Caroline Stocks on the obvious combination of journalism, media and farming
Today, I discovered that I like flying in helicopters over farmland. Sometimes my job’s pretty good. Share: Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Recommend on Facebook share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tumblr it Tweet about it Subscribe to the comments on this post Tell a friend Print for later
“You youngsters like things big,” the old dear in the back of the taxi said to me yesterday morning, sucking in her cheeks. “We prefer small things – small businesses, small farms. “Whole villages will be ripped up to make way for those giant diary farms, it’s disgusting. I hope the resolution gets passed.” I’d [...]
When I was on holiday in Florida a couple of years ago, I managed to convince my friends to pull our hire car over so I could stop off to take some photos of an orange grove. Not being farmer-types, they had a bit of a whinge about the delay. They couldn’t have cared less [...]
Dear oh dear. I can’t image the NFU team are a bunch of happy bunnies at the moment. Having given DEFRA secretary Caroline Spelman a telling off this week for not taking farming seriously enough, this morning it’s emerged government plans for a badger cull to tackle bovine TB are being delayed. The setback until [...]
After the glamour of the Soil Association conference in Manchester last week, this week I’m at the NEC in Birmingham for the National Farmers Union’s annual meeting. With no general election on the immediate horizon, union president Peter Kendall in the hot seat for another year and a DEFRA team widely seen as sympathetic towards [...]
Why do itches always materialise at the most inopportune moments? Say, for example, you’re at the annual Black Friday Aberdeen Angus sale. All around you are stetson-wearing farmers tugging at their ears or tapping their noses as a sign that they want to buy the 30 steers in the pen in front of you. Suddenly [...]
Back home whenever BBC reporter Robert Peston comes on the radio I have to switch him straight off. I’ve always thought he was putting on a ridiculous voice as there was no way anyone could really speak with such a daft tone or drawl, or without any concept of where commas and full stops should [...]
Luckily, Albury is lovely this time of year. I’ve left Dave, Heidi and Isaac’s and headed south-west (after a slight detour and a planned visit to a former gold-mining town now famed for its wine) to Barooga to visit another Nuffield chum, Brad. Brad is someone I really wish I lived near just so I [...]
Contrary to what my last two posts might suggest, I did actually come to Bundaberg for a vaguely agricultural reason (you believe me, don’t you?) Bundy is home to Camilla Philip, a 2006 Nuffield Scholar who, along with her husband Andrew, are the tomato-growing king and queen of Australia. The Philips are the largest growers [...]
After a fantastic week in Innisfail I’ve said goodbye to Marty and my adopted family, Linda, Harvey and Emma. They’ve been fantastic hosts and I’m going to miss them all very much. I hope they’ll consider taking-on the ice and freezing temperatures of the UK one day so I can repay their hospitality. I’ve learnt [...]
