Steve vRS

Certainly on Ch4 Ireland anyway.

Makes you wonder why fox hunting was banned whilst the great British public are happy for their Tesco meet to come from abroad where the farmers don't give a toss, for chickens to be fed live into a mincer and animal experiments. The farmer on here was genuinely sad when a calf died.

Steve

Spring Heeled Jack

If you never wanted to be vegetarian before, this programme should help change your mind..

However, it a shame the way New Labour seem determined to wipe out rural culture in Britain

Flaps

iTrader: (1)

It was quite hard to watch especially that calf's face when it got shot

The show has made me think differently though, quite afew good points made.

lpski1

I found it very interesting, especially the part re fox culling against hunting, he was a good shot that farmer.

A few cringe moments but overall a good insight into what our farmers are having to go through.

The Zohan

Watched some of it, my other half is a veggie so had to keep turning over at the sooting of animals bits.

Interesting and an eye opener, whilst i am not really ao townie i am not a country boy either i know a lot of what goes on but still a bit of a shock to see it in the flesh.

I found the chat between the farmer and adviser bloke interesting when filling out the DEFRA paperwork and the adviser commenting on how the long term has not bee thought about and how it just benifits land owners and not the farmers - NL at its finest again!

As for fox hunting i am just not sure that the alternative in much more humane.

Loved the rat catching bit, it was like the bumkins outdoor equilivant of a video game!

Flatcapdriver

Paul, you don't sound like a townie to me. They're usually too busy pontificating about how rural areas should be run without any basis for their opinions - hunting is a classic example albeit a nice cop out by labour. DEFRA - the Department for the Elimination of Farming and Rural Affairs is a classic townie operated quango that is so far out of its depth, it beggars belief.

What the townies won't be able to accept is that there is a degree of cruelty in the countryside and how it relates to animals but it is down to the stewardship of farmers such as this bloke who really understand how to operate the system properly.

Its one reason why I won't buy meat from a supermarket anymore. The local butcher rears the livestock locally, its transported to a local abattoir where they are slaughtered humanely with the minimum of stress. As humans, we can't get away from killing animals for food but at the very least we should treat them with dignity and with decent conditions whilst they are alive and it is this point that townies forget when they are creaming themselves about hunting etc. You should see the way some of the larger commercial abattoirs operate - I nearly chucked up the few times I had to visit them.

Holy Ghost

**

absolutely bang on. nice one.

The Zohan

Im my intital post meant to say i know a 'little', not a 'lot' about what goes on BTW

I belive a lot of farmers have a hard and often unrewarding job. unsocial hours and a lot of tasks that would make me think twice.

I do not buy meat from the local supermarkets (same goes for our weekly veggies), we shop locally at a great butcher in our village

four reasons;
1) The care taken in the whole process.
2) Supermarkets are killing off local shops and services.
3) Great tips and service from our butcher.
4) the meat is far superior and often the same price or cheaper.

The Chief

I must admit i am guilty when it comes to buying meat from one of the 'big four' but having watched that last night, it really got me thinking

What i will say is fox hunting still goes on and has a blind eye turned towards it.

al4x1

this thread is interesting to me as I'm from a farming background and the programme made me think a lot so its good to see the reaction of people without the background. The programme was slightly out of date in that it was filmed in 2005 and since then a lot has happened. I think the focus on hunting was because of the ban and also the fact that that is perceived to be one of the cruel things going on in the countryside yet there is far worse being caused by the same people who make all the fuss about hunting. Basically in 2005 exports of our beef and beef calves was banned also we had banned the production of veal in this country so Bull calves which are a by product of the milk industry were actually worse than worthless. To produce milk a cow has to have approx 1 calf a year if its female then it can go on to be milked but if male it cant. These were mostly exported or grown on for veal but basically a good milking cow isn't the same as one that grows well for beef so these calves had no purpose and farmers couldn't afford to keep them. Now the situation is different as we can export beef and calves so its not happening any more.
If it makes people think about their food and what they should be eating its done what it was meant to do, we need a massive shake up in this country to sort it out as at the moment we are eating crap food, paying too much for the quality and the money is going into the supermarkets pockets.

SJ_Skyline

I found the programme a real eye-opener. As a dumb townie I had no idea about how the countryside worked. I'm glad I watched the programme, brutal as it was in parts, as I now have some small understanding of whay so many people feel so passionately about this.

Well done Channel4 - some great programmes this week!

dpb

and into their shareholders pckts - who jus so happen to be the man in the street ...
Its a case of re-educating people as to what food should taste like and the farmer selling straight to the public and cutting out the evil multinationals

CrisPDuk

I've discussed this to the point of argument with my wife on more occasions than I care to recall

All she thinks about is the price and the convenience, although I fail to see how sitting in a stopped car for half an hour trying to get to the supermarket is more convenient than walking ten minutes up the road to our bloody good local butcher