Country Life magazine launches new manifesto

Weekly rural lifestyle magazine, Country Life, has launched a new 10-point manifesto for creating a better future for the British countryside.

The new manifesto follows in the success of the IPC magazine’s manifesto in 2006, which sparked several campaigns and following meetings with the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs a change to the national curriculum to make countryside lessons in schools compulsory.

The new manifesto includes reducing Britain’s deer population by 30 per cent, saving protected rural areas from flight paths and eating a rare breed. Editor Mark Hedges has also added learning to love GM crops, and his strong ‘pro GM food’view in an article in the magazine last month prompted a strong reaction from environmentalists, with Friends of the Earth accusing him of being ‘the GM industry’s PR machine.”

Hedges said: ‘Our manifesto touches everyone’s lives. Britain needs a productive countryside and one that is properly managed and cared for. With little sign of the economic gloom lifting in the near future, we want Britain to eat, drink and be merry – in ways that will benefit the countryside and help address the challenges that face us.”