Description
Patrick Galbraith shoots a Chinese water deer and learns about Britain’s growing deer problem. There are more deer in this country than there’ve almost ever been and they are causing all sorts of problems. In Scotland they are destroying pine forests and in England they are browsing out scrub and bramble where nightingales used to sing.
It’s very easy to say that we simply need to start eating more venison. After all, deer are a very sustainable and environmentally-friendly source of protein but through chatting to Paul Childerley, a deer manager in Bedfordshire, and Jack Smallman, a venison wholesaler from the South Downs, Patrick discovers that it’s not easy. Not least because supermarkets often insist on selling farmed venison that’s shipped here from halfway across the world rather than selling venison from the British countryside.
But things are changing, A growing number of people are keen to get into deer management and it increasingly feels like veganism and vegetarianism are out and sustainable diets, which include meat, are in. Could it be venison’s moment? Patrick, after cooking up some Chinese Water Deer burgers, thinks that if people got a chance to try it, they’d certainly be back for more.
You may have seen the story: the 2010 Equality Act could protect people who hunt. Here’s how it could play.
An interview at the Carter Jonas Game Fair Theatre has led to column inches and TV debates. Ed Swales of Hunting Kind, a group dedicated to ‘natural hunting’ with hound, ferret...
Published 08/28/24
My faithful farm truck sits in the yard, not exactly sure how it is supposed to spend its days - or justify its hefty running costs. What's the future for such a loyal beast?
Join me, if you will, in some automotive anthropomorphism, and spare a thought for Tigger the Terracan, who sits in...
Published 08/27/24