3 Replies to “Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill”

  1. Well it is the Department for Estates, Farmers and Resourcing Agriculture isn’t it?…Isn’t it?

  2. A good point, Jo. But we all need to be in the know because this is the biggest game in town, by far. 70% of our land surface is farmed, and its not just neat. ploughed fields – as Mark has pointed out in Inglorious and this blog, Grouse Moors get c £60m of farm subsidy – roughly equal to their total economic output. With £3.2 billion of our money going into farming you’d think all would be well – and there might be just a little slack for wildlife – but it isn’t. The supermarket’s death struggle for market share has put cheap milk right in the firing line – but as is their wont, its not the supermarkets who are paying, its the dairy farmers and there is a real question mark over the future of dairying in Britain. Its a shame that these farmers, who face very real problems, have done such a good job of diverting our attention and alienating public opinion over the red herring of badgers and TB. Its not just here: the French supermarket E.LeClerc actually suspended sales of the giant President dairy brand because of its treatment of its suppliers. But whether farmers are struggling, or doing rather well, their reaction is always the same: intensify even further, and squeeze wildlife on the majority of Britain’s land ever harder.

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