Writer. Land Manager. Continuous Cover Forester. Outdoorsman. Seeker.
Shropshire
Joined January 2016
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Russell Rowley retweeted
What a beautiful video.
A mother and calf fell into a water tank. Both were rescued but during rescue the calf got separated from mother. Kurseong division staff brilliantly tracked the mother. It took 7 hours but they reunited them.
Reaction of mother in last !! Gods work.
Russell Rowley retweeted
DOUCE FRANCE… CHER PAYS DE MON ENFANCE… 🇫🇷🥐
broissant.co 🙏🏽
Russell Rowley retweeted
What is the difference between folate and folic acid?
And what has marmite got to do with it?
Watch this then sign the petition to end the addition of synthetic folic acid to our food.
SHARE
Russell Rowley retweeted
I worked recently wth a radio producer called Michael Umney on a radio programme about three villages in England.
He recorded people talking about their lives. The first episode is about Muker in Swaledale and starts at 11am on @BBCRadio4.
It may mention sheep.
Russell Rowley retweeted
"If opting out requires checking the small print of every loaf, cake, pie, sauce, breadcrumb coating and processed product you buy, that is very different from the impression created by saying consumers remain free to choose wholemeal products instead."
SIGN THE PETITION petition.parliament.uk/petit…
THE GOVERNMENT SAYS YOU WILL STILL HAVE A “CHOICE” OVER FOLIC ACID. SO EXPLAIN THIS.
From 13 December 2026, folic acid is to be compulsorily added to non-wholemeal common wheat flour in the UK at 250 micrograms per 100g of flour.
One of the government’s answers to people who don’t want to consume added folic acid is that they will still have a choice.
Their own consultation response says:
“individuals are able to avoid fortified flour if that is their choice.”
How?
The government says people can choose unfortified wholemeal flour and other non-wheat products instead.
Fine.
So I went shopping and deliberately bought Tesco Finest Sliced Wholemeal Bread.
Not white bread.
Not brown bread.
WHOLEMEAL BREAD.
Now look at the ingredients on the packet.
The first ingredient is indeed:
Wholemeal Wheat Flour
But further down the ingredients is this:
Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Calcium, Folic Acid, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin]
So the “wholemeal bread” I deliberately selected already contains FOLIC ACID.
That makes the government’s argument about consumer choice look considerably less straightforward than “just choose wholemeal”.
And there is an even stranger question.
Current government guidance on the Bread and Flour Regulations states:
“the word ‘wholemeal’ is only allowed in the name of the bread when all of the flour used as an ingredient is wholemeal.”
It goes on to say that a combination of wholemeal and white flour “must not be named ‘wholemeal bread’”.
Yet here I am holding a packet which says:
“Sliced wholemeal bread”
while the ingredients appear to identify both “Wholemeal Wheat Flour” and a separate “Wheat Flour” containing folic acid.
Perhaps Tesco has a technical explanation for this particular ingredient and its classification. I’d certainly like to hear it.
But put the labelling issue to one side for a moment, because the wider point matters.
The government has chosen a population-wide fortification policy The government’s response was that people would still be able to avoid fortified flour by consuming unfortified wholemeal flour and other products.
But how meaningful is that “choice” for an ordinary shopper?
Apparently it isn’t enough to walk into a supermarket and think:
“I don’t want added folic acid, so I’ll buy wholemeal bread.”
You need to turn over every packet, put your glasses on and inspect every flour ingredient to see whether folic acid has been added somewhere in the product.
And this isn’t just about loaves of bread.
Non-wholemeal wheat flour is used throughout the food supply: cakes, biscuits, pastries, pies, pizza bases, breadcrumbs, breaded chicken and fish, batter, sauces and countless processed foods.
The government itself says the folic acid must appear in the ingredients list of pre-packed products containing the affected flour.
In other words, the burden of exercising this supposed “choice” is being placed on the consumer.
I’m not arguing here about whether pregnant women should take folic acid. We already know why folic acid before and during early pregnancy is recommended.
I’m asking a different question:
If the government relies on consumer choice as part of the justification for mandatory fortification, shouldn’t that choice actually be simple, obvious and practical?
Because buying a packet prominently labelled WHOLEMEAL BREAD and then discovering FOLIC ACID in its ingredients demonstrates rather neatly why saying “people can choose wholemeal” isn’t an adequate answer.
And before somebody says “well, just read the ingredients” — that’s precisely the point.
