Put this here as it is not a whinge or a natter. So with due deference to the holder of the true yard of truth.

OW whether people like it or not has been an outspoken critic of EU subsidies since his TV programme was aired a quarter of a century ago now. So he is dam well consistent.
How many here or on ITV could as outspoken critics of organic farming expect to be invited to the dragons den of addressing the soil associations annual conference. He does I suggest a great service for many.
Those who mention a silver spoon etc. Forget that he sold the farm to the Kent county council pension fund so that the family members could go their own ways. That he has bought it back is again a triumph. Those who feel he is arrogant etc may be right. But he has something to be arrogant about. He does not shelter his failures or his financial circumstances. He openly writes of them and invites by his web site others to look.

Maybe it is the British disease of envying success and the ability to articulate that is the failing. But what ever and whomsoever stimulates average Joe to look more deeply as to why he sweats on the grindstone must be a good thing.

OW and his send a tonne to Africa at the time of Geldorf's feed the wrold concert was a high point in British farmers perception by the public. His one man attack on British Sugar a couple of years ago again fighting for farmers. To missquote badly an old saying " It is not what you know it is whose phone number you have that counts."

Personally I don't have a problem with OW. He obviously knows what he's about and isn't scared to put his money where his mouth is.

He deliberately posts things that he knows will get a reaction. How many of us have never done that?

Lumpkin wrote:

Personally I don't have a problem with OW. He obviously knows what he's about and isn't scared to put his money where his mouth is. He deliberately posts things that he knows will get a reaction. How many of us have never done that?

Adnams is God's gift to beer
Discus

I quite like the bloke. Sometimes you just have to say what needs to be said

simpleton wrote:

Lumpkin wrote: Personally I don't have a problem with OW. He obviously knows what he's about and isn't scared to put his money where his mouth is. He deliberately posts things that he knows will get a reaction. How many of us have never done that? Adnams is God's gift to beer Discus

No it isn't.

Javelin


I think a lot of people who have a problem with OW are jealous of what he has and what he has acheived. Simple as that.

Seriously though, and apologies for going off topic in prev post, you are spot on SJP.

In the current world of only 'celebrities' getting media airtime, the likes of OW and Robin Page (another Cambridgeshire farmer, funny that) do farming a great service. The BBC's populist Countryfile programme and various TV chefs also help farmings image as, lets face it, most of Britain has no idea what farmers actually do, other than drive round in big 4x4s and shout at people to get off their land. Slightly tongue in cheek but you know what I mean.

Its also amusing as, unlike ITV,our little debate on the green pages has been civilised...

I like what the man has to say
but he doesnt seem popular over there
is that because he is thinking about whats going on around him and trying to stay ahead of the game
Too many farmers grow the same crops year in year out (cos their dad did ) and expect a market to come to them
malting barley is a classic case this year, bad back end not a lot sown so everyone bangs loads of spring malting in and then whine all year because there isnt a top price offered

i was trying to get my boss to cost up fodder beet as one alternative being on the edge of the dales im sure it would have found a local market and spread our work load out a bit more
also we have 2 buiscuit quality feed mills within 10 miles of us do we try to grow for them no, so they bring most of their grain up from cambridge area

yeah yeah i will climb back in my box now

I think jealousy has a lot to do with it, although they all deny it.
Also, for better or for worse, people sit up and listen to him - that must really grind at a few who would just love for someone, infact anyone to listen to them...
Some go to great lengths to try and be a 'beacon' in the farming world, whereas Walston has been around for many moons and is known not just here, but across the globe.
Is he right ? I suppose he must be at times, the same as anyone.
Does he believe everything he posts or writes wholeheartedly ?

What do you think ?.....

There's no shortage of fearless iconoclasts on the internets, but at least OW has something interesting to say, even if i don't always agree with him, though more than often i find that i do.

His current topic about how farmers are perceived by the great unwashed is quite interesting, though the only thing i'd disagree with him on that one is that i think there's a significant proportion of the population who are so far removed from the practicalities of food production that they probably have no opinion of farmers whatsoever. They probably don't realise we exist.

BasilSeal wrote:

There's no shortage of fearless iconoclasts on the internets, but at least OW has something interesting to say, even if i don't always agree with him, though more than often i find that i do. His current topic about how farmers are perceived by the great unwashed is quite interesting, though the only thing i'd disagree with him on that one is that i think there's a significant proportion of the population who are so far removed from the practicalities of food production that they probably have no opinion of farmers whatsoever. They probably don't realise we exist.

An interesting point which highlights another issue with some who respond to OW.
I don't think for one minute he is saying every man in Britain is concerned or even bothered about British Ag, but of those you ask, the image overall is not good (despite what the NFU would love to have us all believe).
Secondly (and i can't believe i am writing this ) there appear to be a handful who honestly believe that he was refering to a genuine fare paying member of the public who frequents the 137 Clapham service bus !!!!

yeah well im still sceptical
who the hell goes to work on a bus reading a paper anyhow

jonnieboy wrote:

yeah well im still sceptical who the hell goes to work on a bus reading a paper anyhow

A discreet nonce.

Lord Muck wrote:

jonnieboy wrote: yeah well im still sceptical who the hell goes to work on a bus reading a paper anyhow A discreet nonce.

Someone has to say it... Nonce-sense?

OW is a good writer and a moderately clever man, and there's no point in attacking him. He is very often deliberately stirring in order to justify his payment from The Grauniad, but even so there is usually a strong grain of truth in there somewhere.

RGSP wrote:

Lord Muck wrote: jonnieboy wrote: yeah well im still sceptical who the hell goes to work on a bus reading a paper anyhow A discreet nonce. Someone has to say it... Nonce-sense? OW is a good writer and a moderately clever man, and there's no point in attacking him. He is very often deliberately stirring in order to justify his payment from The Grauniad, but even so there is usually a strong grain of truth in there somewhere.

I though he 'blogged' for the Independent, not the Graun?

Send in the Panzers