Food for Thought

Another bit worth a look:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=451320&in_page_id=1770&ito=newsnow

Have just watched the The Lie of the Land, clutching my face all the way through. Its a fantastic, depressing, bleak portrait of the demise of farming in the UK. The only thing that gives me hope, is that this programme is so shocking, something has got to change. Shopping is hard enough already, but we can't pretend any longer that we don't have a responsibility to support our countries farms.

My congratulations to Molly Dineen for making a thoroughly engaging, infuriating and shocking documentary. By her non-intervention she allows the narrative to unfold naturally and without a hint of contolled "direction".

I, like many young men from the countryside, are forced to leave in search of employment - to the cities. I grew up in rural Somerset, working farms until 18. I have complete sympathy for the special relationship farmers hold in our countryside. Yet this government, with the ignorant, molly-cuddled and sentimental pressure of the Great British Public has managed to undo all their good work and make a mockery of their heritage of animal husbandry, by forcing their own, warped idea of morality upon the issue: we now have perfectly good cows slaughtered because it won't appear cheap enough on the shelves of Tesco, whilst the suburban masses get their knickers in a twist about a fox being hunted "because it's cruel".

I wander if my fellow Londoners have seen the mess left in a chicken coup after a fox has been calling? I doubt they'd be so worried about it's plight if they had!

I'm so depressed after watching the programme that I feel I want to join the ranks of protesters and lobby the Government to acknowledge this catastrophe before it's too late.

Carey Marks.

Why did Channel 4 choose to show Molly's documentary on election night? It effectively buried it under the election coverage. What a sham!

The Lie of the Land was a superb programme. I expected it to be a typical stich up job of British farming but Molly Dineen did a fantastic job of filming the realities of farming in the UK today. Surely this documentary could be developed into a series ,which would be incredibly valuable in educating the public about what actually goes on in the countryside

More comments are on the forum:

http://www.fwi.co.uk/DiscussionForumThreads/2007/05/03/1/32_babd2559-a970-41fe-ad9a-c811371e2932/the-lie-of-the-land.html#babd2559-a970-41fe-ad9a-c811371e2932

This was a wonderful, if depressing, film. I have seldom felt the despair and the passion of the participants so keenly. I often find the ignorance of people with no farming connections mind-boggling so the fact that valueless bull calves are routinely shot soon after birth will I hope make them all think again. It is extraordinary that when we are all supposed to be thinking green, food miles, etc. etc. we are allowing the supermarkets to grind the farmers down - and I am as guilty as the next person.

While doubtless the scenes will have had non farmers reeling, it ought to have made them really think about their food but equally it ought to make them realise that our mamby-pamby attitude to death (odd when you think of all the bloody, violent dvds, films etc people watch) is all wrong.

I doubt this film will have changed much but it was the best on the subject I've seen. I've already seen someone saying it was too one-sided but God knows we've had enough documentaries, media attention etc portraying farmers as uncaring, whining agribusinessmen.

I thought that this was an excellent piece of film making. I had not heard of Molly Dineen before but found her observational, non-interventionist style very effective. The content was very sad, I imagine any farmer finds it difficult to have to destroy the animals he has cared for.

It was fascinating also to see the contrasting lifestyles of the Cornish and Wiltshire farms. It is a tragedy that modern economics is driving farming into bankruptcy, but it seems that agriculture has been in decline for most of the twentieth century apart from during the second world war when the country was forced to be self sufficient.

What a superb end - Glyn calling his cattle. That image will stick with me for a long time.

This such a good programme. It should be repeated.

My pesonal background is non-farming but my grandfather farmed in Dorset and my father was an AI man in the Berks and Oxon region, so I have a deep interest in the farming world.

For those of us who understand the countryside, The Lie of the Land was a fantastic programme that supported our view on the plight of British agriculture, however I still do not think that the remainder of the British public will view the contents of the programme from the same perspective. It is my view that the earlier section of the programme required better explanation to put the shooting of calves into perspective. I myself was moved by the latter part of the programme simply because of the sentiment expressed by the beef farmer towards his cattle, but I think the majority of British people would have been to disgusted by this point to take the explanation in.

