The more things change, the more they stay the same. Reflecting on 2019 and looking forward to 2020, I am reminded of that quote over and over.

One thing you would say has definitely changed in the recent past is people’s overwhelming desire to blame others for their ills.

For the purposes of this piece, I am going to contradict myself straight away. Throughout history, one group has always blamed another for firing the first shot.

Even as kids, as soon as we can speak, we are at it: “It was his fault, he started it.”

As farmers, we should be all in this together. But, unfortunately, at the present time, things in farming seem to be more divided than ever. Whatever happened to allowing people to farm the way they want and live their lives the way they want, obviously in a safe and responsible way?

Ideals

Today, we seem to be only too happy to jump on someone or something we see as not fitting our ideals.

Are social media and the money in the shadows driving this agenda? I believe so.

Many businesses and individuals behind the unrest in agriculture have something to gain from all this - namely money.

Big businesses will tell you that what they are selling will be good for you in some way, shape or form. Unfortunately, a quick glance can prove this to be untrue. Really all they are interested in is their profits.

Someone in the finance world told me recently that all money is only three steps away from being dirty. And he wasn’t talking about germs.

Makes you think about things doesn’t it?

Trap

Even us as farmer can sometimes fall into this trap of over-stating things sometimes when promoting our products.

However, there is one glaring difference with our products - we produce them in their “nothing-added state” so we can stand over our products as being natural/or aw and, eaten in a balanced way, will do nothing but good for you.

Balance is a key word now more than ever. There does not seem to be balance anymore. Even the language people in high office – the ones who should be setting an example – are not being balanced.

Our human nature is competitive and we are driven one to succeed over the other

I saw a headline this morning where one TD called another political party “nutters”. I remember well teachers telling us in school to “think before you speak”.

We will never truly have a fair world. Our human nature is competitive and we are driven one to succeed over the other. From school to sport and business, it’s all about coming first. They tell you it’s about taking part, but very few remember who came second.

As farmers and agricultural country people, we need to unite now than ever more with a balanced fair approach to combat the anti-farming and anti-countryside agenda.

We cannot allow ourselves to become reactionary, we need to be proactive.

We know only too well the consequences of our decision-making on farm and that every decision we make is at the end of the day our responsibility. Many others have become too quick to pass the buck.