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Environment department ministers are at odds over whether a Brexit would be good for farmers, who receive roughly £2.5-3bn a year in EU subsidies

A battle for the Tory heartlands of the UK countryside has broken out within the government’s ministerial ranks, as David Cameron’s farming minister has defied his boss to urge farmers to vote to leave the EU.

George Eustice, the farming minister, told the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) annual conference on Wednesday that they would be better off out of the EU. “We would do far better as a country if we ended the supremacy of Europe and shaped new fresh-thinking policies that really deliver for our agriculture,” he said.

“The truth of the matter is that if we left the EU there would be an £18bn a year dividend, so could we find the money to spend £2bn a year on farming and the environment? Of course we could. Would we? Without a shadow of a doubt.”

His appeal for exit was a very public breaking of ranks with the secretary of state for environment, farming and rural affairs, Liz Truss. She addressed the conference on Tuesday with a plea to farmers to stay within the EU, calling an exit “a leap into the dark” at a time when farmers are already hard-pressed.

She told the conference: “By voting to remain we can work within a reformed EU to reduce bureaucracy and secure further reform while still enjoying the significant benefits of the single market, which gives us access to 500m consumers. At a time of severe price volatility and global market uncertainty, it would be wrong to take a leap into the dark. The years of complication and risk caused by negotiating withdrawal would be a distraction.”

At stake, for farmers, is the roughly £2.5 to £3bn a year - varying according to the euro exchange rate - that farmers receive from Brussels. This is paid on the basis of the area of land they farm, and efforts they make to improve the environment, for instance by maintaining habitats for wildlife. Farmers also benefit from access to the EU market, which accounts for more than half of all British food and farming exports, amounting to more than £11bn a year.

Despite Eustice’s assurances, it is unclear that a Conservative government after a Brexit would divert similar levels of taxpayer funding to farmers, and neither the prime minister, David Cameron, nor Truss has made such promises.

Such a measure would be deeply controversial, particularly as current subsidies tend to favour the biggest and richest landowners. To put the money in context, the NHS budget boost in the last review was £3.8bn.

Many farmers argue that the benefit from the EU’s subsidy rarely reaches them, in any case: supermarkets factor in the expected income in their calculations of what to pay their suppliers.

The NFU has been carefully neutral on the issue, but did include in its information pack for the 1,400 farmers attending its conference a comparison of the £153 a year paid by the UK per person into the EU with more than £106 per citizen a year from Norway “with no influence” because Norway is not a member. Norway is frequently cited as an alternative model by those favouring an exit.

For the Tory party, farmers and rural communities have always been a bedrock of support. Few rural constituencies outside Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and a few in the south-west of England vote anything but Conservative. But some farmers feel that they have been taken for granted, while buffeted by the forces of international trade. Farmgate prices for produce such as milk, wheat and pigs have plummeted by more than a third in the last year.

Farming votes in the referendum are up for grabs as never before. When the Guardian questioned farmers at the conference on whether they would prefer to remain in or leave, there was a clear split, with a substantial number opting to leave.

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Data on British buying habits in 2015 reveals a move away from products such as sausages and bacon in favour of fish and poultry

Consumers of organic food are avoiding processed and red meats in favour of fish and poultry, according to data on UK buying habits for 2015.

The move away from products such as sausages and bacon may be because high-end consumers are heeding growing warnings about their impact on health. That was reinforced by an assessment by the World Health Organisation in October that placed cured and processed meats in the same category as asbestos, alcohol, arsenic and tobacco as major causes of cancer.

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EMERGING DISEASES: Vaccinating wildlife with genetically-modified viruses could one day help stop diseases jumping to humans from their animal hosts, say researchers.

Applications for Round Five of the Green Army Programme will be opening in the first half of 2016. Information sessions for prospective applicants will be held in capital cities.

GREAT MOMENTS IN SCIENCE: Sometimes a major discovery - like finding evidence to support the theory of dark matter - just requires a bit of creative thinking over a curry, as Dr Karl explains.

