Just in case anyone missed the news that for those of us who fall into the ‘middle aged’ category, it is essential to our health, in particular protecting us from hearing loss, that we should eat lots of chocolate!
 
Doctors in the South Korean capital Seoul found the hearing loss amongst the middle aged was much lower in those who ate chocolate, than among abstainers.
 
Chemicals called polyphenols found in cocoa have strong anti-inflammatory properties that may protect against hearing damage. A research project found the rate of hearing loss was ‘significantly’ lower in those who ate chocolate  than in those who did not.
 
This will be music to the ears of those who feel a twinge of guilt as we indulge in Easter eggs, with a large box of Dairy Milk on the side!
 
Less healthy could be Vegan burgers which have been shown to contain twice as much fat as even a Big Mac, compared to the real deal.
 
Barney Calman, a self-confessed vegetarian of four years, has conducted a study of the latest ‘fake meat burgers’ on the high street.
 
Having been put off bean burgers, which he considers to be dry and unpalatable, he has also explored the world of wheat, Quorn and substances derived from edible fungus burgers, which he thinks taste like, and have the consistency of rubbery Play-Doh.
 
He has more recently been sampling the latest innovations into the world of fake meat now available on the high street, in specialist restaurants and super markets.
 
These taste and smell like the real deal. Some even bleed. It seems everyone is now getting on this ‘alternative’ bandwagon, including Burger King, the Harvest chain, and Nestle has launched a soya and wheat protein Garden Gourmet Incredible Burger, amongst many others.
 
There are now apparently 1.6 million vegans and vegetarians in Britain today, so it makes financial sense to follow the trend, as these people believe their change of diet will improve their health.
 
The Moving Mountains Burger is the brain child of entrepreneur Simeon Van de Molen, who also founded the green cleaning product brand. He explained to Barney Calman that these burgers are not just aimed at vegans and vegetarians, but also for people who just feel they want to eat healthier.
 
The primary ingredient in these products is protein, derived from soya, wheat, peas and potatoes. The oil is extracted via a ‘defatting processes’, using solvents, including Benzene a chemical by-product of crude oil. Defatted soya is also used as a glue in some forms of plywood.
 
The refining process goes on using all manner of additional chemicals and heat; the exact details are a closely guarded secret. These ‘burgers’ are sold as ‘completely natural’, which Barney Calman questions as being strictly true, considering the amount of chemicals used in their production. They may look and taste realistic but are they really healthy?
 
It is interesting that the European agriculture committee moved to ban producers of vegetarian food from using descriptions usually used for meat. They have suggested that veggie burgers should be renamed ‘veggie discs’.
 
Obviously five or more burgers a week is not a healthy option, so introducing ‘veggie discs’ into ones diet, is perhaps not a bad option. But are they really healthy if full of chemicals as Mr Calman suggests.
 
These alternative diets, are a challenge and opportunity for farmers and growers. The public recognise that we maintain the countryside by farming in a sustainable and environmentally sensitive manner, and hopefully appreciate we are part of the solution, not the problem.
 
Those who have brought London, Edinburgh and other major cities to a standstill, making it impossible for the very businesses which sustain our economy, put food on their plates, fuel cars, trains and planes - need educating and a reality check. Things are not always as they appear.

​If when you walk out of a funeral service to the sound of ‘Ernie, The Fastest Milkman In The West’, you can be sure the person whose life you have celebrated, was perhaps a one off.
 
Ralph Sheppard was indeed a remarkable man, one who was the very image you would conjure up in your mind, if asked to visualise a typical farmer.
 
His weathered rosy cheeks, long bushy sideburns and easy manner were notable. Together with his reassuring sense of calm, and wicked sense of humour, Ralph lived a life during which he worked hard, became an expert in breeding Sussex cattle, and was the ‘go to’ man when you needed advice.
 
His family were the love of his life, including his late wife Brenda, daughter Carol, grandsons Edward and Harry, of whom he was so very proud. He worked closely with his nephew Russell, with whom he shared a special bond, and passion for Sussex cattle.
 
Ralph’s working life centred around cattle. His own and other herds, in particular those of the Faulkner family, a special working relationship which spanned many decades.
 
