I've just been reading the BBC's Have Your Say forums on the foot and mouth outbreak. The degree of ignorance about farming and where our food comes from makes my blood boil. Here is a typical comment:Can someone tell me why farmers say they get so upset about their animals being slaughtered whenever that is the purpose that they keep them for in the first place?
I just can't get over how ignorant that comment is. Other frequent comments state that farmers are wealthy and lazy. People honestly seem to believe that farming is basically like working in an office, but with better scenery.
It drives home how detatched most people are from the foundations of human existence - the production of food. A recent survey showed that 22% of 1,073 adults questioned did not know bacon and sausages originate from farms. The President of the National Farmers' Union, Peter Kendall, said people were "blinkered by the bright dazzling lights of their supermarket".
They fail to see that British farmers are working hard behind the scenes to provide the nation with 60% of its food supply, produced in an environmentally and welfare friendly way.
If you have a few minutes, please read this account of the only slaughterman to be employed by Defra throughout the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak. He is extremely articulate and I found his account educational and very moving.
People think slaughtermen are big tough guys, we're not. I'm 6ft 2in and 17 stone but I'm still human and I care. The people who say foot-and-mouth disease doesn't affect humans have no idea what they are talking about.
8 comments:
Yup. Ever read Stonehead's account of Wee Lad's show and tell?
Like you say, it is scary and annoying that the vast majority of the public has no concept about what it takes to farm, where their food comes from or how it gets to them.
We have the supermarkets, and globalist, multinational agribusiness to thank for this disconnect between rural life and the consumer's dinner plate. It's only been 30 or so years that this has happened.
Unless people like us can help do something to effect a change, then all is lost and people will continue to think farmers have the sweet end of the deal, while the ADM's, Cargills, and Tescos of the world dictate what we eat and continue to rob us blind.
Well said!!!!
Government ministers don't understand what hard work it is either, and expect farmers to diversify to earn enough to get by. No one asks an accountant or teacher or bus driver to turn their home into a cottage industry to make ends meet.
At the time of the last Swine Fever outbreak, friends of ours (rented farm, btw) had their pigs slaughtered (they weren't ill but they could no longer afford to keep them until restrictions were lifted). As they were being killed, an office worker from Defra rang and asked my friend to take a message to the official supervising the slaughter. My friend said she could not. "Why not? - they're only animals" said the woman on the phone.
Our own solution to this is to buy the vast majority of our meat from local organic farms, where we know the farmers. I don't trust supermarkets-own organic labelling, and the price differential between it and the soil association stuff proves me right.
The increase in price we pay means we eat meat less often (but it tends to be much better quality) and waste less, plus the money stays in the local economy. Win win win.
Thank you for this post. You should be working for the NFU. So many farmers feel misunderstood and helpless/hopeless. We should all be in it together - public
& farmers - we all need the food.
TopVeg
The big problem that we really have now is that globally more than half of the population live in cities.. not only do we now have to suffer ignorant townies in the UK, there are a greater proportion of ignorant townies in places like India, Iran, Egypt..
People need educating about the countryside and the environment.. in particular, they need to see the countryside for what it really is.. it's a factory floor and should be treated as such.. you don't step in unless invited and when in you do what you are told..
All these people wittering on about "right to roam", are they going to be so happy if I invited everyone I know to just treat their office space as a leisure resort?..
You can't believe how ignorant people are, but the media often doesn't help. Hopefully more articles like yours and more blogging farmer's will help to educate the public. Thanks for your support.
Sara from farmingfriends
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