scientific engagement with the topic. Our analysis reveals very low levels of coverage within these key publications with, on average, just 1 in 200 articles within our sample focussing on tree planting. Within this limited coverage we identify four themes which range from hostility towards the notion of trees on farms replacing agricultural practices, through to occasional recognition of the positive roles that trees on farms can play in climate change mitigation. Arguably, the lack of legitimisation within the coverage constitutes a significant barrier to woodland expansion on agricultural land. We conclude that farmingAbstract: In recent years tree planting as a response to climate change has acquired a very high profile amongst policy-makers, scientists, the media, and the public. This 'afforestation', however, requires space: that is, land. Agriculture currently occupies very large areas of land globally meaning that it is commonly targeted as needing to make way for tree planting, and making farmers important gatekeepers to this climate change mitigation strategy. Given the importance of farming sector media outlets in reflecting, shaping and leading values and attitudes amongst the agricultural community, this paper investigates how tree planting is presented within the UK's two leading sectoral publications, Farmers Guardian and Farmers Weekly . We sample coverage at four points over a two-year period (2019–2021) which began with high-profile national media and scientific engagement with the topic. Our analysis reveals very low levels of coverage within these key publications with, on average, just 1 in 200 articles within our sample focussing on tree planting. Within this limited coverage we identify four themes which range from hostility towards the notion of trees on farms replacing agricultural practices, through to occasional recognition of the positive roles that trees on farms can play in climate change mitigation. Arguably, the lack of legitimisation within the coverage constitutes a significant barrier to woodland expansion on agricultural land. We conclude that farming media outlets could play a much stronger role in supporting the agricultural community to understand how it could contribute to climate change mitigation through bringing trees 'in' to farming systems, and to the normalisation of this within modern farming culture. Highlights: Farmers are gatekeepers to tree planting as a climate change mitigation strategy. Investigates how tree planting is presented in the UK's farming sector press. Our media analysis reveals on average, just 1 in 200 articles focus on tree planting. Themes range from hostility to trees on farms to the positive impacts they can have. Farming media could play a stronger role in bringing trees 'in' to farming systems. … (more)
- Is Part Of:
- Journal of rural studies. Volume 94(2022)
- Journal:
- Journal of rural studies
- Issue:
- Volume 94(2022)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 94, Issue 2022 (2022)
- Year:
- 2022
- Volume:
- 94
- Issue:
- 2022
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2022-0094-2022-0000
- Page Start:
- 140
- Page End:
- 149
- Publication Date:
- 2022-08
- Subjects:
- Tree planting -- Farming -- Sectoral media -- Climate change mitigation -- Thematic analysis
Sociology, Rural -- Periodicals
Country life -- Periodicals
Rural development -- Periodicals
Land use, Rural -- Planning -- Periodicals
Rural conditions -- Periodicals
Sociologie rurale -- Périodiques
Vie rurale -- Périodiques
Développement rural -- Périodiques
Sol, Utilisation agricole du -- Planification -- Périodiques
Conditions rurales -- Périodiques
Country life
Land use, Rural -- Planning
Rural conditions
Rural development
Sociology, Rural
Periodicals
307.72 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.elsevier.com/journals ↗
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/07430167 ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2022.06.001 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0743-0167
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 5052.128900
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