Read on Twitter
This landscape needs a lot of things. It needs less divisive rhetoric, more collaborative working and a re-imagining of food production in the uplands, with educated consumer buy-in and meaningful policy support. Not shit-posting and tagging in antagonistic ‘heavy hitters’ https://twitter.com/rachsalv/status/1295755399178727426
It also needs an understanding of, and empathy for, the indigenous populations of upland areas and the huge upheavals in values of the commodities produced in these landscapes. A generation(ish) ago, wool cheques paid the rent. Now shearing is done at a loss.....
Lamb prices are low, rent etc is crippling and younger labour is moving away. Meanwhile, predatory vested interests in the form of re-wilding pressure groups exert a malign influence on policy, failing to recognise the dormant power of an existing, knowledgable workforce....
In the form of the current set of land owners/farmers/land managers. But instead of pursuing collaborative, postive, forward thinking, mutually beneficial, sustainable policies, we are trapped in a cycle of sniping from the sidelines instead of positive engagement....
Talk to any forward-thinking farmer (we do exist) and they will bite your hand off for the opportunity to work together for a better future. Please, PLEASE do not perpeuate the stereotype that upland communities exist in some kind of backwards netherworld that....
Fears and resents constructive dialogue.
