SILENCE OF THE LAMB FARMERS
Taken from this month’s Cotswold Life magazine
Thanks to Jeremy Clarkson’s vocalisation about the farming industry, Cotswold sheep farmers can be heard at last…
Don’t you just love this time of year. The rolling Cotswold hills and fields of frolicking lambs, all enjoying the early spring sunshine. Well, according to a certain Jeremy Clarkson, that bucolic scene we so often take for granted is not always the pretty picture we think it is.
Say what you like about Clarkson, when he speaks – whether it’s about cars or cows – people do listen. As a recent convert to ‘Clarkson’s Farm’, I’m gripped on his every word. He’s telling it how it is - that farming in the UK is hard graft, often for a very unpredictable return. And the plight of our sheep farmers is the perfect example.
You can’t really get much more local than British lamb. I know a few Cotswold sheep farmers on a personal level and let me tell you, they work really hard for a return that is nowhere near as good as it should be. Every Easter holiday, it’s a proper family affair - all the kids take time from their daily lives to descend on the family farm to help out because that’s what it takes to make it work.
As consumers, we rarely get to see what it takes to get our food onto the supermarket shelves. We all like seeing fields of sheep as we walk the dog or drive to work, but the amount of work it takes to maintain this way of life, and often for such meagre margins, is laughable. With his unique vocal stance, Clarkson is giving us all the gentle wake-up call that we need – that, as consumers, we simply can’t keep wanting to buy all our food at the lowest price.
I love lamb. In fact, I’d say that lamb is genuinely my favourite meat, and the meat we eat most as a family (after the obligatory chicken). But as a consumer I have a choice that can make a real difference. I can choose to avoid New Zealand lamb and buy British, preferably local, when it’s in season. I can choose to go to my local butcher or farm shop where farmers are getting more for their meat. And I can choose to give farmers the opportunity they need to keep producing quality food for a better return.
I’m not alone when I say I don’t begrudge paying a bit more at my local butchers for really well-prepared lamb because I want to support local farmers. During my 25 years of running Warner’s food stores, one of the things that stirred the most emotion in people was if we had New Zealand lamb on the shelves when UK lamb was in season. People were passionate about it and we were very firmly told, by both the farmers and members of the public, that we should be stocking local!
Farmers really are the lifeblood of our area – let’s keep showing them that we still care!