Ralph was highly respected within the Sussex farming community, if you needed help or advice to buy or show cattle, Ralph was the ‘go to’ man. 
 
We shall all be the poorer for his passing. Ralph knew everything there was to know, and more. He achieved success in the show ring, winning many classes and championships for his employers and himself. His coffin was decorated with an impressive selection of winning rosettes; he will have been so proud.
 
Parliament appears to be stacked full of ‘Useful Idiots’, who are deliberately ignoring the 17.4million of us who voted to leave.
 
We are told ‘we did not know what we were voting for’. Yes we did. During the Referendum campaign, unless you were in an induced coma or brain dead, you could not avoid the bombardment of information coming from both sides of the debate.
 
The most compelling arguments were the messages coming from the Remain camp, including David Cameron’s publically funded £9million leaflet, explaining in great detail exactly what leaving the EU meant.
 
He and his chums also repeatedly told us this was our ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity to vote, and it was ‘our decision’, not his, not MPs, not parliament’s.
 
The Leave camp promised we would gain our ‘independence, ability to trade globally, our sovereignty and control our borders.’ On leaving the EU we would gain an extra £35million each week, which, for example could help towards ‘funding the NHS.’
 
Most of us recognise what a disaster being part of the EU federalist bloc has been, and will become increasingly. It does not take a genius to recognise the status quo will not remain for long. Read the Lisbon Treaty, not yet fully implemented, and understand the EU will increase its vice like grip, and its tentacles will invade and dominate every nook and cranny of our daily lives.
 
Why Remainers think it is acceptable for our once great country to become a mere region of the EU, a vassal state under the control of unelected megalomaniac bureaucrats, is beyond comprehension.   
 
The weekend headlines stated, ‘Corbyn bound for No 10’. This situation is entirely down to Mrs May the chief ‘useful idiot’. The party must remove this incompetent masochistic politician with immediate effect. Almost every conservative Association wants her ousted, and the Lords Spicer and Hamilton, past chairmen of the 1922 committee, have made clear that it can be done.
 
However, if the choice of candidates presented to Tory grass roots for a replacement is between Jeremy Hunt, Sajid Javid, Dominic Raab and Amber Rudd, in particular, without doubt Mr Corbyn the Marxist, terrorist promoting, anti-British, anti-Semitic bigot, will be handed the keys to No 10 on a plate.

I am a huge fan of Chris Jeffries, a farmer, and the current chairman of East Sussex NFU.  It is always refreshing to hear his views which are wise and practical.
 
His column, which I reproduce below with his permission, in the latest NFU British Farmer & Grower Magazine, conveys a clear message regarding our vegan cousins, and the toll their diet is having on the environment and natural resources.
 
“How many gallons of water does it take to grow 25kg of soya beans? The answer according to the American Department of Agriculture is 3,738 gallons. The estimated worldwide annual production of soya beans is some 346 million tonnes or roughly 346,000,000,000kg. Divide by 25 and multiply by 3,738 and that is the amount of the world’s water resource that goes into soya bean production annually.
 
Water is generally reckoned to be one of the world’s most threatened resources and yet this fact appears not to enter the thought-process of our veggie warriors. This is just one clear example of how those who claim the ecological and moral high ground, conveniently overlook the real cost of their preferred route to nutrition.
 
The significance of this to me is that yet again, we who prefer to get our protein, vitamins and mineral from meat, fish and dairy products are failing to exploit the public relations opportunities in the battle of views, ideals and morals.
 
I use the word ‘battle’ because that is what the fringe activists, who are determined to impose their views on us, are engaging us in. Forget Brexit, forget the Agricultural Bill, because these are short-term hiccups compared to the pressure groups forming up against us who are determined, organised and very effective at punching above their real weight.
 
Already, the estimated 540,000 vegans reckoned to be in the UK, of whom only a small proportion are ‘activists’, have succeeded in grabbing a national position where those who hold a different view find it difficult to outmanoeuvre them. We become defensive, huff and puff a bit and then pull back into our little oases of isolation, hoping it will go away.
 
It won’t! We have to develop a proper, carefully argued response recognising who and what our targets are.
 
