SOME today may long for a lifestyle when the seasons and farming set the pace. In Tuesday’s National Ross Cunningham reflects on his move to Orkney and the history of islands where agriculture still plays a leading role in the community (Farming is right at the very heart of life here in Orkney, Sep 24).
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Neolithic stone masons, Viking settlers, seafaring and soil made the Orcadian people hardy, resilient and kindly. Such was the lifestyle of the Highlands when I was a child, shepherds in plus-four tweeds driving their cattle and sheep on the streets of Inverness. On one occasion, when sent as child for a message to my great uncle’s opticians shop opposite the Town House, I went in by a side door to find it full of sheep. A customer had left the front door open.
Farming verges on becoming an industrial process and the rate of change is affecting us all. Environmentalists may dream but wake up, Holyrood – for meaningful impact, organic farming is the way forward.
Iain Thomson
via email
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