Latest farming opinions OPINIONOpinion: 'Soft' society is keeping next gen out of ag workAs a society we are letting our young adults down and, as an industry on the continual hunt for staff, why are we not encouraging, or indeed lawfully allowed to… OPINIONOpinion: What if you became mentally incapacitated?A farmer all his working life, my grandfather Dick died late last year, having suffered with Alzheimer’s disease for a decade or more. I will remember him only as a… OPINIONEditor's View: Hot air aplenty from climate change committeeThe War of the Executive Non-Departmental Public Bodies 2025 may not trouble historians in years to come, but those of us who lived through it will remember it as a… OPINIONOpinion: Farmers, like that ancient sycamore, are pricelessI derived a perverse pleasure from reading about the trial of the two reprobates who felled the Sycamore Gap tree. There are definitely other news reports more worthy of attention… OPINIONOpinion: Why solar panels belong on farm roofs, not farmlandI have been involved in the renewables business generating electricity for the past 30 years, and recently become involved in farming, too. This has given me a foot in both… OPINIONOpinion: It's time to start talking about the menopauseWhat has happened to Mother Nature recently? The weather behaviour we used to recognise has all but disappeared. Gone are the days when she would skip happily into spring, sending… OPINIONEditor’s View: Former Defra secretary reveals sting in taleMichael Gove, the former Defra secretary, among other things, looked slightly diminished on stage this week at Chatsworth House for Future Countryside, a rather posh get-together for pondering the future… OPINIONOpinion: An NHS 'pecking order' wouldn't help farmersThe most recent series of This Farming Life featured a farmer who was waiting for hip replacement surgery. He was waiting at the start of the series and still waiting… OPINIONOpinion: Support system shambles could almost be a conspiracyI always thought that propagating conspiracy theories was a pastime for the gullible, solipsists and simple-minded. Believing in an all-powerful sinister masterplan is nuts, when most governments and large organisations… OPINIONEditor's View: So far, trade deal detail leaves me shruggingWell, after I predicted at the end of last month that prime minister Sir Keir Starmer would have to choose between closer co-operation with the EU and a trade deal… OPINIONOpinion: The farmer 'strike' was a flawed idea from the startSo, how did the call to stop loading milling wheat and leave our customers without hot cross buns over Easter go? Not only were there plenty of hot cross buns… OPINIONOpinion: Why fresh meat is better than processed foodsIn a world where one-third of the global population lacks access to a nutritionally adequate diet, questions about how to eat “correctly” can feel like a privilege. Yet even in… OPINIONOpinion: A sustainable future will slip beyond our graspIn the aftermath of the sinking of Titanic in April 1912, the Board of Trade report into the disaster returned one key recommendation: that ships should henceforth carry sufficient lifeboat… OPINIONEditor’s View: New-look FBT is catching up with realityThere is always pleasure to be taken in a landlord-tenant relationship where there is goodwill on both sides and a desire to collaborate. As journalists, too often the stories we… OPINIONOpinion: Animal welfare can't be 'collateral damage'The UK public has a long history of being animal lovers, perhaps more so than anywhere else in the world. We are home to the oldest and largest animal welfare… OPINIONOpinion: Batters' review is a 'sop' to angry farmersImagine for a moment you’re a dairy farmer. If you found out that 18% of your cattle were producing 79% of your milk yield off 56% of your grazing platform,… OPINIONEditor’s View: Who is going to speak up for the farmers?The dark art of influencing politicians and others to act in farming’s interests is always an important topic for farmers. It’s not often that food producers feel well understood by… OPINIONOpinion: Farming's sub-culture is best form of PR we haveFrom Mods to Skinheads to Roadmen. The UK has seen youth subcultures rise and fall. It’s a scene that’s always evolving, constantly feeding off cultural and social influences. The farming… OPINIONOpinion: Composting for soil health and rural resilienceEvery year, vast amounts of nutrient-rich organic matter are lost instead of being returned to our soils, where they could support British farming and soil health. Instead of treating unavoidable… More articles
