The corn harvest has now been largely gathered in. Fields are being cleared both of their primary crop, the wheat or barley which goes into so many of our foods, but also of the secondary crop, which is the straw, used widely for bedding for animals.

As the price of wheat and barley has fallen, straw seems to be holding up in price.

At this rate the straw may become worth more per tonne than the grain.

This year barley is worth about £52 a tonne.

Not many years ago the price was about £100 and sometimes more. No wonder bank accounts are feeling the strain.

The straw is now being transported to the areas with animals, where straw is often unavailable. It seems to be in quite high demand.

Farmers are being widely urged to find alternative uses for their land. The argument is that there is plenty of food about so there is no need to squeeze the last few tonnes out of the soil.

So uses such as bio fuel, where diesel is made from oil seed rape, and the manufacture of starch from potatoes, are being explored.

Global warming, we are told, is caused by the release of carbon into the atmosphere.

The problem is not, however, the release as such, but the release of carbon laid down many years ago.

So burning coal or oil, which releases carbon from when the fossil fuel was formed, has a serious global warming effect.

If carbon is released which has only just been laid down, the effect is much less.

So if straw or newly-grown wood is burned, although carbon is released into the atmosphere, the consequences are much less serious for the world.

In an attempt to use land not needed for food production, local farmers have been encouraged to plant willow coppices to be cut for chippings for a power station near Selby.

Burning these chippings provides the heat to produce the electricity.

It has come as a considerable blow to the farmers and those who have invested time, effort and money in the project, that the company running this power station has had to stop trading.

Apparently, production problems have been too difficult to overcome. This is a disaster for all concerned.

It is to be hoped that someone can be found to take this project forward and sort out the teething problems, because it seems to be such a logical and sensible way of helping the environment, by producing energy from a renewable source.

A technically-successful power station using straw to produce the necessary heat for electricity generation is in operation already. Huge amounts of straw are required and it is gathered up from far and wide.

There are new and exciting uses for the land and what it produces. What is needed is a clear steer from Government of a long-term commitment to such uses.

Needless to say we are back to money, in this case money from the Treasury.

The amounts are quite small. Within the context of the huge extra taxes raised by the Government since they came into office, they are very small.

However, they would make a tremendous difference to the fledgling industries struggling to establish themselves.

They would also have the advantage of moving things on.

They would not be shoring up the existing situation; they would be making a break for a cleaner, greener future.

You would think that even this Chancellor would allow us to have some of our money back in such a good cause.

Updated: 10:59 Tuesday, September 03, 2002