Talking with farmers

[Graeme M]

I have mentioned this ages ago but thought I'd post about it again. In places like this forum, the discussion tends to be very one-sided (which is fair enough, of course). I have found it informative and thought provoking to talk about veganism and food/fibre production with actual farmers as well as other vegans. There is a Facebook group where we do that and having visited quite a few other FB pages for talking about veganism/farming, I think it is one of the more balanced discussion groups I've seen. There aren't too many rules, the main one being to behave courteously. The group isn't always perfect but on average you won't be confronted by some fool posting a picture of a steak grilling. Discussion can get a bit robust but if you are willing to listen and contribute reasonably it's a great forum.

Войдите на Facebook

Войдите на Facebook, чтобы общаться с друзьями, родственниками и знакомыми.

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[Dedalus]

Interesting. Living in the midst of farmers, I must say I'm overwhelmingly slanted against them, though they are the relatively large - albeit family farms. I don't approve of how they treat animals, (both wildlife and livestock), but also the land, (the sheer amount of chemicals they unleash with every crop is staggering) manipulate the waterways, cut down every single tree and spray every single weed that does or does not pose even a minor inconvenience. Because my property borders farm fields, I have also had to battle with them taking an extra wide swipe from year to year - cutting into my lawn to get an extra row of corn or beans in. We've planted over 80 trees on this property - less than half of them survived due to overspray. So yeah, I'm a little biased.

The low number of members in this group likely accounts for the thought provoking discussion. I've joined - so we'll see. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Graeme M]

Dedalus, yes, the small number of members means we have a better chance at avoiding too much trouble. We do get vegans who join and become very quarrelsome - I think they see their role as either having to convert farmers or having to hate farmers. The aim isn't to convert anyone to anything, it's more to talk about issues related to farming, food, fibre and veganism. I don't agree with a great deal of modern farming, though in a world of 8 billion people it's hard to produce enough product to meet their needs without doing something wrong. I do think many of the farmer members are good people and I suppose that a group like this would attract those people who think about the problems and/or care, so in some way it might be self-selecting for the better farmers. I have met a sheep and cattle farmer through this group and she does a very good job of caring for her livestock and land.