Paradise! Is this it?

As the old year fades away it is an appropriate time to reflect, to look back upon the changes that have occurred (including, perhaps, those which should not have taken place) and to look forward in anticipation of what may lie ahead. We never know what may be around the corner and we sympathise deeply with all those and their loved ones caught up in the unimaginable horror of the tidal waves which swept the rim of the Indian ocean last weekend. Meeting many good friends at the recent Pembroke Farmers Club dinner was also a time to reminisce (as one does) and to recall how things once were in farming, the countryside and the wider world. The past 20 years have seen such a difference in the public attitude towards those who attempt to derive a living from the land, sadly much more so in the UK than in many other areas of the EU. New governmental rules that play a profound part in the lives of farmers, farm workers and stockmen are being dreamed up and churned out by DEFRA and WAC at an alarming rate of knots, to such an extent that those who have to abide by changes in the laws are becoming increasingly frustrated. Inspectors (who seem to be breeding like rabbits) of one sort or another think that they can drop in on farms anytime, almost at the drop of a hat, with little thought being given to what urgent work Mr. Farmer and his staff may have planned. Certainly not like it once was when someone would call once a year to check which fields were down to corn and another came once in three years to carry out a health check on livestock. For the older generation all this is quite daunting but, surprisingly, if you turn to many younger folk you do not have to go far to find an urge to farm: passion, energy, soul and commitment is all there, in bundles! But what of the countryside as a whole: more and more part- time farmers are buying up land and use contractors to plant, protect and harvest the crops. Farm houses and redundant barns and buildings are being snapped for conversion to dwellings or workshops and, at the same time, communities are continuing to lose what little services and public amenities that remain. Taking a broader look, a well-known rural cleric recently looked ahead to imagine the future and attempted to visualise how schools, businesses, the church, the country and the world would survive over the next 20 years. He suggested that expressing uncertainty to be honest and true. Change belongs to life; recognising this and reacting to it is part of our times. He asked that, in the future, the creativity of the old as well as the young should be recognised and, as for society today, he claimed there must be something wrong when a community could have several pubs and a couple of bookies yet no doctor's surgery or chemists shop. To ensure a greater measure of care for the elderly and infirm and getting a better balance into our lives was the way things should be done - sadly there's always a danger that those in authority get carried away. Those that talk to each other about change do so in a language that they clearly understand and, while they mean well, that language can be excluding and isolating. It is unacceptable that the English language should need to be interpreted so that ordinary people can understand what someone is talking about. Another learned lady in a television documentary also focused on imagining how things might be in 20 years time and she did so in a most thought-provoking way. She imagined being asked to do the same thing back in 1984: to look forward to 2004 and imagine her idyll. It's worth repeating some of her thoughts because they so clearly show the amazing change that this country has coped with in such a short few years. She invited us to imagine a country of virtually full employment, where mainly poorer foreign workers were doing the harder, lower paid work, even on farms - the sort of work we used to see being done by the Irish workers and ex-prisoners of war. She urged us to imagine a country where the majority owned several tv sets, videos and DVDs, stereo systems, 'fridges, microwaves, more than one car, computers, central heating and double-glazing, a mobile phone, digital this and thats and enough money for family holidays and a spring break! Imagine Top Shop, Marks and Spencers, Dorothy Perkins and Next, Tesco and Sunday shopping and 24-hour, seven-day shopping. Imagine dirt cheap air travel and great big cars with DVDs on the ceiling and windows that go up and down when you tell them to. Smoke-free airports and bus terminals, shops and offices and smoke-free pubs in Ireland! She asked us to imagine all that and then imagine what we would have said in response. She thought the answer would be that we were in paradise. And yet if it was paradise, why were we still whinging and demanding more? Think about it and then think about the value and the necessity of continuing to imagine the future because, as the cleric said: "The most crucial things to change the world are the ideas that come from a person's head and if these ideas are not given air how can they change anything?" So here's a challenge: imagine the future 20 years from now and consider will we see if even our most far-fetched, sci- fi dreams will be anything like the reality of our lives in 2024 and will there still be a place for our farmers - traditional or hi- tech?

All wrapped up

If Santa brought you a new mobile phone for Christmas, don't forget you can put your old one to good use - you can recycle it for charity. Some of the UK's leading charities have teamed up with specialist recycling company, The Recycling Appeal, to run eco-friendly fund-raising appeals, meaning every mobile you donate can generate vital funds for your chosen cause. The phones are refurbished and resold, with a substantial portion of the proceeds going to charitable organisations. Jamie Rae, chief executive of Eurosource, said: "When people receive fancy new mobiles for Christmas, their old phones are often forgotten about. "These phones join the UK's estimated 75 million redundant mobiles - enough phones to stretch from London to Lapland more than three times!" Whilst the festive season provides a fantastic opportunity to recycle old mobiles, there's another product which can also be recycled for money - empty printer cartridges. These, too, can raise much-needed cash, so if you work in an office or have a printer at home, you have the potential to boost charity funds. Could there be a better time to look at the growing amount of other industrial waste, packaging, etc., that we now have to dispose of each year in our landfill sites. Outside homes, shops and chain stores this week we have seen literally mountains of cardboard boxes and black plastic bags that contain everything imaginable that this chuck- away society has to get itself rid of. Everything you could possibly imagine in polystyrene containers and protective packaging, filling materials, cling film, foil, glass and plastic bottles, cans, plastic bags - you name it! The immense cost of attempting to see the last of all this domestic waste has to be added to the industrial waste: oils, chemicals, pesticides and containers, clinical waste and detergents, freezers, fridges, cookers, tyres, batteries, cars, vans - even tractors, old machinery and various silage wraps and plastics used around the farm. In West Wales we also have the problem of floating debris, mostly plastic, that the tides bring in. Some of it could take centuries to fully de-grade and, in the meantime, could play havoc with our precious and vulnerable underground water courses. In attempting to formulate an acceptable plan of action to pre- empt future problems, WAG (the Welsh Assembly Government) has offered five basic options to farmers and growers following the new proposals which include a ban on burying waste without a landfill permit and stricter controls on the burning of waste. These are: store on farm, pending collection; take the waste yourself for recovery or disposal at an appropriately licensed site; use a specialist waste management company; register a licence exemption with the Environment Agency or apply for a landfill permit to recover or dispose of your waste on-farm. The NFU's Robert Caudwell commented: "The farming industry takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously. We recognise some practices, like burning plastic wastes on farm, are not sustainable. Other member states are ahead of us, having already implemented this legislation, and, like us, our competitors are subject to these same controls. "But the industry needs support in order to make the changes proposed in the consultation. Government, the Environment Agency, the agricultural supply chain and service providers are all key in helping develop practical and workable waste management solutions for farm businesses. Farmers need to work with these bodies and organisations to progress the steps needed and we're looking for 'whole chain' responsibility." Research shows some farmers and growers are already undertaking good practices and taking part in existing local recycling initiatives. For example, 74 per cent of farmers are transferring scrap metal to local dealers; 37 per cent are returning syringes and needles to vets; and 39 per cent are returning tyres to suppliers. "We need to build on these to develop the practical systems needed," claims Robert.

Chaff

Computer spell-checkers can be very clever, but have certain limitations which bring a smile to the farmers. A recent report on the size of the UK pig breeding herd referred to the number of young sows as guilts and when types of grassland 'leys' are considered, the word processor develops an imaginary mind of its own!