Is the Public really bothered about farming....

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
.....and the countryside?

I am not sure that they are. Much as the BBC tries to interest people and raise awareness of rural affairs, I think most people in town have more to do than concern themselves with farming and the environment. Not one of my urban aquaintances has heard of G Monbiot or really gives a damn about neonics. The only time they will start asking questions is when the food runs out in the shops.

I think this whole idea that we need to provide "public goods" by greening and providing more access is overblown. The public aren't asking for such things. It's only Mr Gove, the BBC and the Guardianistas that think the public should be interested but really they couldn't care less, and there is nothing wrong with that, just as I'm not concerned about urban life, at all.

As a rural dweller and worker, I don't concern myself with how environmentally friendly or green the industrial estates are, I don't want open access to them, and don't feel entitled to tell them how to run their businesses. So why do a minority of the urban elite think the public should have any say or interest in rural business? It's a kind of elitist thing, I think. We are considered as peasants that can't be trusted and need bringing in to line to conform to the urban elites mistaken view of how we should run the job.

I find it arrogant and patronising.
 

Selectamatic

Member
Location
North Wales
No, I don't think they are.

The Daily Post, North Wales's main newspaper's front page today tells us that our local Assembly Minister is backing a plan to improve traffic flow along the A55, the costal Dual carriage way from Holyhead to Chester, by banning tractors on it during certain hours.

These tractors, either directly, or indirectly, are moving what will become our food about. They are not, on the whole, doing it for fun, just to create traffic problems.

However, think of any other trade, Mining, Joinery, Blacksmithing, Solicitors, Doctors, pretty much anything really, and I bet they talk amongst themselves, the general public "They haven't got a bloody clue". I bet it's not just farmers.

I get asked by non farming extended family fairly often, Christmas time mainly "So, no hay to be made at the moment?" I try to educate them, without sounding like a complete know it all, that you cant gather hay when there is snow on the ground! Equally, they talk about running, guitar playing, cycling, and other such things, where it's my turn to ask the daft questions.

I've worked outside the agricultural industry, and can say with certainty and experience, that on the whole, farming has it easy in terms of paperwork and general pen pushing shite. Genuinely, they do. I have worked in an office where tipp ex was banned, after the office people did not wear safety glasses during it's use, where a member of office staff claimed £20000 for falling off a revolving chair while changing a lightbulb, where a seasoned lorry and plant driver was not allowed to unload his Backhoe loader for fear of being logged in the "Near Miss Book".

I don't believe that farmers are held in such high esteem as they once were, my Grandmother, who lived on a 35 acre farm 4 miles from the nearest market town, nothing fancy, was known and respected throughout the town's community, due to the standard of her produce, her eggs, butter, etc were well received, the townfolk being very grateful for them, my Grandmother being very grateful for the money, which helped in raising 5 children. Those days are largely gone.

While you can stuff your face at a 24 hour Mc Donalds for £5, farmers are not important.
 

milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Round here I am sometimes surprised at the interest that I receive from muggles about farming and how it works. There’s couples with kids looking forwards to farm open days or enjoy trips to the local petting farm. Some boast about how they buy from the farm shop and how fantastic the meat is. I think people are more attracted to the countryside and certainly the idea of it I just think they don’t understand how much hard work it takes to make it look the way it does and try and earn a living at the same time.

However, all is not really as they portray themselves, in reality because most will try and keep the shopping bill down so the mortgage, school fees and car is paid for.
 

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
just a comment on public goods, open access to ramblists, where is the bio security with ramblists marching all over letting feral dogs chase animals and spread diseases.

During the last war we had a government department, who's aim was to increase the public good from agriculture (War Ag), I don't think they were concerned about planting more hedged, bio diversity, open access, habitats for birds or rewilding, or blocking up ditches, the public good they were concerned about was producing food to feed the nation.
 

Selectamatic

Member
Location
North Wales
I love it when kids take an interest in farming!

