It's been a funny old week..... firstly getting back into the swing of things after 2 Christmas weeks of laying on a sofa eating chocolate and then all the media furore over tv programmes about chickens and farming. It's certainly kept the team on their toes. There's been no less than 9 tv programmes, endless hours of radio debate and pages and pages in print about Hugh's Chicken Run, Kill It, Cook It, Eat It and Jamie's Fowl Dinners.
We've been really perked up and impressed by the courage of the farmers who have gone out of their way to go on air and show the masses what they do. But we've also been frustrated by the cautiousness of the poultry industry and retailers. If we've got nothing to hide, why be so wary about coming forward? Changing public perceptions will be a big challenge and we really must start making the most of these opportunities and tackling the scrutiny and criticism head on.
Readers were certainly not wary of coming forward when answering the last www.fwi.co.uk poll on how they rated DEFRA's performance. We had one of our biggest ever turnouts for this one (some 2508 votes) and, surprise surprise, no less than 93% of them rated DEFRA as "rubbish". Not the most deep and meaningful surveys we've ever done but it made a lot of people feel better to get it off their chest!