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http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article4460865.ece
Lucy Holden
Last updated at 12:01AM, June 5 2015
Farmers have attacked the BBC television show Countryfile for giving more airtime to “cuddly badgers” than to problems such as buckweed.(sic.)??
The programme has created “huge discontent”, it was claimed, with hundreds of farmers taking to Twitter each week to ridicule it with the hashtags “Towniefile” and “Countryfool”. The producers ofCountryfile were “London-centric” and had “little knowledge” of what was really happening in the fields, it was said.
Jono Dixon, who farms 568 acres of wheat in Holderness, East Yorkshire, said farmers felt that Countryfile was not produced in their interest but for those living in towns and cities.
“There is huge discontent among the farming community towardsCountryfile,” he said. “Farmers feel like they’re getting bashed week in week out by Countryfile, which is not at all helpful when the industry is as tough as it is. It should be about the great stories of the country’s farmers but instead it’s about how cuddly badgers are. It’s almost as if the BBC are anti-farming.”
He said that he no longer watched the programme because of its content. “Why they feel the need to air features about someone who picks weeds on a railway or a presenter climbing a mountain is beyond me and it’s got my back up so many times that now I don’t bother watching it. Countryfile as it is now is no use to man nor beast.
“The BBC needs to have a serious think about what it’s doing withCountryfile before it alienates even more of the farming community.”
Ben Briggs, of the weekly newspaper Farmers Guardian, said that farmers felt the BBC programme did not reflect the “realities” of the industry. A feature on blackgrass, the biggest problem facing British crop farmers today, was given only ten minutes of airtime, he said, and those affected felt that they had “been done a disservice”.
“The feeling is that sometimes Countryfile tends to go into the fluffier side of the rural community, focusing on the lighter things,” he said. “It’s a whole hour dedicated to the countryside but some farmers feel that the real farming issues and the struggles they face are not presented from a farmer’s perspective.
“It’s almost as if they take a London-centric view. That then skews the viewers’ understanding of the problems and leaves the farmers themselves feeling isolated.”
Countryfile replaced its longstanding predecessor, Farming, in 1988 and draws a huge audience.
A spokesman for the National Farmers Union said that the clue was in the name. “It’s not called Farmingfile, it’s called Countryfile. We do get members complaining that the programme has got something wrong or not gone into enough depth but Countryfile has brought farming to a massive audience so of course some people are going to complain.”
A spokesman for Countryfile said that it had a long history of covering issues that mattered to the farming community, adding: “The programme has recently covered stories like blackgrass, the failing market in potatoes, the collapse in milk prices and the contamination of green waste supplied to farmers, to mention a few.”
Lucy Holden
Last updated at 12:01AM, June 5 2015
Farmers have attacked the BBC television show Countryfile for giving more airtime to “cuddly badgers” than to problems such as buckweed.(sic.)??
The programme has created “huge discontent”, it was claimed, with hundreds of farmers taking to Twitter each week to ridicule it with the hashtags “Towniefile” and “Countryfool”. The producers ofCountryfile were “London-centric” and had “little knowledge” of what was really happening in the fields, it was said.
Jono Dixon, who farms 568 acres of wheat in Holderness, East Yorkshire, said farmers felt that Countryfile was not produced in their interest but for those living in towns and cities.
“There is huge discontent among the farming community towardsCountryfile,” he said. “Farmers feel like they’re getting bashed week in week out by Countryfile, which is not at all helpful when the industry is as tough as it is. It should be about the great stories of the country’s farmers but instead it’s about how cuddly badgers are. It’s almost as if the BBC are anti-farming.”
He said that he no longer watched the programme because of its content. “Why they feel the need to air features about someone who picks weeds on a railway or a presenter climbing a mountain is beyond me and it’s got my back up so many times that now I don’t bother watching it. Countryfile as it is now is no use to man nor beast.
“The BBC needs to have a serious think about what it’s doing withCountryfile before it alienates even more of the farming community.”
Ben Briggs, of the weekly newspaper Farmers Guardian, said that farmers felt the BBC programme did not reflect the “realities” of the industry. A feature on blackgrass, the biggest problem facing British crop farmers today, was given only ten minutes of airtime, he said, and those affected felt that they had “been done a disservice”.
“The feeling is that sometimes Countryfile tends to go into the fluffier side of the rural community, focusing on the lighter things,” he said. “It’s a whole hour dedicated to the countryside but some farmers feel that the real farming issues and the struggles they face are not presented from a farmer’s perspective.
“It’s almost as if they take a London-centric view. That then skews the viewers’ understanding of the problems and leaves the farmers themselves feeling isolated.”
Countryfile replaced its longstanding predecessor, Farming, in 1988 and draws a huge audience.
A spokesman for the National Farmers Union said that the clue was in the name. “It’s not called Farmingfile, it’s called Countryfile. We do get members complaining that the programme has got something wrong or not gone into enough depth but Countryfile has brought farming to a massive audience so of course some people are going to complain.”
A spokesman for Countryfile said that it had a long history of covering issues that mattered to the farming community, adding: “The programme has recently covered stories like blackgrass, the failing market in potatoes, the collapse in milk prices and the contamination of green waste supplied to farmers, to mention a few.”
