To worry about the future of the countryside and animals as we know them?

[runforyourdog]

I'm a country girl at heart. My parents grew up on a council estate but moved to a country cottage where the main focus was horses. My dad was a milkman and we used to hunt in the winter and do a bit of competing in the summer. We had hound puppies. Our own dogs. Farming connection from milkround and community.

I just feel so sad now that everything to do with animals is cruel and normally with the pretext of 'I don't know anything about... but ...' Everything to do with farming is bad I've even heard Derbyshire sheep are bad because of the farts and the 'peat' or something.

It's always some smart arse young do gooder type normally who lives in London who says these things.

I probably ABU but pisses me off!!

and the 'peat' or something.

You worry about the future of the countryside because peat based compost (which is bad for the environment when harvested, and is very unsustainable) is being banned?

My 'hide thread' button is worn to a nubbin today 🙄

No, it was because someone was telling me that grazing sheep in the Peak District were bad, and it was something to do with peat.

Why though??

Is it just because we country folk don't know and don't understand?? Please tell me.

🙄🙄

ah the good old days where you could freely maim and kill animals and destroy the planet with no one mentioning it. The simple life eh? Such a shame people as a whole tend to do better when they know better.

I think you're being goady and divisive.

Plenty of 'smart arses who live in London' grew up in the countryside...

Who are 'we country folk'?

I'm against fox hunting and horse racing for example and grew up in the countryside and live in the countryside now.

This 👍

Hum

sheep over grazing land leads to peat degradation, which results in carbon release , and down hill flood risks

Which is pretty threatening to human and other life on earth

No need for hunting these days. And factory farming is a vile industry.

I also worry about the future of sea life , not just the countryside

How rock pools these days have so much less than 40 years ago , how puffins face extinction

Yeah it's bad

Or is op not actually worried about the future of the countryside but the future of an old fashioned harmful way of life

Fair enough. But where does it end? I get the hunting thing totally and can see where people are coming from with racing. But the procession today etc. It just goes too far.

Do we literally want a life where we have no pets, are vegan and our landscape is all crops or overgrown land? It would be a very different 'England's green and pleasant land'

I would rather that life than the one you described OP yes.

I have pets but can see they aren't good for the environment and there are far too many of them. If we cut down on eating meat there will be much more land that can be turned over to nature. Veg and grain take up much less space. We are one of the most nature depleted countries in the world and we need to do something about it before it's too late.

There are lots of things to be positive about regarding the countryside. More humane, environmentally-responsible farming methods, rewilding schemes, carbon-neutral and tree-planting plans, countryside stewardship funding, pollinator plans, etc. It's easy to see doom and gloom but there is much that is positive. Climate Change information and encouragement from various worthy types such as David Attenborough, Chris Packham and Hamza Yassin, among many others is highlighting a growing trend to better practices and hope for the future.

I do worry about rivers and pollution of waterways and seas though.

Hunting with horses and hounds is cruel. If foxes need controlling a shotgun is a more humane and quicker end. But drag-hunting is still there for anyone who wants that aspect of the 'sport'.

Never going to happen. I ain't cutting down on meat!

Thing is that the baseline has moved. The green and pleasant land thing you're harking back to has been largely lost to increasingly industrialised farming. Those peat soils should should never have been grazed and farmed the way they are now, and it probably didn't start until relatively recently, at least not as heavily in the numbers. But we tend to think it's always been that way.

In my opinion a mosaic of more mixed farming, with farming working with nature, conserving the soils, and hedges, woodland and natural habitats forming a patchwork, now that would be infinitely more green and pleasant. And not undermine our life support system.

And i do think we need a lot less sheep. They're not native, munch everything to oblivion, and are not profitable.

For a moment I thought this would be about wildlife!

What is being proposed by Henry Dimbleby and others, is that SOME industrialised farming and overgrazing is scaled back. And that SOME reduction (30% IIRC) in meat consumption is better for health and environment. Don't take it to absurd extremes.

I'll do some research. x

Erm sheep have been around since 4,000 BC, just how far back do you want to go?

I suppose what I was getting at was our plants haven't evolved with them. They're not able to be munched to the ground then bounce back.