Anyone for bark casserole?
Sheffield University says shepherds should give up sheep and grow trees instead.
They say trees are more profitable than sheep. They're right, too, because years of Government policies have restricted sheep numbers, but increased subsidies for trees. Sheep are bad for the environment, there are too many of them and they eat all the wild flowers that the pollinators need to keep the countryside attractive.
I'm doing what they do – oversimplifying things. The statistics are overwhelmingly convincing. Woodlands would soak up carbon emissions, boost wildlife and curb flooding.
Sheep, however, eat everything, produce "dung and around one percent of UK's carbon pollution". Plus they are subsidised (no figure given) but so are trees but at "only £3 per tonne".
Of course we'd all have to eat leaves, or "bark casserole" as my social media mate suggested.
Policies should be about farmers making a living, producing food and keeping the countryside working, but these suggestions are so extreme. Farmers know that sheep and trees are compatible, in orchards and purpose-built woodland, but nobody seems to have found a reason to promote this. Perhaps it's just simpler to farm trees.
I've found a recipe for eating tree, by the way, if anyone's interested!
Rosemary Allen is a retired livestock farmer living near Ellesmere
