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April 9, 2008
badgers
They certainly know how to badger a girl, both sides in the argument over Mr Brock's involvement in the epidemic of bovine tuberculosis that is sweeping through parts of rural Wales.
Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones has bitten the bullet and ordered a cull of badgers in an as yet undefined bTB hotspot.
March 26, 2008
double standards
It's not what you spend, it's who you are that matters when it comes to accounting for taxpayers' money.
The news that the European Commission has decided to publish the full details and postcodes of all farmers in receipt of the Single Farm Payment comes as the House of Commons takes legal action, using taxpayers' money, to prevent publication of similar details of MPs expenses.
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March 5, 2008
one union
The National Farmers Union celebrates its centenary this year and in Wales that will mean a black tie dinner in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on November 26 followed by a centenary conference the following day.
It's only three years since the rival Farmners Union of Wales celebrated its 50th year.
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November 20, 2007
let them eat money
It might seem the fairest thing in the world to make farmers pay towards the cost of clearing up animal and bird disease like foot-and-mouth, bluetongue, avian flu, swine fever and bovine tuberculosis.
After all, as we're told so often, the polluter pays. It's their animals or birds that get ill. Why should that poor overburdened individual, the taxpayer, pick up the tab?
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November 7, 2007
women woo farmers
Not so long ago Welsh farmers were horrified to find they had a woman exercising political control over their affairs - and a vegetarian at that.
In fact Christine Gwyther was not so much exercising control as trying hard to handle an extremely hot potato.
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October 24, 2007
A thousand farmers
When a leaking drainage pipe from a slurry store pollutes a stream or a river and causes off the fishes and invertebrate life for even a single kilometre the Environment Agency investigates and prosecutes and the farmer has to pay up thousands of pounds in fines and costs..
When a leaking drainage pipe from a laboratory handling seriously dangerous viruses pollutes the countryside, causes the deaths of thousands of animals, devastates the food industry and costs thousands of farmers thousands of pounds the Envirionment Agency does nothing.
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October 23, 2007
militant farmers
I felt like a country bumpkin today. I count myself fortunate that the straw did not drop from the corner of my mouth and that I did not keel over from the noxious fumes of Cardiff city centre.
It's not often I have to visit the Western Mail HQ, so this was my first encounter with the newly blocked roads of the city centre. I managed to make the meeting on time by luck rather than judgement, but had an unwanted tour of the environs on the way out.
Continue reading "militant farmers" »
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About Me
Up Country
An insider's view of Welsh rural life
"Personally, I think it flies in the face of both s..."
"Sounds perfect to me. I have read this post with a..."
"too much of our money spent on farmers. Take a lo..."
"if the business you are in does not pay its way th..."
"Farmers have every right to whinge! Do people real..."