[Hilarysmum]

At the end of the day HFW is NOT a farmer, he is a television personality, which is where his money comes from, and why the programmes are produced.  His programmes are great television, but do they really honestly help the would be smallholder who rushes out and buys that breed of pigs because .... etc. then complains cos they escape every five minutes as his electric fence consists of a car battery attached to 1 strand of electric wire.  Or the one who buys sheep and they all die because he didnt know they could not get down to his fishing lake to drink.   

I dont mean to carp, but I do think these programmes are responsible for a lot of damage because they naturally only show the highlights.  If they showed the nitty gritty, instead of giving the impression that its ok to leave the animals for 15 hours whilst nipping up to London to sell produce, showed the pigs escaping instead of wandering along nicely searching for truffles, and btw was there any mention of the need to have a licence to move a pig like that.  Its all airy fairy, no substance, which does make great tv, but real life never. 

Having said this, I do like the original programmes, and I am delighted that anyone can fly the flag for freedom food.  Rant over.  HM

[northfifeduckling]

He's a chef, having started at the posh River Cafe in London (like Jamie Oliver), as far a I know. Good for him that he could turn his hobby of the simple life into a TV career. I'm sure Channel 4 pays for staff to have the animals looked after when the man's too busy to be there...Would be nice to be a fly on the wall and watch the real stuff we don't see on TV. I always wonder - who actually does all the time consuming work? At least Jamie Oliver included his brilliant gardener in his program, we weren't made to believe he does it all himself...As long as it inspires people to do something, to start growing stuff, to look at their shopping habits  - these programs do have their place