Diary of Becoming a Farmer. A New Beginning.
The story of a young mans efforts to become a farmer without the aid of inheritance!
Whilst Foot & Mouth ravaged the British Countryside, I kept in close telephone contact with my uncle. We daren't visit nor did they want us too for fear of bringing F&M onto their farm. It came close to the farm, but thank god did not infect their herd. They were the lucky ones.
It was only afterwards that I really understood the true losses that those with cloven hooved animals suffered. The loss of a lifetimes work. Building those herds and flocks. What have those farmers left. For those who were over forty and taken 20 years to breed that herd or flock to perfection, they would have to start again. They would only just get to were they where when Foot & Mouth struck when they should have been taking life a little easier and enjoying the fruits of their labours.
However, as Foot and Mouth changed so many lives we had our own life changing moment. After a six month battle for life our son died in our arms at Great Ormond Street Hospital. God Bless Him.
It's something I wouldn't wish on anyone, but if you ever need Great Ormond Street Hospital It's a fantastic place. Not only the staff but the patients too. So many youngsters seriously ill but so few tainted by adult meloncoly. An inspiration to us all.
Whilst we had all this time in hospital to think, we had had some great support from the nursing staff that "*** is what nature intended" and our son needed the best. Something our local hospital had tried to prevent.
All this made me seriously wonder about what we eat and how we live our lives.
We did make a lot of our own food from scratch but we were eating a lot of take-aways and using cheaper basic ingredients. Possibly produced by intense farming practices, quite likely from outside the UK.
Added to that was the fact that I took part in a drugs trial as a child. No. Not the usual teenage drugs. You cynics. As a teenager I had severe acne which at the time was very unpleasant to say the least. It also wasn't a great turn on for the girls either.
At 14 I ws asked if I wantd to keep this painful almost disfiguring condition or take this new wonder drug that would 'Dry Up' my skin. Not a particularly difficult decisionfor a young testosterone filled man trying desperatly to attract the opposite sex.
However the drugs had a touch of the Ronseal's about it. "It did exactly what it said on the tin." It dried up my sin. Permanently. They reduced the dose by 50% after the trial. Too late for me. I now have a knock on condition which I will have to live with for the rest of my life. So as you can see this has made me very wary of drugs companies.
I 'm not totally against GM. I do think that we are right to explore science but we should not rush in to the magical cure. Be wary. Science could solve the problems of ensuing food shortages. But one wrong move could make the problem 100 times worse.
We need to be sure that once we have unleashed science on to the world that we know what the consequences will be.
What I learn't in that hospital whilst trying to do the best for my son was that when you use science to combat one thing you usually need two more things to counter the consequences of the decision you have just made.
We need science. Science should not rule the world though. Education should do that. Be honest and teach the world the possible consequences of new science.
After our son died we went away, back to North Yorkshire to grieve in peace and to gather our thoughts and get ready to face the world again. The pires still burned and the countryside was earily quiet. This was the first chance we had had to witness the impact of Foot & Mouth first hand.
It was awful. Farming at that time was enticing nobody..