There are always people eager to take part in a radio phone-in. Whether the topic is Economics or Speed Cameras some folks will always find something to say.
Recently Radio 5 summarised a Report which told us to eat less meat because, according to the writers, cattle and sheep are eating grass on fields that could be better used for growing vegetables. You may deduce that it was not the National Sheep Association that commissioned the report.
Radio bosses choose topics to attract listeners, and so one about eating meat set the phone lines humming. The first callers were keen to say they didn’t eat meat, and it seemed that they wanted the planet back to where it was ten thousand years ago. At that time they reckoned, there was a natural balance between all living things which meant that no predator had the capability to totally wipe out any other despite every species of plant, insect and animal life competing for food. Not so now of course.
Almost at once, the topic changed from eating less meat to how meat eaters were, according to early callers, destroying the planet. Vegetarianism is, of course, a valid diet choice and the three vegetarians I know are nice sensible people, however, those particular callers to the Nicky Campbell show spewed out a rag-bag of statements about animal welfare, farming practices, rural issues and the state of our countryside. Listening to them, one was left with the impression that they thought farmers were ex KGB agents skilled in the arts of sadism towards animals. Callers were obviously worried about something, but appeared unable to sort fact from fiction, reason from emotion and ideas from practice.
I had hopes they would say they also loved their fellow man, but I ended up convinced that their focus was on how much healthier and morally superior they are to the rest of us. So much for my Great Grandfather’s guiding principle, that life is best lived by being moderate in all things and remembering that, it is a little and not a lot, of what you fancy that does you good. In any case, listeners lost the chance to hear a balanced programme, on how a balanced diet is better for us than one overly dependent on a narrow range of foods.
I hope I am not alone in being irritated when people assume that those who raise livestock have no concern for their animals, and I wonder if a few hours of close proximity dagging sticky ovine posteriors might give them a wider perspective on rural life and food production. It would certainly give their ‘moral high ground’ a pungent edge.
The moral high ground is also claimed by those opposed to a badger cull, and in June somebody called Andy popped up on Farmers Weekly website to question the trial cull. He went straight for the moral high ground: …… from a moral perspective, you have to kill 70% of all badgers to mitigate TB by only 16%. Is that reasonable? I replied that only badgers in TB hotspots are at risk not the majority of Britain’s badgers, but in any case, moral arguments ought also include the psychological and economic effects on the farming family of the c35000 cows killed annually through TB.
I wonder if Andy thinks that systems of ethics established by ancient thinkers are relevant today, especially, as they have already set out what ethical behaviour towards the whole of creation should be! Personally I think that many (if not all) of the issues about which people get morally up-tight today are not really new issues at all, but in essence are just re-works of old issues set in a context of modern fashion and whim.
However, talking about how differently people can see things and the potential dangers of making assumption and faulty deduction: Reminds me of one hot summer when Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson went camping in Derbyshire.
In the middle of the night Watson suddenly awoke and in alarm cried out, “Holmes, Holmes, what do you see?” Holmes awoke and calmly replied, “I see the Planets, the Stars and the Galaxies.” “And what do you make of that then Holmes,” said Watson? Gravely he replied:
“Sadly Watson, I deduce that someone has stolen our tent!”
View from the Pew 