Caroline Stocks on the obvious combination of journalism, media and farming
“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 [...]
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 [...]
Had I not chosen a career path which had taken me down a bizarre route into a niche avenue of journalism, I would have like to have become a proper writer on a national newspaper. Like John Pilger, perhaps. Or Jay Rayner. Y’know, Jay Rayner. The one who’s the stunt double for Marco Pierre White [...]
I’ve had a go at describing what the floods are like over in Queensland, but this email I received today from past Nuffield scholar Ronald Thompson gives a better impression of what farmers are going through over in the worst-hit areas. Ronald farms near Chinchilla, about 300km north-west of Brisbane. Chinchilla was just getting back [...]
I spent today hanging out with two fat cows. I’m not being rude – that’s the name of Kate (Ed’s wife) and her friend’s ice cream company, and this morning I pretended to assist in whipping up a batch of mint-choc-chip. I’ve been really surprised since I’ve been in Australia how few farm shops and [...]
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 [...]
I’m getting a bit behind in my posts here so I’ll try and quickly fill you in on the dairy I visited on Monday (I just had to get my diary to check then – I’ve completely lost track of days in this place). As I said in my previous post, I’d travelled about 300km [...]
Having seen some great farms together in the United States, the UK Nuffield 2010 Crew decided to keep things a bit closer to home yesterday with a trip to Staffordshire. While a few of us were missing (bad luck to Princess and Peckie for the annoyingly-timed dry spell), we met at fellow scholar George Finch’s [...]
If you were a small child and didn’t fancy the idea of eating carrots, what would be the one thing that would tempt you into trying them? How about a sinister, prancing carrot who not only claims to be a doctor, but also reckons he’s your bestest friend? I wonder if this creepy character gave [...]
Seeing as he told me he doesn’t read blogs, I think I’m safe to say what I like about farmer Steve, who I met today. This is him overlooking the lake on his farm: I think Steve’s actually a closet Englishman, as he’s the first person I’ve met in the US who a) owns a [...]
