Austen Davies
Defra – one day I’ll wake up and discover that it was all just a bad dream
Published 9 December 2008
What you are about to read is a work of fiction, a complete fabrication, as obviously nothing like this could happen in a well run democracy.
Our politicians really do need to get up to speed on bluetongue
Published 18 November 2008
Whenever we talk about bluetongue and its handling by the politicians, it is important to remember that, because this virus is spread via a midge rather than by direct contact with an infected animal, the ‘disease front’ would advance at about one kilometre a day, pretty well whatever we did.Just as there are lessons to learn from bluetongue, there are lessons to be learned from TB; especially as it has been announced that the Bovine TB Eradication Group has been launched.
No happy endings for the selfish and short-sighted UK shoppers
Published 18 November 2008
Just a few short weeks ago we were proclaiming the high prices being achieved for beef and lamb – and stressing how important it was for them to remain that way given the ever soaring cost of fuel and feed.It’s beginning to look a bit grim not to say ‘desperate’ in the vegetable market right now. Whilst cereal growers continue to command ever higher prices on the back of world shortages, their veggie counterparts are being squeezed dry by the supermarkets as they try to balance a book that is increasingly weighted the wrong way. An acre is 4,840 square yards and a law was passed setting out its statutory size in the early 14th century under Edward I. It is, quite simply, one of Britain’s most historic imperial measurements – and it is to be banned by the EU in January 2010.
What the global warming industry needs is a good blast of a proper winter...
Published 14 October 2008
Never is an awfully long time, so your Old Boar exercises a degree of caution in employing the word, but I really can’t recall ever seeing a September like it; I shall remember 2008 as being the year that every hedgerow and coppice seemed to turn crimson.
HRH is right – we need to start working WITH nature, not against her
Published 9 September 2008
The Old Boar will miss the Terra Madre convention in Turin this autumn because senior management is demanding his attendance elsewhere.
My granny would have told us to dig for victory, but what did she know?
Published 15 July 2008
We have, I believe, reached what the charismatic business gurus call a “strategic inflection point” – that is, a position on the curve of change where the balance of forces shifts from the old structure, from the old ways of doing things and the old ways of operating, to the new. Integrity. Dictionary definition: “The quality of possessing and steadfastly adhering to high moral principles or professional standards.”
Does anyone out there know: what is the point of the 24-month rule?
Published 17 June 2008
In March 2006, Margaret Beckett, as head of Defra, had the difficult job of hailing the end of the over 30-month beef ban as some kind of political triumph, whilst simultaneously announcing the introduction of the disgraceful 24-month rule – so as to standardise with procedures in Europe.
Country pubs: as English as St George and our growing obsession with drink-driving
Published 13 May 2008
You maybe didn’t notice, but April 23 marked the 444th birthday of William Shakespeare; oh, yes – and it was also St George’s Day, the feast day of England’s patron saint.
