Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Why can’t we have trade deals with EU – not Mexico?
Wiltshire dairy farmer Ro Collingborn discusses whether the RSPCA charity should be involved in agricultural trade deals
AS the Government belatedly sets up the new Trade and Agriculture Commission to scrutinise the new international trade deals following Brexit, should it include the RSPCA?
I have been a member of the RSPCA for many years, and was on its ruling council for six. I know that many farmers are nervous of the RSPCA’s views on farming, but it would be an excellent idea if the RSPCA had a representative on the Trade and Agriculture Commission (if it ever comes into being).
The RSPCA fought extremely hard to stop the trade deal with Australia on animal welfare grounds. Unlike our MPs, they could see that there was a big problem with Australia’s animal welfare, and wish to protect the higher welfare standards of British farms.
If the RSPCA was part of the Trade and Agriculture Commission, it would be the best organisation to give proper scrutiny to animal welfare, which is desperately needed if our UK standards are not to be undermined.
Mexico has currently been mentioned as a possible trading partner – a country that has vast factory pig farms.
Mexico is also reported to have the lowest environmental standards for industrialised farm animal production in North America, and no regulations at regional level.
Rather than being forced to do questionable trade deals with countries such as Mexico, it’s a shame we can’t have a reciprocal trade agreement with the EU, our nearest neighbours, and thus reduce our carbon footprint, rather than extending it!
We’re coming to that time of year when it’s a bit muddier, and farmers striding through the house in wellington boots are not popular, whatever excuses they can drag up.
My husband’s grandmother had a large stone flagged kitchen with a hole low down in the wall at one end. This meant that the whole kitchen could be sluiced down with buckets of water as needed. Not such a bad idea!
A farm we once visited in Brecon had a brush outside the back door. We were quite surprised to discover that this was for wiping welly boots. Every mealtime, the farmers and his seven sons would solemnly file in to take their place at the table, having wiped their boots on the brush first.
I guess it saved them time, but I didn’t envy the matriarch of that family. Bacon for lunch was served from the bacon pig hanging above the table and was an acquired taste.
They were a lovely family, and we were there to buy their sheepdog, Spot. It would have been better if the farmer hadn’t fed him most of a diseased sheep just before we picked him up. He sicked it all up at the end of the drive, and we drove the two and half hours home with our heads out of the window.
When we did get him home, we discovered that, in spite of his English name, he only understood Welsh.
September can be a beautiful month, with hot days and chilly nights, highlighted by a glorious harvest moon. It heralds the time to light the Rayburn, the beating heart of the farmhouse.
The Rayburn hardly ever burns meals, unlike my conventional hob, which is unforgiving if I have to rush out for an emergency and don’t come straight back.
I have retrieved baked potatoes from the Rayburn many days later, black but not pouring smoke anywhere. They make good weapons if anyone comes in to the kitchen without taking their boots off.
As well as cooking, the Rayburn is ideal for drying clothes, warming cold hands, even resurrecting the runt of the litter.
My best friend’s mother once accidentally cooked her cat, when she shut the Rayburn door not noticing the cat curled up inside, but it survived after several sessions with the ice bucket. Lucky for the cat that she was a doctor.
This year we have to hope we can get fuel to start our Rayburn up, with all the problems of fuel supply due to the lorry driver shortage.
The farming industry has been highlighting this problem to the Government for several months, together with the likelihood of shortages, and its warnings were brushed aside.
How long will the day of reckoning last?