Is DEFRA in trouble?

Food, recycling, the planet and birds. All major concerns of the southern middle classes. Well, according to the Guardian, Defra, the department that looks after all these things for us, has got major budgetary problems:

Hilary Benn, the environment secretary, has called them together after most sections of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and its agencies failed to find sufficient savings to meet a £300m shortfall from April. The ministry is still more than £100m short despite cuts, including compulsory redundancies at one agency and generous voluntary severance payments for staff.

The crisis was precipitated by a continuing overspend, estimated at £20m, on handling European Union agricultural subsidies for farmers, and the need to set up a contingency fund after animal disease outbreaks, including the foot and mouth, blue tongue and avian flu epidemics.

For the first time cuts will be imposed on the Forestry Commission and the Environment Agency. The commission is said to have agreed a 6% efficiency saving - one percentage point above the Treasury demands - for the next three years; it is now being asked for savings on top, which would hit staffing and its work on climate change, among other activities.

Uh-oh. If that continues, expect to see middle-class ladies in wellies waving placards on the South Downs at an election near you.