28/05/26 Rural crime, restoring signposts, Welsh food project

About this episode

The episode discusses the decline in rural crime costs, the restoration of historical signposts, and a local food project in Carmarthenshire.

A new report shows that the cost of rural crime has fallen. Insurer NFU Mutual paid out £41.5 million in claims in 2025, compared to £44.1 million in 2024. However the theft of quad bikes has risen - and police warn that rural crime is organised and carried out by international criminal gangs. They are a relic of a world long before Sat nav or even A to Zs, the black and white fingerposts which guided the nation’s first drivers to their destinations. Now largely redundant, many are in a poor state of repair and are disappearing from our rural landscape. That's why the Northumberland branch of the charity the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, or CPRE, is running a course to teach people how to restore them. All week we’re looking at local food networks, where food is grown as near as possible to the people who are going to eat it. Despite being nicknamed ‘the garden of Wales’ Carmarthenshire has a shortage of fruit and vegetable production. The county council is now using a former dairy and turkey farm which it owns, as a pilot to grow fresh produce for the local community, including care homes and schools. The 100-acre farm is part of a wider local food partnership…

People in this episode

Host: Anna Jones

Topics covered

• rural crime
• signpost restoration
• local food networks
• Carmarthenshire agriculture
• community food projects

Keywords

• rural crime
• signposts
• Carmarthenshire
• local food
• NFU Mutual
• CPRE
• agriculture
• community

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NFU Mutual, Campaign for the Protection of Rural England

Places: Carmarthenshire, Northumberland

More episodes of Farming Today

• 13/06/26 Farming Today This Week · June 13, 2026 · 25 min
• 12/06/26 Sustainable Farming Incentive, Cereal farming in Cumbria · June 12, 2026 · 14 min
• 10/06/26 New bovine TB strategy for England, cereals · June 10, 2026 · 14 min
• 09/06/26 Flood funding, cattle cull, cereals · June 9, 2026 · 14 min
• 08/06/26 Brown or white eggs? The outlook for cereal farmers · June 8, 2026 · 12 min
• 06/06/26 - Farming Today This Week: Dartmoor ponies, water voles and land-based jobs · June 6, 2026 · 25 min