Latest Moan From You and Me 2025

It is a conundrum I agree and maybe there's a place for animals in "managing" the countryside but, whatever their fate, they need kindness and respect first and foremost.

 

Natural England are to be given powers to compulsorily purchase people's land for re-wilding. Maybe they can include some animals. Just hope they don't confiscate my garden. I feel very sorry for farmers and others who have their land taken off them - I always thought that only happened in China.

 

Mine is already rewilded and comes with a set of wildlife.
I'd be more worried about the local council stealing it for housing.

 

Not only in China all countries seem to have a means for getting land for "Government Projects".
Sometimes in the small print at the bottom, but it's there. The difference is in whether you get compensation and how much you get.
Government want a dam they get a dam, you might get rehomed if you're lucky. Same goes for airfields, power plants etc if they decide it's in the state interest then.....

 

Well they would stop breeding them in such vast numbers.

 

I don't think less farmed animals would be a bad thing. One of the problems that no one seems to ever mention is that they have been bred for certain characteristics which suit meat production but aren't necessarily healthy for the animals itself. A wild type cow or sheep can cope far better in nature and do an excellent job protecting the environment, whereas a farmed cow or sheep may not even be able to give birth without intervention because they have been bred for big offspring. The more wild type domesticated animals will always have a place in a nature environment.

I saw an interesting video with James May the other day where he considered if the human population would look back in the future at meat eaters in the same way that we do those who enslaved people. I'm not suggesting eating meat is wrong but I always find it bizarre when the lab grown vs real meat debate pops up and the animosity from people that want their food to have been alive first when it's just a collection of cells, so it doesn't really matter. I've always said I'd get far more enjoyment out of owning a pig, cow, sheep goat etc than just having it for tea.

 

People have eaten meat, I believe for thousands of years it is part of a balanced diet for humans I would say, but again it's the quantity that people eat.

Personally I'd treble the price of meat so that people had it less and on special occasions, cut out all factory farming, of animals and go back to a more realistic attitude to food.
The price of a dead chicken is terrible.

 

I went for a walk a few days ago and seen a sheeps carcass, died by drowning and left for the wildlife to enjoy, farmer doesn't check his animals 1 less for his profits
Pictures, can't put them up

 

The human body cannot get all the macro and micro nutrients it needs form just plant based foods. It is possible to raise animals for meat kindly and healthily and give them a good life. Not farming animals would mean an end to those animals.

Some could be used for "re-wilding" projects but I find that term and philosophy uncomfortable. Undoing human harm or negligence is more accurate. Horses, pigs, sheep and cattle of the right breeds can certainly be used to clear undergrowth and recreate glades and woodlands and this help diversify the range of flora and fauna that can live there.

Many areas of farmland are not at all suitable for growing arable crops - uplands, highlands, bogs and marshes - but do grow quality meat and wool. I would like to see grouse moors and pheasant turned back to their natural state because I find that kind of shooting barbaric.

I assume if we're to get rid of all farm animals we also stop all wild fishing plus salmon farms, mussels and oysters.

 

@cactus_girl I hope you are invoicing your council for the labour/time and transport expenses to take all your waste to the tip - seems only fair particularly as they have increased your Council Tax .

 

Trouble is @Obelix-Vendée the vast majority of animals are not raised kindly and the world wide demand for food means that they never will be. Didn’t the earliest man survive on plants alone?
I really don’t want to get into a heated discussion but I have been vegan for 40 years now, 100%, have never cheated, not even once and am perfectly healthy. No meds needed so far, normal BP etc, etc. My cholesterol score is less than 5. I had no menopause problems. I do take the occasional supplement, just in case, but mainly for well-being purposes rather than nutritionalI was a meat eater for the first 30 years of my life and really unhappy about it but apprehensive about giving it up. It was only when I took the plunge that I really felt alive!

 

Breeding certain characteristics into animals farmed for food is pretty much the same as is done for food plants. There are various organisations trying to change the attitude on the animal front but haven't yet come across much going on for the veg side of things.

 

@Bluejayway most people think chimps are vegetarian but study has shown they will group together and use weapons to kill other creatures for meat. Mankind is designed to be omnivore.

Mankind can also be thoughtlessly or deliberately cruel and it will take education to teach some people to be kind to each other, especially to women and girls, let alone pets and farm animals.

 

I appreciate your POV @Obelix-Vendée but I cannot be a part of the cruelty to animals. As a child it worried me terribly that I was eating dead animals and a Domestic Science (as it was called in the 60s) teacher told us that we shouldn’t worry about eating “a whatnot’s innards”. That clinched it for me and made me determined to change. Only lack of confidence in myself delayed the change.
It’s interesting that the gorilla, for example, a huge animal, eats mostly plants.