Report finds air pollution inside and outside the home is costing £20bn a year as well as causing tens of thousands of deaths

Air pollution both inside and outside the home causes at least 40,000 deaths a year in the UK, according to new report, which estimates the cost of the damage at £20bn.

The major health impact of outdoor air pollution is relatively well known but the report, from the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, also highlights the less understood impact of indoor pollution, as well as the growing evidence of harm to children’s health and intelligence.

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Qld news - look out for the Climate Reality Series

The call for applications for funding through the Community Heritage and Icons Grants programme is now open. Applications close Tuesday 22 March 2016.

For just a few days each year, the water of Horsetail fall in Yosemite national park appears like lava, drawing crowds of onlookers and photographers

Hundreds of photographers have swarmed to Yosemite national park to catch a rare glimpse of a “firefall” – a phenomenon that makes it appear as if water has turned into lava, flowing from a volcano.

For about 10 days each February, sunlight illuminates Horsetail Fall in a way that looks like lava is tumbling down the rock face. The light show can prove elusive – local photographers said this is the first February in four years in which conditions have been ideal to capture the firefall.

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Fundraising campaign to help northern New South Wales family pay for Kathryn Sullivan’s funeral raises more than $3,000 in 24 hours

Australians have donated more than $3,000 to help pay funeral costs for a six-year-old girl who died after she was bitten by a brown snake.

Kathryn Sullivan was bitten by the snake on a Walgett property in northern New South Wales last week. She was airlifted to the Sydney Children’s hospital but her condition deteriorated and she was transferred back to Walgett hospital where she died on Saturday.

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Beachgoers in Argentina picked up and passed around an endangered Franciscana dolphin, which can be seen being plucked out of the water before being petted by beachgoers. Other images showed people taking selfies with the dolphin

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HUMAN BEHAVIOUR: When we act under orders to do something bad, we perceive a greater delay between our action and its consequences than when we act of our own free will, a new study suggests.

BIOCONTROL: Scientists have created a new strain of mosquito they say could help in the fight against viruses such as dengue and perhaps even Zika.

HUMAN RELATIONS: The genes of a Neanderthal that lived 100,000 years ago contain DNA from modern humans, indicating that humans left Africa and mated with Neanderthals much earlier than previously thought.

CONSERVATION SCIENCE: Ecotourism will only help save the orangutans if it generates enough income to replace that coming from logging, new research suggests.

CLIMATE SENSITIVITY: The plant life of Australia's outback does not respond to sudden increases in rainfall because it has "learned" that drought will soon follow, according to satellite-based maps tracking the impact of changing climatic conditions.

Harvard study shows 30% rise across the country since 2002 with peaks coinciding with shale oil and gas boom, reports Climate Central

There was a huge global spike in one of the most potent greenhouse gases driving climate change over the last decade, and the U.S. may be the biggest culprit, according a new Harvard University study.

The United States alone could be responsible for between 30-60% of the global growth in human-caused atmospheric methane emissions since 2002 because of a 30% spike in methane emissions across the country, the study says.

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EXOTIC ENVIRONMENT: Data from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the planet is surrounded by an atmosphere mostly made up of hydrogen and helium like a gas giant, such as Jupiter or Saturn.

COCKROACH EVOLUTION: Australian soil-burrowing cockroaches are adding weight to the idea that evolution is a much more predictable process than some believe.

Former deputy editor of National Geographic Brazil says a “humanitarian catastrophe” is taking place in Brazil’s Amazon

One of the perpetrators of arguably Brazil’s most internationally high-profile murders in recent years is currently walking around free. In 2013, amid much media coverage, Lindonjonson Silva Rocha was sentenced to 42 years prison for killing two nut collectors-turned-environmental activists in southern Pará, but then in November last year he escaped.

One man who knew both victims, “Zé Cláudio” Ribeiro da Silva and his wife Maria do Espírito Santo, is Felipe Milanez, a political ecologist at the Federal University of Recôncavo of Bahia, activist, film-maker, former deputy editor of National Geographic Brazil, and the editor of the recently-published book, Memórias Sertanistas: Cem Anos de Indigenismo no Brasil. Here I interview Milanez, via email, about Zé Cláudio and the Brazilian Amazon:

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