Wednesday, 04 March 2020 13:21

Don’t take away our livelihoods

Written by  Milking It

US actor Joaquin Phoenix is being accused of taking away UK farmers’ livelihoods.

Phoenix, who has been a vegan since he was three, had a go at farmers in his acceptance speech for the best actor award at the recent Oscars.

“I think we’ve become very disconnected from the natural world,” he said. “We go into the natural world and we plunder it for its resources. We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakeable. Then we take her milk that’s intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal”.

National Farmers’ Union (NFU) president, Minette Batters claims he and other celebrity campaigners for veganism had played a part in demonising the UK’s meat producers and doing “enormous damage” to their wellbeing.

Batters said farmers fearing the imminent loss of their livelihoods and family holdings were in a state of stress and anxiety.

More like this

Bad smell!

OPINION: Your old mate had a bit of giggle at a recent article he read in the Irish Farmers Journal (IFJ), where the author was pondering on a rather smelly problem to do with veganism.

Unhealthy!

OPINION: A mate of your canine crusader reckons all those proponents of a vegan diet and claims of its ‘healthy’ impacts should take a lesson of the recent demise of a social media influencer.

No service!

OPINION: Your canine crusader was amused to read recently about how a celebrity chef at a Perth restaurant has banned vegans from his establishment.

Get off the grass!

OPINION: This old mutt was amused to read about a snowflake vegan in Perth, Australia who wrote neighbours a letter requesting that they close their window when cooking their "sickening" meat.

Sore losers

OPINION: UK vegan activists, realising they are failing badly when it comes to coercing consumers to give up dairy, are becoming more disruptive.

Featured

Australia develops first local mRNA FMD vaccine

Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.

NZ household food waste falls again

Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.

Editorial: No joking matter

OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.

National

All eyes on NZ milk supply

All eyes are on milk production in New Zealand and its impact on global dairy prices in the coming months.

Machinery & Products

Leader balers arrive in NZ

Officially launched at the National Fieldays event in June, the Leader in-line conventional PRO 1900 balers are imported and distributed…

JDLink Boost for NZ farms

Connectivity is widely recognised as one of the biggest challenges facing farmers, but it is now being overcome through the…

New generation Defender HD11

The all-new 2026 Can-Am Defender HD11 looks likely to raise the bar in the highly competitive side-by-side category.

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Full cabinet

OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter