Where’s the beef?
BRITAIN doesn’t go in for farming— well, not according to Visitbritain, its national tourism body. Over Christmas, the homepage of its website, designed to tempt visitors, managed to major on our best vegan restaurants, but didn’t mention the countryside or farming at all. The concept that the second most likely reason (after Christmas lights) for a tourist to come to the UK is to sample our vegan delicacies is pretty barmy, but to think that the countryside doesn’t deserve a mention is simply unacceptable. Sadly, it’s symptomatic of Visitbritain’s entire approach.
The opening page of the website offered 14 categories of opportunity for tourism, of which only ‘food and drink’ gives any hope that we might be introduced to the countryside and farming. In fact, when Agromenes pressed on that heading, he found there were 33 images, each introducing an aspect of the food and drink, but he had to get to image 28 before there was a mention of farming and that was offering vineyard visits. No other farms feature at all. However, the vegans again get in early, monopolising the third of the illustrated boxes on offer.
Agromenes tried the box on food festivals. That brought him to a list of 10—none of which mentioned that food was grown and animals were raised on British farms. Unsurprisingly, two of the festivals were for vegans or vegetarians—the second of which was recommended to those ‘passionate about ethical shopping and giving back to the community’. Well that puts the 99% of us who aren’t vegans—including the whole of the farming community—out in the cold!
In the interests of fairness, Agromenes searched Visitbritain again, this time for ‘Countryside’. It revealed a new page, with three choices: National Parks; Parks & Gardens; and Coast. So Britain’s countryside only exists in the National Parks! Choosing one at random, Exmoor, Agromenes was presented with nine images, only one of which was of farmland and that was the one with no further details. I pressed the ‘more’ button. Still no farming. I then thought if I pressed the bed-and-breakfast heading, I might get something, yet, even then, only six out of all B&B offerings are in real farmhouses or mention farming. I tried ‘Green holidays’—the 34th sub-heading at the bottom of the page—but that turned out to be entirely unconnected with agriculture. Although it is defined as ‘supporting a thriving, living landscape’, no one seems to have considered how that landscape was formed, how it was developed and who looks after it.
It was only searching deeper among the options of things to do that I found a serious reference to agriculture and an invitation, under ‘foodie’ experiences, to look at West Country Farm and Food tours. Thank goodness for them—they’re obviously doing a good job— although ploughing what seems to be a pretty lonely furrow.
Visitbritain has nearly £50 million of taxpayers’ money each year, so it doesn’t seem unreasonable to ask it five direct questions on behalf of the farming community:
1) Why do you ignore the vast majority of Britain’s land area and do so little to encourage an appreciation of British food production? 2) Can you produce the statistics that suggest that vegan restaurants are one of the top 10 reasons for visiting Britain? 3) Why is there no central part of your homepage talking about specialist food produced in particular regions? 4) Why has your ‘Green holidays’ entry got nothing about farming and a large picture of a steam train?
5) Could you point to your ethical guidance that supports your endorsement of veganism?
As it’s our money you’re spending, we’d like to know.
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It was only searching deeper among the options of things to do that I found a reference to agriculture