I’m not sure if it is one of these great urban myths or not, but the story of the school child when asked where milk comes from answers with out hesitation, Tesco, is well known. Well, technically they were correct of course. Or you could have said Asda, Co-op, your local corner shop or where ever. But it does belie a certain lack of understanding as to where our food comes from.
This ignorance was highlighted during this weekend when the dreaded foot and mouth disease reared its ugly head again.
One person that was described as an economic expert noted that farming in the UK accounted for less than 5% of GDP and therefore as they were not a dominant player in the over all scheme of things, who cared if a bunch of them went out of business.
In a way, this expert was as devoid of intellectual understanding as the child.
Sitting at breakfast, corn flakes with milk, toast, butter and jam. Then lunch, gammon steaks, potatoes, vegetables. Then supper. Light snack of cold cooked meats and cheese.
Clothes, wool jacket and trousers, leather shoes. And the list goes on. There are very few essentials in life that do not come from agriculture.
So I would like that expert to go away and do without any agricultural produce for just one day. I suspect even after 24 hours he would realise what 2/3 of the world already know. With out agriculture you starve. They may be only 5% of GDP. But they are 100% necessary for our survival.
1 comment:
Indeed, but are not the Labour and Conservaties both metro centric these days. Good to see Alex Salmond eating a pie himself rather than force feeding any one else at Turriff Show.
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