At the moment there are some 1.7 million people in the UK who choose to be vegetarian with, I add, every right to do so. In fact, these people present us with an opportunity to grow and provide what they want and not always in the most obvious ways. Quorn, for example has become a meat substitute for many, but did you know that the production process uses wheat to produce the glucose needed for fermentation of the mycoprotein?
 
In our anger and frustration at the activities of the fringe, we must not lose sight of the fact that vegetarianism has to be looked at as a farming and horticultural opportunity; so we must make sure that our responses to that fringe, do not alienate the majority who just make a choice and have no wish to impose it on others.
 
It interested me to see that the latest attack on our dairy and livestock industry gives absolutely no detail of who the individuals behind it are or where they are based. It seems extraordinary from a legal perspective, that in a country where we are so closely controlled, this situation can exist. Maybe we start lobbying to make it an offence to publish material on-line without attributing the exact source and people involved.
 
Why should we have to consider delisting our farms from Google, when someone who wishes to attack us can do so from a hidden position?
 
The answer to the first question, is 49,341,600,000,000 gallons. That’s rather a lot of water!”

​Regrettably Chris Packham has stepped up his anti famer rhetoric and activities. He has teamed up with former RSPB conservation director Mark Avery and wildlife campaigner Ruth Tingay, forming a group called Wild Justice. They are challenging the general licence system used by Natural England, which authorises the shooting of certain birds.
 
Currently a general licence is issued annually by Natural England. This ‘open’ licence, ensures farmers and shooters do not have to apply individually, to cull pest species which can threaten livestock, crops, fisheries, or spread specific diseases.
 
In total, according to the Farmers Weekly, there are 15 species covered, including wood pigeons, crows, jackdaws, jays, magpies and rooks.
 
Mark Avery, director of Wild Justice, said: “Natural England and Defra are allowing the casual killing of millions of birds each year with no monitoring, no control and no justifiable reason. Mass killing of wildlife under general licences has been going on for nearly 40 years – it’s time this casual killing ended”.
 
Such unsubstantiated inflammatory misinformation makes one wonder if these people have ever experienced life on working farms, where food is produced for home consumption and export. If they had they would understand the challenges farmers and growers face from predators.
 
For example pigeons descend in their hundreds as recently sown crops emerge as tender morsels, which they ‘mechanically’ pluck travelling along rows. They can decimate fields, which in extreme cases require replanting, in an afternoon, unless the guns are ready to pick them off, and deter others.
 
Just before harvest they return to the ripened crop which can appear to have been flattened by a steam roller. A crushed and depleted crop makes combining difficult, and slashes income.
 
Pigeon and other vermin control has taken place on farms and in the countryside for decades. I defy Messrs Packham, Avery and Tingay to demonstrate that there are less of these birds and other farm pests, which we attempt to control, than a hundred years ago. They are certainly not endangered species.
 
However, if they keep up their relentless crusade attacking farmers and land owners, it is likely that these traditional ‘keepers of the countryside, and custodians of British wildlife’, will be the ones who become extinct. I am beginning to suspect that is their plan.
 
This week I had intended to avoid the subject of Brexit altogether. However I am seething with anger following the antics which took place in parliament last week. Speaker Bercow, despite having claimed to be ‘a servant of the House’,  tore up parliamentary procedure and protocol, in his attempt to frustrate Brexit, and has degraded his office in his efforts to create a blaze of notoriety, with his usual narcissistic smirk.
 
This, combined with the Prime Minister’s threats towards principled conservative MPs, who are understandably reluctant to support her shameful Withdrawal Agreement, which flies in the face of what she promised to deliver following the referendum. It is anti-British, undemocratic, and an appeasement to her chums in Brussels.
 
A majority of people I speak to, and those who have contacted me in recent days, feel utterly betrayed by parliament. A majority of MPs consider they know better than 17.4 million voters, despite most having stood on a manifesto that promised to deliver the referendum result. As Jacob Rees- Mogg said, “This is dishonest and challenges the country’s democratic system.”
 
Quentin Letts was spot on when he said, “When Parliament’s arbiter breaks the rules, Parliament itself becomes bent. But I think we all knew that Westminster no longer has legislators. It has been captured by anti-democratic squatters.”
 
MPs are the servants of the people not our masters. Shame on those who believe it is acceptable to ride rough shod over our democracy, in their desire to abandon our national sovereignty.