Raising awareness

Following the success of last year’s campaign to raise funding for breast cancer research, leading ensiling and livestock nutrition company Volac is once again raising money for charity, through launching a special pink version of its silage bale film.

For every roll of the pink film purchased, £3 will be donated to the charity Breast Cancer Now - with contributions toward the £3 coming from Volac themselves, as well as the film’s manufacturer, and from the merchant supplying the roll.

“After the success of the campaign last year, which helped to raise £10,000 for breast cancer charities, we are delighted to once again be involved in this fantastic cause,” product manager, Jackie Bradley, told me.

“As well as helping the charity by opting for the special pink silage wrap, farmers will also be visibly demonstrating their support as they produce brightly coloured pink bales on their farms. Last year, pink bales appeared across the country.

“Alternatively, with limited supplies of the pink wrap, or for farmers who want to support the charity but prefer their bales in more traditional colours, we are also providing special pink stickers for those who wish to donate. These can be attached to the usual green or black bales, so that farmers can demonstrate their support.”

Nothing new

While I have every sympathy with the steelworkers of South Wales and elsewhere who see their livelihoods at risk, let’s not forget the tens of thousands of our farmers who have endured the rugs being pulled from under their feet in one way or another.

Cheap foreign imports, brought in by various supermarket chains, have seen the number of Pembrokeshire early potato growers reduced to just a handful as, over the years, shiploads of spuds from Egypt and other countries have flooded in.

Before that, it was sub-standard and Government subsidised beef from Argentina, butter and other dairy products from Ireland and New Zealand, apples, eggs and turkeys from France, bacon from Denmark and Poland, and cars and trucks from Germany and Sweden.

British strawberry growers have had to put up with Tesco flying in fruit from California at the height of our summer harvesting season and selling New Zealand lamb when that produced in Wales is in plentiful supply and at its very best.

Now it is the cripplingly low price being offered for milk as the big food giants have virtually gained a monopoly by first pushing the milkman and the corner shop out of business.

Across the country, dairy farmers are going out of business every day because they just can’t make enough money to pay their bills. Customers and consumers must learn the harsh lesson that, very soon, they just may not have milk available for their cornflakes tomorrow morning…

Stopping the over zealous

Not before time, the Parliamentary submission by the National Police Chiefs Council to remove the ability of the RSPCA to prosecute animal welfare breaches and, instead, to establish a statutory body funded by government to undertake this work is about to be placed on the statute book.

The farming unions believe that the move would foster greater accountability and would remove the unacceptable and dangerous conflict of interest between many of the RSPCA’s political campaigns and its non-statutory role in animal welfare prosecutions.

The FUW has previously called for decisive action to be taken by the Charity Commission in relation to the RSPCA’s lobbying actions which, they consider, can only be described as ‘aggressive and threatening.’

In 2012, the RSPCA’s chief executive Gavin Grant described the charity as ‘the oldest law enforcement agency still in existence in this country’ and threatened to campaign to ‘stop consumers drinking milk’ if supermarkets were unable to differentiate between ‘badger friendly milk’ and milk from English badger cull areas.

Numerous complaints have been made to the Attorney General, Charity Commission and ASA regarding the RSPCA’s use of extreme and misleading rhetoric, warning that failure to take action would merely increase the organisation’s tendency towards militant action.

Female viewpoint

“When I was little, I used to believe in the concept of one best friend, and then I started to become a woman. And then I found out that if you allow your heart to open up, God would show you the best in many friends. But whatever their assignment in your life, on whatever the occasion, on whatever the day, or wherever you need them to meet you with their gym shoes on and hair pulled back, or to hold you back from making a complete fool of yourself - those are your best friends. (Contributed)

Surprise

Noted in a back number of the Welsh language magazine, Yr Enfys, published 10 years ago: These words came as a bit of a surprise?

A St. David’s Day 2006 greeting from George Bush: He paid tribute to the Welsh contribution to America. “The Welsh have made innumerable contributions to our history and to our development. Our own democracy is indebted to the 11 presidents who proudly claimed Welsh heritage, as did 16 American patriots who signed the Declaration of Independence.

“American education owes a debt to the Welsh founders of Harvard and Yale Universities; American arts to Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frank Lloyd Wright, Sinclair Lewis, and D. W. Griffith - the close bonds connecting America and Wales continue into the present day. They are evident in our own capital, where a stone on the Washington Monument stairway bears the inscription, ‘Cymru Am Byth! - Wales for ever.’ The President went on to wish all Welsh people a happy Saint David’s Day.

Immigration problem

Nothing new: “The Canadian Government has decided that unemployed immigrants in Canadian cities who have been in the country less than three years and have become public charges shall be deported. By far, the largest proportion of unemployed in Halifax, Montreal, Ottowa, Toronto, Winnipeg and other countries are foreigners and will be deported at the expense of the transportation companies which brought them to Canada. This announcement was made by Mr. Scott, the Superintendent of Immigration, to a delegation of Bulgarians and Ruthenians. He also announced that the unemployed would be provided with work on farms if they would accept - a news item from the South Wales Daily News dated July 6, 1914.

Over to you

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher insisted that it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because, even though it was a very large mammal, its throat was very small.

The little girl reminded the teacher that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Somewhat irritated the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible.

The little girl said: “When I go to Heaven I will ask Jonah.”

The teacher replied: “What if Jonah went to Hell?”

The little girl replied: “Then you ask him.”

Strange, but true

Men socialise by insulting each other, but they don’t really mean it. Women socialise by complimenting each other and they don’t really mean it either!