Jane King's blog - All Comments

re: Local food - or is it?

flutefriend — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:24:48 GMT

Jane,

Surely it's equally important that the provenance of so-called organic food is scrutinised more closely (especially bearing in mind my recent film clip for the office)?

BTW - I have an updated version.

re: Taking farmer wives seriously

herself — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:16:46 GMT

FW farmlife has now lively columns about farmhouse B&B, young family farming in France and a student, why not add one from a farmer's wife who holds a job outside the farm and another from an older female farmer. We could stop pigeonholing each generation by getting the inside story from many walks of life.

re: Local food - or is it?

m gott — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:58:46 GMT

The problem is defining local, its a point farmers markets have been trying to define since their reinvention a few years back. The other problem with local is it doesn't always go hand in hand with quality either I know this doesn't always strike a chord with farmers but wouln't you rather buy a good lamb from a farmer 50 miles away than a bad one next door? First things first lets focus on honest labelling for British as this should be easier to define although currently its open to abuse with things packed or processed in the UK often bearing the mark,set the benchmark and ultimately the more competetive businesses will strive to up their game and define more clearly the provenance of their offerings. Oh yeah and as a last point if you live in suffolk food produced in holland is local... see what I mean?

re: Serious content versus frothy and fun

viewfromtheothersideofthefence — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 09:28:59 GMT

I was getting depressed about the state of the industry, that it was all doom and gloom and I think this was self pepetuating.

I think since the relaunch a couple of years ago FW and FWi has got the balance about right between Industry News and Views and little bit of "tittle tattle."

I have noticed a better feeling and with that will come greater income to small business farms as the industry feeds from its own positive attitude. Some people will say " ooh thats a good idea," or " if they can do that, so can I."

FWi is where most younger people will go to chat and comment and the Magazine is for the the more considered News and Opinion.

Keep up the good work and I'll keep writing my blogs.

re: Serious content versus frothy and fun

herself — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:06:38 GMT

I think there is a serious side to your "frothy and fun". I read Farmlife in FW. In fact it is most weeks my only contact with people like me - I mean women in working age living on a farm full time. Most of my full time farmer lady friends are in their 60's, 70's and 80's. My age group of farmer's wives are university lecturers, teachers or accountants. Full time farmer's wives are a dying breed, our support network is traditionally parish based [two of us in this parish, the other newly married] and as many of now are incomers to the area we are finding it hard to find friends who keep our hours and understand our lifestyle. Your bit of fun columns written by farmers wives are at times the only support your readers get. We would like to be taken seriously too. Maybe wife to some farmers is a lifestyle choice with comedy value but if you want a next generation of farmers you had better give us the time and space we need.

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re: Come and see us at Cereals

ellee — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:38:48 GMT

Hi Jane,

It was a pleasure to meet you at the show and I look forward to meeting you again. I have added your link to my blogroll.

re: Local food - or is it?

ellee — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:37:43 GMT

I would like to see local hospitals and schools source their food from local growers. Just think of all the airmiles that would save!

re: Come and see us at Cereals

TeslaCoils — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:19:10 GMT

Will do - although the lack of free booze and/or hog-roast is not in your favour.

re: Come and see us at Cereals

matty s — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:25:12 GMT

I will pop in :)

re: Bluetongue - all you ever need to know

burgundy beef — Sun, 25 May 2008 17:59:34 GMT

We fatten charolais bulls 100miles south of Paris,and have had a few cases of blue tongue.The symptoms range from lameness to sudden death; postmortems show strange combinations of symptoms, i.e one lobe of the lungs was haemorragic,-a mass of barely clotted blood,while the rest looked ok,and the abdomen was full of water 50to80 litres,the rumen had 3or4 fist sized patches of inflammation ;the animal didn't show any obvious signs of discomfort in the early evening, and was dead by the following morning.According to our vet this typical of what he has been seeing.We have had bulls off their legs,some recover after a good dose of an anti inflammatory drug(to get the temperature down),and vitamins;it can take 2days.Any more than that,and they give up.Neighbours have been having badly presented calves,at calving or lifeless calves that wont suck.

re: Home truths in the Kendall household

kansasfarmer — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:17:19 GMT

Benn would be quite miserable in Kansas,meat is a must with every meal.

re: NFU bias - what do you think?

Andrew Watts — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:21:26 GMT

Isabel,

Shouldn't that be 'David Richardson whom...' not 'who'?

re: NFU bias - what do you think?

Isabel Davies — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:47:34 GMT

Can I respond to Branston Pickle's comment about the Talking Point slot in Farmers Weekly as that is my area of responsibility?

We are very open to having a greater scope of opinion expressed within the magazine and the Talking Point slot is an obvious candidate.

It has slimmed down in recent years but at 450 words we believe it is still possible to write something thought provoking and controversial.

We don't actually have any "regular contributors" for that bit - we try and go with a different person each week and a mix of industry figures and ordinary producers.

I'd be interested to hear if you have any suggestions for people to provide the "dissenting and enquiring opinions" you enjoy. Could I persuade you to write one yourself? Go on.... :)

The place where we do have regular contributors is on the columns page. Obviously there is David Richardson who research tells us is loved by many and loathed by others - but they all read him! We then have a rota of other contributors such as Matthew Naylor, Hugh Broom, Adam Bedford and Stephen Carr. Is it these people who you feel have similar views?

The problem in this area is finding people who can write lively, interesting columns on a regular basis is quite trickly. There are lots of people with one good column in them (a pet subject/gripe/view) but finding people who have the time and the skill to write columns on a regular basis is much trickier. But again if you have some ideas let me know!

Thanks for the feedback - I will redouble my efforts to find some 'new blood'.

Isabel

re: NFU bias - what do you think?

tiza — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 04:17:00 GMT

I am sure FW is not NFU biased and NFU's methods are exactly as Peter Wells points out.

This is then supported as Branston Pickle says by unified pan industry stance.

I must admit to being astonushed that 8,500 people vote on your NFU poll when normaly a thousand is the vote number. So it must be by voter turnout the most important thing FW do.