Leaders

of cynicism

IT SEEMS as if there is some big hand controlling all the anti-farming guff that has been appearing of late. From tacit press and political approval for the downright lies purveyed by the more extremist elements of the vegan lifestyle, to taking a pop at livestock for being a major source of climate change, it all seems like there are a lot of puppet strings being pulled.

But, it reached new extremes of cynicism this week. Depending on your point of view, this spate of farmer-bashing hit new heights/lows (you choose), with the poorly researched, selectively edited and presented 'Dark side of dairy' which was aired by BBC Scotland on Monday evening.

This time there must be no stone unturned in demanding retribution for what was clearly a piece of jingoistic claptrap so poorly weighed down by facts that it positively floated above the ground. It not only patently ignored some of the many facts presented to it, it did so in favour of misconstruing, perverting and omitting that which would have countered many of the so-called 'dark sides of dairy'.

One. Rarely have I witnessed a happier bunch of calves, quietly lying in the comfort of a deeply-strawed wagon chewing the cud. They were better looked after than the average person on a Ryanair flight. None seemed distressed.

Two. The paperwork that went with them was flawless, as was the required resting time, with some of the ear tags clearly identifying that they were not all of Scottish origin as alleged. The lorry looked to be state-of-the-art and had forced air ventilation.

Three. The lorry which left Ireland to arrive in Cherbourg – to much joy by the presenter – might have been the same one, but it was carrying a different set of calves that were at least yearlings and clearly of beef herd origin. The leap of faith that said the black and white dairy calves might be forced to suffer the same trip was, therefore, not proven – and even if it were, again the calves would have travelled in some comfort.

Four. The melodramatic and tearful recollection of one interviewee about the noise made by calves and their mothers when separated soon after birth is one of the painful parts of keeping livestock, but was it any worse than when he weaned his fat bullocks from their dams at 18 months? As anyone will attest, it can be far noisier and more traumatic.

Five. Calves are not 'babies'.

Six. The footage of cattle being loaded onto a freighter that was clearly not designed for the job was not loading from any port in the UK It was in Romania. It was, therefore, bunkum to suggest that the calves that left Scotland would face the same journey.

Seven. The poor health and hygiene rules in Egyptian premises are not under the jurisdiction of strict EU regulatory processes, indeed, most of the EU and the UK do not have a trading agreement in place that would allow such a shipment. If EU-sourced cattle were being killed in such a way, then that really would have been the point of a story – but it was not and more's the pity.

This was a 'non' story which was given full vent by the BBC's pre-promotion team and which any editor worth his salt would have pulled before it went on air. Let us be clear, this is a highly regulated and legal trade which is probably better vetted on its trip to Europe than the movement of people. End of story!