Our livelihoods and traditions are about to vanish thanks to a disastrous wave of shortsighted beliefs - Jo Foster column

The Scarborough Farmers listened politely to my intangible waffle last week when I assisted Jo Russell from the Injured Jockeys Fund with a talk about Jack Berry House.
By Jo Foster
Published 30th Nov 2019, 17:00 BST

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Jo Foster is concerned about the farming and countryside culture - and how long it will last. Credit: Tony JohnsonJo Foster is concerned about the farming and countryside culture - and how long it will last. Credit: Tony Johnson
Jo Foster is concerned about the farming and countryside culture - and how long it will last. Credit: Tony Johnson

It was the Farmers monthly meeting held in the village of Wykeham and by pure coincidence it fell on the two-year anniversary of my accident. I rarely do after dinner talks but for this charity I’d run around Cheltenham naked during the Festival meeting to help raise funds.

I stood up to recall that fateful day and everything JBH had done in picking up the shattered pieces and gluing them back together. The Scarborough farmers, who have been going strong for over 50 years, were a welcoming and generous bunch who raised over £200 with kind donations.

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I am swallowed up with a strange foreboding which has been growing in strength for some time. A nauseating warning invading my thoughts. It probably sounds ridiculous, but it won’t allow me any peace. I attempted to silence it recently by cutting the BBC out of my life, which helped.

But I cannot just ignore it. I’m disturbed because I know the feeling. I have had them before but never so strong and clear. It is a premonition on rural life. Our livelihoods, what we do, how we do it, traditions which have carried mankind through the centuries. They are about to vanish. Forced out by a disastrous wave of shortsighted beliefs.

The life I love and breath every day. Farming, racing, hunting, the wildlife, the livestock, the land, the people. All under attack. I am genuinely scared.

Decision on bid to build more than 500 homes near Askham Bog in York to be made by springSeven things you might have missed on the Yorkshire election trail this weekIn London, tube stations are swallowed up with Vegan propaganda. Clever shots of animals being abused, cattle blamed solely for global warming, fabricated figures point the finger at us. Every day millions of people stare at the posters in horror as they journey to work.

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We are letting this happen without doing a thing to stop it. No spokesperson. No advertising campaigns. No education. The truth is being swallowed up by lies.

‘Surely they won’t believe such ridiculous figures’ I overheard villagers chat in a farm shop recently staring at one such newspaper ad. ‘They will ‘cos it suits ‘em to’ replied the other.

Country folk are too busy working to notice the tsunami happening on social and national media. We don’t hassle, demand, pester. Countryside organisations / unions should be preaching to the cities rather than congratulating each other at country shows. Those trying to bring our rural existence down will achieve their goal before we even manage to call a meeting. Am I alone with such fears?

Culture is moving so fast. In a decade ours will be totally gone. Vanished. Wiped out. Yet, we still have the power to stop it. We feed the nation, for the moment at least. The rural minority must stop allowing those with their own agenda to manipulate and misguide the masses. We need to make ourselves heard and educate the nation with the truth. Now.

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Related topics:FarmingScarborough