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!!

If we let some sheep farms with a very low return re wild then we'd get a big return of wild nature. There are plenty of farmers re wilding parts of their land as well as commercial farming. Look at the new wildlife corridor around Knepp.

Unfortunately, without pollinators we humans are screwed. Every single person should be gravely concerned about insect decline. The govt keep delaying the ban on bee-killing pesticides!

We need farmers three times a day, as the saying goes. How our food is grown is also the responsibility of consumers, even Londoners. We've become too industrialised and we need to swing back the other way now.

@runforyourdog have you ever been bloodhounding?

@wehavenotomatoes yes! Love it.

Country girl at heart probably needs to go learn some things about the countryside.

Country girl here too and absolutely hate hunting , since a kid too living right alongside it
Also hate all other hunting ,
Not really knowledgeable about sheep farming to be honest the most I know is they like to escape ... a lot and can be hilarious when raised as a pet
However I don't eat meat or dairy

I am a 7th generation farmer. I too worry for the future of the countryside because loads of people with absolutely no connection to it or knowledge of it are trying to tell me how to run the place.

Come see my farm, shed loads of wildlife (I've won awards - actual awards from country people whose awards are worth having!) and it's profitable too.
We keep it all in balance (as much as you can with a population of 67 million to try and feed!), and we hunt and shoot here too. Done humanely and correctly with good habitat management it all works rather nicely.

Townies not welcome here.