Earlier this year I was ploughing on a farm which is also a caravan park, through the seven bar gate was a little boy, about 7, watching me work, going back and forth along the field, holding on the the bars and staring at me through the gate. Brilliant! What a great lad, taking an interest in farming!

As I was turning round at the headland, from the tractor cab I gave the kid a big smile and thumbs up, the young man saw this, and gave me a big vee sign in return, before running away back into his caravan.

The little sh!t!
 
Location
Devon
The general public are far more intrested in learning about farming/ food production than you realize, the problem is its very hard for them to find sources etc to learn from about the industry.

As for public access/public goods, that is the result from the excellent lobbying that the RSPB/NT etc have done as that is the lines they have been pushing and sadly for food production the likes of the NFU didn't put up an alternative argument anywhere near well enough pushing for food production to be at the heart of any policy changes post Brexit and in fact the NFU were instead actually pushing the same message's that the RSPB/NT etc were pushing ref public access/public goods etc so its not surprising that the net result is we have a new policy totally focussed on public access/ public goods and not food production.
 

Selectamatic

Member
Location
North Wales
During the last war we had a government department, who's aim was to increase the public good from agriculture (War Ag), I don't think they were concerned about planting more hedged, bio diversity, open access, habitats for birds or rewilding, or blocking up ditches, the public good they were concerned about was producing food to feed the nation.

Yes, Herr Hitler did more for British Agriculture than anyone before or since...

But, those days are gone, U boats are not hindering food imports, and we no longer have to plough every scrap of land to grow food to stop the nation being starved into submission.

Hankering after those days is very interesting nostalgia, but a waste of time in terms of looking forward into modern agriculture.

As I said, while you can fill your trolley full to overflowing for £40, and then chuck loads of it away as its dangerously close to it's sell by date, the public wont particularly care where their milk, spuds or lamb come from.
 

farmerm

Member
Location
Shropshire
Yes, Herr Hitler did more for British Agriculture than anyone before or since...

But, those days are gone, U boats are not hindering food imports, and we no longer have to plough every scrap of land to grow food to stop the nation being starved into submission.

Hankering after those days is very interesting nostalgia, but a waste of time in terms of looking forward into modern agriculture.

As I said, while you can fill your trolley full to overflowing for £40, and then chuck loads of it away as its dangerously close to it's sell by date, the public wont particularly care where their milk, spuds or lamb come from.

British farmers import vast quanities of fertiliser, chemicals, feeds stuffs, fuel, machinery and parts from none UK origins... Price, Quality and Availabilty... No one reading this post has a right to expect the British public to care if their food originates from the UK, it would be rather hippocritical, the device you are reading this on almost certainly does not..
 

farmerm

Member
Location
Shropshire
When and if brexit happens they will get more interested, if the £ weakens and makes imports dearer then farmers might have the opportunity to change things, empty supermarket shelves will focus minds.
Shelves wont be empty (or at least not after the first couple of weeks whilst they figure out how to solve the Dover Calais issue), some imported items may be priced higher, but origin wont be suddly more interesting, interest is in the price.
 

njneer

Member
Nope not one bit .
They think food comes from the super market and that farms and countryside have been built in and around the town or city they live in and that tractors etc are on their roads.
They have no comprehension that towns and city's were built in THE COUNTRYSIDE which has been there for ever.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
After being brought up on a farm I went a way and worked for 15 years in cities in industry. Whilst I was interested in what was happening "back home" as the family were stil there, I had just about zero interest in the "countryside" or anybody else's farm. It was their business. I didn't really care how any of the farmers round the urban area went about it. I was more concerned with earning my own living and building my own career, and making the most of the leisure facilities and entertainment provided in the city. It was an almost entirely man made environment but it worked and served a purpose. It didn't concern me at all how many times farmer Jones cut his hedges, or whether he was providing wildflower meadows. I can honestly say that none of that concerned me at all, and other than the office lefty who wouldn't have been satisfied until all of UK was run as Stalinist collectives, I don't think UK Ag concerned or really interested any of my office colleagues either.

