The last straw! Farmers’ fury at Countryfile report on vegans
THE BBC’s flagship show on rural affairs was yesterday condemned by farmers for being too concerned with ‘townies’.
They accused Countryfile of being ‘antifarming’ after the latest episode featured veganism and animal welfare activists. Some even suggested the hit programme – which regularly wins the Sunday night ratings war – should be renamed ‘Townfile’ for the way it has dumbed down to pull in an urban audience.
On Sunday’s edition, presenter Tom Heap examined the impact on farming of animal rights protesters and plant-based diets. He interviewed Dr Toni Shephard of Animal Equalanimals ity, an animal welfare group that trespasses on farms to make undercover films.
Dr Shephard told Heap: ‘ Our vision is a world in which all animals are respected and protected. But we feel the greatest contribution we can make to that is ending cruelty to farmed animals.
‘Ultimately the best way to spare from suffering is simply not to eat them.’ She said she wanted to ‘open the door’ for consumers to show them what is really happening to produce their food. She gave examples of caged hens and pigs being fattened indoors on slatted flooring. But one film clip she highligh
ted showed a protest at a farm where signposts were in a foreign language – suggesting it was not in Britain. Countryfile did not give locations for where any of the distressing clips of injured pigs and chicks were taken.
Heap, 52, later spoke to Abi Reader who said she was made to feel unsafe after she was attacked and labelled a ‘murderer’ on social media for being a Welsh dairy farmer. But the Countryfile presenter told Miss Reader some of the people ‘might have legitimate questions over the welfare of the way you keep dairy cattle or the way they’re bred to be that very kind of bony shape, the way you have to take their calves off them, surely it’s fair enough to object to those things?’ He also visited vegan cafe Beyond the Kale in Bath where he spoke to writer Jack Monroe about meat free Mondays and other ‘mainstream changes to our eating habits.’
Members of the British Farming Forum Facebook slammed the programme for being ‘anti-farming’ and said they now only tuned into the show to watch the weather for the week ahead.
One labelled the show ‘Townfile’ and a ‘disgraceful misrepresentative programme by townies for townies’. Meanwhile, others called for a rural programme presented by farmers who would report on ‘true countryside matters and obstacles.’
A Countryfile spokesman said the programme had dealt with the issue ‘in a balanced and impartial way’. She added: ‘Countryfile has a long history of covering issues that matter to the farming community and the countryside. The programme appeals to a wide audience, but we don’t compromise on the editorial integrity of our rural stories and farming journalism.’