Chickens, farming and global issues.
We keep chickens at our home in Devon, England and, thus, we have an account with a local farming supplies organisation called Mole Valley Farmers. Once a month we get a small news letter which I find fascinating. The first page always has The Chairman’s Newsletter and I love reading about the current price of grain, what’s current in the dairy world and a bit about food politics – usually very little about chickens but then I’m biased!
The Chairman quoted a British Government minister at a recent conference making a reference to the need to increase food production but then spending most of his speech talking about “rewilding” the countryside by reintroducing lynx and elk. (The link is to a slightly tongue-in-cheek article in the Times Online.)
Quite how that would help food production was “incomprehensible” but it shows a complete lack of understanding about the serious threat to the UK, and other countries, as we now import so much of our basic food needs and many local farmers have been underpriced out of farming by the monopoly of the supermarkets. An interesting parallel with the banks and greed in general.
With a world food shortage affecting many parts of the world it makes me wonder what is in store for us, especially our children. So far, I am unaware of anyone in UK politics making a link between pollution, food shortages, global warming and the fact that unless we wake up soon, we stand a big risk of reproducing ourselves out of existence.
By Jon Lavin
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