A preferred matter of dialog between farmers is misconceptions about agriculture. It will get folks, myself included, all riled up.
Usually it’s merely misunderstandings in regards to the complexity of a problem that, to the unexposed onlooker, appears to have a fairly easy conclusion: “Cows are killing the planet” or “farmers are all wealthy”, to call simply two.
See additionally: James Herrick – cattle ought to be purposeful, not flashy
Concerning the creator
James Herrick
James Herrick is predicated on his household’s suckler beef and arable farm in Leicestershire. A passionate conservationist, he’s eager on utilizing know-how to maximise agriculture’s profitability and reduce its impression on the surroundings. Away from the farm he likes to compete in triathlons and endurance races.
However at different instances it will probably include actual, tangible malice. The difficulty is, I’m undecided we, as farmers, are any higher.
I used to be just lately lucky sufficient to go to Anuga in Cologne, Germany – the world’s largest food and drinks commerce truthful.
My objective for visiting was to additional perceive what goes into the exporting of beef, lamb and pork produced within the UK.
I used to be additionally in a position to examine our processing and packaging techniques with these of the world’s largest gamers within the pink meat business.
I used to be lucky sufficient to talk to Dan and Monty, who work for the Cattleman’s Beef Board (the US equal of AHDB for beef) and we bought on to the topic of US beef exports to the UK and the problem of hormone-treated beef.
They defined that the broadly held view that the UK market will get undermined by these merchandise isn’t right.
The price of manufacturing within the US means they will’t afford to compete with UK home-produced meat, they usually aren’t in a position to export hormone-treated beef in any respect.
Equally, representatives from Argentina defined how post-Brexit guidelines had made it rather more troublesome, each financially and logistically, for them to entry the UK market.
We additionally spoke to processors who concentrate on halal slaughter, who defined the reasoning behind each shocked and non-stun halal slaughter and dispelled most of the myths you usually hear in regards to the apply.
I might go on. My level is that we are able to’t count on folks with restricted understanding of our business to query rumour after we don’t all the time do it ourselves. In any case, scepticism is the chastity of the mind.