I feel able to express this opinion due to the fact that I watched this programme with several educated people, not from countryside backgrounds and the main point of the programme completely by-passed them. They now consider dairy farming cruel.

Excellent documentary - its about time the public faced the reality of farming and what it takes to get food on their plates! Farmers are amongst the hardest working people in our country and they do not get the recognition they deserve from the public, supermarkets or the Government.

I fear that excellent documentaries like Molly Dileen's "The Lie of the Land" are all too late to awaken the largely apathetic British public to the awareness that Britain,as we have known it, is disappearing.
This once "green and pleasant land" was mostly given over to producing food to feed us all, now with a population somewhere over 60 million it's impossible for our farms to produce enough food even if they were encouraged to.
We, the British public seem hell-bent on destroying what made this island truly great......successive governments have encouraged us to follow "the American way" where excess in all things is the only way, resulting in a greedy, overweight, over-paid, over-indulged peoples that neither care, or understand the concept of cherishing, nurturing and loving the country that has sustained their ancestors for centuries. The demise of the local shop and the meteoric rise of the supermarket was the first nail in the coffin.

Where IS a political party with the will and the guts to turn this around? WHY did we allow ourselves to get into a situation where the EU dictates our farming policies? WHY are the supermarket giants allowed to screw the farmers down so aggresively on prices and then abandon them to buy from elsewhere across the world?

Questions I fear will never be addressed whilst we are driven by governments who concentrate purely on BUDGETS.

Emily Padfield on our livestock desk has identified all these people blogging about this programme.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/tv/2007/05/last_nights_tv_the_lie_of_the.html

http://cotswoldgent.blogspot.com/2007/05/reality-check-on-farming.html

http://whatsheonaboutnow.blogspot.com/2007/05/down-on-farm.html

http://fatmanonakeyboard.blogspot.com/2007/05/its-all-about-life-and-death.html

http://ruabonlabourcouncillor.blogspot.com/2007/05/tv-nasty-about-dairy-farming-tonight.html

I saw one of your respondents write that people who don't farm would probably have switched off after the first calf was shot. If so, I didn't join them.

I'm a relatively 'urban' bloke who probably carried most of the unthinking prejudices against famers and farming communities that many of you seem to suspect.

However, this brilliant film challenged my beliefs and values in an uncomfortable way, raising questions I cannot (and the film did not by itself) answer.

In its ruthless focus, it managed to show the humanity inherent in farming and was empathetic without bewing biased.

Don't tar us city folks all with the same brush (that's our trick!) or you risk being as ignorant about us was we seem to be about you.

Until fairly recently, and certainly since this present government came into power, Britain's farmers were considered the best in Europe - if not the world. The EU farming policies and the incompetence of DEFRA which reflected the ignorance and loathing of country people and their lifestyles by this Labour Government, have all led to the destruction of the rural economy in Britain. As one farmer said, the severely enforced EU regulations, the destruction of localised abattoirs and the ridiculously low prices paid to farmers by greedy supermarkets have meant that many farmers are living on the breadline and many have given up - and, surprise, surprise, many of their farms have been sold off to the massive agri-businesses or developers! The importation of cheap food from Europe and other countries, where animal welfare is poor at best and non-existent at worst, has contributed to the decline in Britain's farming industry too. Who is buying this cheap food? Is it those of us who cannot bear to think of fluffy little creatures being killed (so cruel - cover your eyes!!)? - and don't mention foxes! One also has to wonder at the agenda of this government in this matter as, traditionally, country and farming folk are Conservative voters. Destroy the countryside and they have effectively destroyed the opposition. Concrete over England and encourage people to move here from poorer countries who will, in their gratitude, vote Labour. Is that the plan? How much countryside will we have in ten, twenty and thirty years? Are we going to stand by and just let it happen?

I am a 16 year old who lives on a farm in Cornwall and am so pleased to have finally seen such a truthful documentary which finally shows what goes on.

