subject: Industrialised Farming Fenced In [print this page] Sometime not so very long ago farming started to be referred to as an industry which seemed a strange term to use for something as old and basic as the need to eat.
Thousands of years ago the whole world survived on subsistence farming which simply meant each family would produce all it needed for just the one family.
This is still the case in many poorer parts of the world and even some wealthier countries where the level of subsistence is such that plenty of very healthy and fresh produce means a healthier lifestyle than in the wealthy West.
Just take a look at the amount of obese adults and children fed on a diet of animal fat saturated burgers and unhealthy sugary drinks and compare to a small family unit living on the sunny shores of the Mediterranean with fresh daily vegetables and fruit and plenty of homemade yoghurt.
Farming has indeed become an industry in the west where huge cities and their suburbs filled with children growing up with absolutely no idea where milk or tomatoes come from other than the local supermarket live in ignorance.
With billions to feed it is not surprising that some farms have grown into highly sophisticated productions with massive crop machinery and automated milking parlours.
At the time of writing a well known and loved radio drama about a farming community is going through a storyline which divides the whole community and that is whether it is right to copy a Continental approach with thousands of dairy cows housed inside several large buildings and treated much as factory hens are at the moment.
Traditional farmers do not want to see this kind of treatment and yet it makes commercial sense. The trouble is the difficulty balancing a humane approach to an all-out factory production line one.
Townies like to buy their cuts of meat in the supermarket as cheaply as possible and despite the movement to organic cuts which are slightly more expensive this has of late become stagnant growth as dictated by the current economic position.
Complaining about the price of meat or vegetables should not be directed at the farmer but would be more accurately aimed at the supermarkets with their huge margins.
Some people in the U.K. have realised the pleasure of growing their own vegetables and many allotments have waiting lists of several years.
The reason many farmers are scornful of the weekend picnickers in the country is that they bring bad habits with them. Not all but still too many arrive with a dog off the leash and at lambing time there are countless cases of sheep worrying.
Additionally, the number one complaint is the number of times a gate is not properly shut with the subsequent wandering of livestock sometimes fatally on adjoining roads.
Farmers need fencing supplies to keep animals in and human animals out. Responsible visitors to the country will know which fields are acceptable to walk across and which ones because of crops or livestock are not.