If opting out requires checking the small print of every loaf, cake, pie, sauce, breadcrumb coating and processed product you buy, that is very different from the impression created by saying consumers remain free to choose wholemeal products instead.
This packet is a perfect example.
I chose wholemeal.
I still got folic acid.
So where, exactly, is the simple choice we were promised?
@Tesco
#folic
Russell Rowley retweeted
River Itchen - Chalkstream
After venturing beneath the surface of this remarkable chalkstream, we were privileged to capture some breathtaking footage of these incredibly young salmon as they begin what will become an extraordinary life journey.
#freshwaterfish #Chalkstream
Russell Rowley retweeted
Incredible to watch at safe distance Grey Atlantic Seal mum guiding her young pup to safety into sea cave in heavy seas on @PembsCoast Nat Park. We need kayakers, coasteerers and tourism boats to keep out of sea caves. Its a matter of life or death for seals.@PCFCIC @CadwCeibwr
Russell Rowley retweeted
LPO is calling for permanent shooting ban for #Curlew & Black-tailed Godwit.
This would provide protection for thousands of both species that winter in and migrate through France.
Background:
wadertales.wordpress.com/201…
Map shows tracks of Curlew returning from France to breed in UK.
Russell Rowley retweeted
The figures are stark. Ireland has lost more than 98% of its breeding Curlews and has only about 105 pairs left. Hungary may have just 20 pairs. France has 830–1,000, Flanders perhaps 400 and Germany fewer than 4,000.
Russell Rowley retweeted
🚨 BRITAIN’S HOUSING SQUEEZE IS CHANGING
Average UK rent: £1,400 a month
Rents: +3.8% in a year
House prices: +1.4%
House price growth has now slowed for three months.
But rent growth is accelerating again.
For millions of younger people, the housing crisis isn’t just the price of buying a home.
It’s paying ever-higher rent while trying to save enough to buy one.
How are young people supposed to get on the housing ladder?
Russell Rowley retweeted
What is capitalism? It's a much more complicated question than most people imagine. taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2026…
Russell Rowley retweeted
Yesterday morning I took my mum to the GP feeling unwell and they found a satsuma-sized lump.
She was given a referral for suspected gynaecological cancer and sent for an urgent blood test.
What happened next shocked me. This is what NHS privatisation means in practice👇1/🧵
Russell Rowley retweeted
When industry managed to get seats at the table of the nutrition committee deciding on the recommended daily allowance for folate it ended up eight times higher than daily losses.
That means no diet is capable to achieving what they pretend is "normal".
Humans lose only 50 micrograms of folate a day.
When it was measured the USA gov estimated that an average man loses 50 micrograms of folate a day.
So why is the RDA 400 micrograms?
At that level industrial folic acid is required for most people.
Sign the petition: petition.parliament.uk/petit…
hartuk.substack.com/p/what-y…
Russell Rowley retweeted
Two enzymes process folic acid.
100% of humans struggle to convert it to reduced folate.
MTHFR variants in 40% of us affect how efficiently it is methylated.
Natural folate arrives methylated.
Way more folic acid is added to white flour than folate present in wholemeal.
Russell Rowley retweeted
“At present the amount of CO₂ this pilot project is removing is tiny – at most 100 metric tonnes per year – that's less CO₂ than a commercial plane emits crossing the Atlantic.”
Think about that.
Instead of spending scarce resources removing 100 tonnes of CO₂ a year, imagine putting that money into satellite monitoring, slope sensors, sirens and early-warning systems in vulnerable Himalayan valleys.
The Nepal–Tibet catastrophe showed us the stakes: a massive rock-and-ice failure high in the mountains turned into a devastating flash flood downstream.
And satellite observations apparently showed accelerating movement of the rock-and-ice mass before it failed.
We can't prevent mountains from collapsing.
But we can monitor them.
We can detect movement.
We can warn people downstream.
We can evacuate communities.
That is the difference between spending money to symbolically remove a microscopic amount of global CO₂ and spending money on adaptation that might actually save lives.
Maybe our climate priorities need a serious rethink.
bbc.com/news/articles/cr788k…
Russell Rowley retweeted
Trending on Twitter really helped move the petition yesterday.
Please keep talking about it.
Link below (of course!):
Russell Rowley retweeted
Enjoyed some wonderful views of this juvenile Pallid Harrier in the south Mainland of Shetland for the last few evenings. An absolute stunner!