Modern day society is too preoccupied with animal welfare of the domestic animal to see what actually happens everyday in the countryside around them. The farmers and huntsmen she spoke to told the truth and did not hold back. Those people told about what really matters to all of us in the countryside.

Not only in the places that Molly visited but in the area around me it is clear to see that farmers are already starting to simply give up in the struggle to survive because of the fight they have to endure against the poor prices they receive for the top quality products they produce through their hard work and lifetime commitment.

Molly deserves true recognition for the work she has done and everyone should see this documentary, even if some may find it hard to watch, it would be well worth them sitting through it.

Unfortunately though not enough people will see it. I have not yet spoken to a single person who is not of a farming background that saw this documentary. I believe it should be more widely published and shown everywhere possible until the government, and anyone who really cares about this beautiful country we live in, has seen it.

brilliant documentry, hopefully people will realise meat doesn't magically appear on a plastic trays in the supermarket!
the commsumer has the power to change things,by buying from a local source.
the people who are against fox hunting probably buy cheap chickens from the supermarket, not realising that most are produced in horrid conditions to kept the price down.
I regularly ask supermarkets to supply British reared meats, as it is safer than the imported stuff with inferior legislation.
If you care about the welfare of farm animals, buy local and British.
Pam

A very good documentary, moving and depressing.

However, I unfortunately think that although its thought provoking, non-judgemental, observational style works well for those who are probably already aware of the issues, it must have been hard to understand for those without context (ie some knowledge of the countryside).

I therefore agree with previous comment that the vast majority of urban viewers will have turned over at the first shocking image and probably concluded that they should become vegetarian.

Our collective inability to appreciate the consequences of our economic decisions to buy cheap food, probably a ready meal where the value that goes to the farmer is minimal compared to the value that goes to the processor, distribution and supermarket is depressing.

We need more of this type of TV/press coverage to make the population aware, but it doesn't attract media attention, as it is an un-PC minority.

Depressing. One can only hope educational campaigns about food and packaging start to change attitudes, but one fears it is too late for many farmers.

Just to say - if you haven't already looked at the forum link I posted above (keep scrolling up to the post at 9.41am on 4 May!) then it is worth doing so. I keep being e-mailed by non-farmers who want to comment. Reaction is mixed.

I'm glad that this documentary showed the hypocrisy of hunting farmers. Tears were almost wept at the death of a calf and yet these are the people who think it's okay to chase and kill a fox with a pack of dogs. The very same people who think it's okay to blast pheasants out of the air. The same people who think it's okay to make a game out of killing rats.

My wife and I were compelled to watch every minute of the documentary in fascination of the reality of the Farmers plight. Watching so many genuine people committed to the real and very hard way of life, echoing feelings of despair, frustration and betrayal.

Both of us are 'townies' from village backgrounds who have returned to a semi rural way of life. We are both embarrassed that we have been part of the momentum undermining the rural infrastructure of this fine country and are committed to a complete reassessment of our lifestyles in order to support those within the farming industry.

This was one of the best, if not the best, documentary we have ever watched and thank Molly and those involved in illustrating such a balanced view of this problem and the stupidity, ignorance and lack of foresight of those who claim to govern this country.

I watched this in May and am glad it is being broadcast again tonight. It was a brilliantly produced programme despite the depressing reality and gave a city dweller, albeit who loves being in the countryside, much food for thought. I can see that some of the views expressed would have been hard to accept by many animal lovers, especially those who lack the understanding of how life and death are so closely intertwined in nature, just because we hide away from death in city life. Although I eat free range meat, it's only once or twice a week and as a result of the programme I have increased my meat intake to support british farming.

It was also one of those programmes that affects you deeply for a long time, and I've shared my views on the programme with several people, and more and more are definitely becoming aware of farming issues and food production methods in this country. It has finally become a topic of conversation in the office - but there's still a long way to go for the majority of people who are enticed by '2 for 1' offers in the supermarkets. We need much more of this kind of broadcasting. Congratulations to Molly Dineen.