Perhaps it was because we had our whole herd tb test looming the next day and my mind was already clouded, but I couldn't stop the words from ringing in my ears.
"No-one cares about the farmers"
A flip remark from broadcaster Narinda Kaur on Radio 2s Jeremy Vine show [Mon 9th June] rolling off her tongue without hesitation and with total candour.
Given that agriculture has the worst rate of fatal injury of all the industry sectors, yet more lives are lost to suicide than accidents on farm every year, there's a good chance farmers are already feeling the weight of that sentiment.
But I had to wonder, was this really the consensus of the masses?
The head of our farming household remembers post war food rationing.
He often recounts the hardship families faced and even after 80 years, the realities of food scarcity and a hungry population remain lucid in his mind.
I try to pinpoint when the narrative shifted from farmers being celebrated as saviours of domestic food supply to being demonised as productivity obsessed, environmental terrorists.
And I wonder how the connection between the food we all need to eat to survive and the farmers producing it has disintegrated.
Because somewhere along the line something has gone drastically awry.
It doesn't help that unwitting individuals are given a voice by platforms such as the BBC to air their ill conceived views.
Nor that our unscrupulous politicians are so intertwined with those responsible for controlling food supply that meaningful regulation in favour of British farmers is not a likely reality.
We have a chancellor who opts to throw an extra £30billion into the NHS to medicate an unhealthy population rather than do anything to encourage consumption of fresh produce.
The same woman who is willing to spend £67.6 billion to ensure our armed forces are battle ready while slashing the agricultural budget.
I could weep at the irony of discouraging farmers from farming at a time when, in the government's own words, we face "a very real threat of conflict".
A stark contrast to the stance of Winston Churchill who once dubbed farming as "the frontline of freedom".
Regardless of dietary persuasion, every time any of us sit down to eat, each and every very item on our plate (processed or not) has been made available because of a farmer or fisherman who worked to grow, rear or catch it.
I pray we can find a way to reawaken consumers to the infinite value that farmers bring to society.
Afterall, what a dark day it would be when we no longer care about the industry that puts food on our tables.
Radio2
The Jeremy Vine
Rachel Reeves
Steve Reed MP
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