So I wonder where this idea comes from that we must deliver "public goods" and make our industry cuddly, fluffy and flowery? From our side there also seems to be a drive portray ourselves as indispensible super heroes such as trying to stay awake for 24 hours at lambing time and all the usual things that say more about bad management than anything else. Nobody visits the water authority chemical dosing plant and says look at these guys. Without them we would die of typhoid or thirst. We do a job like everybody else does a job.

This needs to be kept in perspective.

I suppose I am saying that I see no reason for more interference from the government. Let us get on with it without interference from uninformed amateurs.
 

wanderer

Member
.....and the countryside?

I am not sure that they are. Much as the BBC tries to interest people and raise awareness of rural affairs, I think most people in town have more to do than concern themselves with farming and the environment. Not one of my urban aquaintances has heard of G Monbiot or really gives a damn about neonics. The only time they will start asking questions is when the food runs out in the shops.

I think this whole idea that we need to provide "public goods" by greening and providing more access is overblown. The public aren't asking for such things. It's only Mr Gove, the BBC and the Guardianistas that think the public should be interested but really they couldn't care less, and there is nothing wrong with that, just as I'm not concerned about urban life, at all.

As a rural dweller and worker, I don't concern myself with how environmentally friendly or green the industrial estates are, I don't want open access to them, and don't feel entitled to tell them how to run their businesses. So why do a minority of the urban elite think the public should have any say or interest in rural business? It's a kind of elitist thing, I think. We are considered as peasants that can't be trusted and need bringing in to line to conform to the urban elites mistaken view of how we should run the job.

I find it arrogant and patronising.

Some of the problem is that small, local farmers who we all got to know are a dying breed as the conglomerates move in and individual farms just merge into others. An important part of the community is dying out and that is sad for this country. The closure of cattle markets is another loss to the countryside but of course progress saw to them.

Rural folk do care about farmers and about what happens in the fields at different times of the year. It's a free gift for people driving around and none of it would exist but for farmers making it so.

Don't underestimate your worth or what you put in the shops. Given the chance many would buy British products before imported foods but sadly it isn't always available... such as the Israeli carrots I saw on sale today. What the hell is that all about?
 
Well, I'm just back from a weekend in London, and I'd say having spent a few days in the very heart of the city, that these people do not know that we even exist . And if they did, then they still wouldn't care.

As far as they are concerned, they run the country and the economy. What they actually do is a bit of a mystery - shift money around from account to account, company to company, country to country? Who knows, but this is what my friends and myself mused over as we saw them break exhausted for lunch at roughly 11.30.

Sitting around in the sun drenched squares with their ties off to cut loose, munching on dainty little artisan snacks, a couple of braying suits slapped their pints down on the table outside the pub and yelled Happy Mondays to each other. ( Wow, said one of my friends , "that must be nice to go on the drink during lunch and then go back to work. Hope their judgement isn't impaired to handle other people's money when they go back. Don't think my boss would appreciate me drinking during lunch - and I work in a whisky bottling plant! !")

As you wander down by the Thames, you catch little flutters of conversations about how totally dull work is, or what a bitch Sophia the PA to the boss of Human Resources is, or what a perfectly fab weekend they had in the wilds of Hampshire, but, darling , can you actually imagine living there? ?? Or what car they wish they had. Or what labels they want to wear. Or what's the right phone to own this week. Or how do you manage to fake tan without spoiling your snow-white shirt? And isn't it annoying the workmen in the square spoiling the peace with their noisy machinery? Or have you eaten in that great new brasserie in Chelsea? Aren't the oysters divine?

Lunch? Well those down the social scale can go into the Tesco Express in that smart street just underneath the Walkie Talkie building and get a Meal Deal for £3.99. Oh yes , food can also be cheap in central London, and frankly, the restaurants aren't pricy compared to the rest of the country due to intense competition.

All other cities will doubtless be the same.

Are these people interested in British farming? Or any other farming come to that?

Don't be ridiculous.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,292
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top