farmers on the news

[hoff135]

sorry if this has been covered already, haven't been active here lately. why is it that before, during and after the referendum it seems the only farmers the media managed to interview were subsidy addicts? just adds to the resentment the public feel towards us when all the see is farmers running about with begging bowls shouting gimie, gimie, gimie?

why cant the interview a farmer who is delighted to be out?

 

[RobFZS]

because the media want to remain and god forbid denying the narrative of farmers only being able to survive on the eu's teat be told.

 

[Qman]

ITV local news spent an afternoon with me before the referendum. They interviewed me and I told them we would be better out of the EU and there would be s good future for farmers even if subsidies were cut. I told them the government would be able to help young farmers into farms instead of the farms joining large ones. I spoke for quite a while and tried to be positive and pointed out it was British farmers who had created the landscape and continued to look after it. They filmed all my cattle and most of the sheep.




I was looking forward to watch and listen to what bilge I'd told them and when my interview came on it lasted about 45 seconds, what a waste of time. They wanted to come and visit on the Friday after the referendum and bring a drone to film the cattle and sheep..........................I said NO.

 

[Old McDonald]

Qman, The BBC is no better. I had a similar experience with them whilst on the Black Isle. Cannot remember the year, but around the turn of the century, maybe late 90s. It seems they put a few minutes of me (so I did better than you, but not much) in a segment on Countryfile, and only showed it in England. My customers were all in the far north of Scotland.

 

[petec]

Whenever the Media want to promote the saving of the British Countryside they show a picture of flowering thistles and ragwort. It just shows their incompetence. A bit like Defra knocking off the corner of a field with a bramble bush from the claim forms and then paying for the planting of hedgerows.

 

[farmideas]

two days of filming resulted in 5 mins of Practical Farm Ideas for Countryfile in 1997, so nothing has changed. The problem is the real story can be distorted. The magazine came out as a a collection of farmer's daft ideas.... which of course it may be but that's not the intention! Finding farmers who have experimented with routines that cut costs, such as mastitis, grain ventilation, weed control... and getting real results from cover cropping and zero-till is really exciting for the writer and reader. No chance for distortion here, as I write it all up!

 

[jerseycowsman]

sorry if this has been covered already, haven't been active here lately. why is it that before, during and after the referendum it seems the only farmers the media managed to interview were subsidy addicts? just adds to the resentment the public feel towards us when all the see is farmers running about with begging bowls shouting gimie, gimie, gimie?

why cant the interview a farmer who is delighted to be out?

I voted stay but I don't want the subsidy just like you

 

[farmideas]

The official line is the subsidies are good and farmers need greater subsidies to make up for the lack of income. Brexit offers an era of uncertainty. See the new Practical Farm Ideas Financial Focus article "What leave really means for farmers". Farming has become a state subsidised industry sector, considered unable to survive without public 'support'. Evidence of farm bankruptcy, mental health issues, suicides etc are a powerful argument for state support, so much so that the farming ministers, Paterson and Eustice both promised increased money were we to leave the EU. Unions naturally back government support and lobby, very successfully, for increased funding. The media, and the public, largely support this stance, and want to see public money being given to farmers. Few apparently see any reason to object. Not many equate the buying power of the farm subsidy in terms of other government goals in energy provision, rail, health, schools etc.