Yorkshire farmers are an easy net zero target for the Government - GP Taylor

On top of that, the dreaded nemesis of net zero is never far away and farmers are the target for government restrictions. Too many flatulent cows, too much nitrogen rich fertilizers on the land have flipped the woke, eco warriors that have taken over the Tory government.

Planet before People appears to be the rallying cry with even more and more hysterical ideas to mess up the countryside and stop farmers doing their job – providing food.

If we look back in history, we can see that the climate has been in a constant state of flux. Warm periods and mini ice ages were commonplace.

What we must understand is that it has been the farmers, who over hundreds of years have made our rural county so beautiful. They are the ones who have tended, cared for, and created the habitats we now can all enjoy.

Yet, the political and environmental odds seem to be stacked against them. Yorkshire farmers are an easy target for the government to attack in their pursuit for the crazy idea of net zero and the reduction of Co2 emissions.

Agriculture was the source of 10 per cent of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the UK in 2018, including 70 per cent of total nitrous oxide emissions, 49 per cent of total methane emissions, and 1.6 per cent of total carbon dioxide emissions. The sources of these emissions are livestock and manure (56 per cent), the use of farm inputs such as synthetic fertilizers (31 per cent), and fuel and machinery (12 per cent).

That may sound a lot, but keep in mind that plants absorb 30 per cent of all carbon dioxide emitted by humans each year and trees a lot more.

In 2017, woodland in the UK was estimated to have removed 18 million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere. Many of these trees are planted and tended by farmers. Trees are the lungs of the county, taking in Co2 and breathing out oxygen.

Yet, in the pursuit of net zero, in Scotland, the SNP has been quietly chopping trees down.

The SNP rural affairs secretary Mairi Gougeon admitted the party had felled nearly 16 million trees since 2000 to make room for wind turbines as part of the SNP's plans to make Scotland net zero over the next ten years. Imagine how much Co2 that will leave in the atmosphere.

This is the sort of insanity that farmers must face every day. Hard working people who farm our lands are cast aside by ignorant politicians who do not know country ways and only have the desire to fulfil the crippling guidelines of the World Economic Forum and their pursuit of net zero by 2050.

If you think farmers have it bad under the Tories, just wait to see what Labour will do. Only this week the Labour deputy leader let slip that every road user will face a £12.50 a day charge. Angela Rayner told Sky News last Sunday: "You have got to remember that this [ULEZ] is coming to every town and city across the UK." What about farmers in the Dales or Moors having to pay every time they take out a tractor or drive thirty miles to the supermarket? Farmers cannot hop on a tube or take a bus to get their sheep to market.

Politicians and the mainstream media must start supporting our farmers and not blaming them for climate change. Farmers have not caused the heat wave in the Mediterranean.

There appears to be a religious obsession with net zero. It is a narrative that is being exaggerated in the press and on television.

I did my own research and found the European temperatures being broadcast on TV were in fact up to 10c higher than they actually were. The world was not at the gates of hell as the media led us to believe.

The red-hot weather maps of molten laver were just another part of project fear to brainwash us into believing there is an imminent possibility of the world bursting into flames.

A frightened population will accept whatever the government insists is the cure. We will be more ready to consent to draconian measures made against farmers. Culling cattle, banning fertiliser will be the tip of the iceberg. The 2022 Nobel Physics Laureate Dr. John Clause stated the ‘climate emergency’ narrative was a “dangerous corruption of science that threatens the world’s economy and the well-being of billions of people”. He added. “In my opinion, there is no real climate crisis.”

John Clause is not alone in his beliefs, but his words do not fit the media narrative. Yes, the climate is changing, it always has and always will, but it is not the fault of Yorkshire farmers.

GP Taylor is a writer and broadcaster who lives in Yorkshire.