Will Rogers – the Cowboy Philosopher once said:

Heroing is one of the shortest lived professions there is.
Will Rogers, 1925

This week I feel a little disappointed by one of the people, who if not exactly a hero to me, was someone whose philosophy towards things, food in this case, matched my own.

Well my friends it seems spring may be just around the corner. Yesterday had a distinctly spring like touch. The temperature was pushing 10°C, the bees were out for the first time this year, and I can see the first silvery hints of pussy willow on the trees down by the river. After the rain, the cold and the storms and very little snow maybe we’re in for a time of gentler weather.

The blue skies are back, and what’s more we have sunshine. Today dawned clear and cold. The frost has made all the muddy paths solid, which is a good thing. The sun is shining, it may be that pale watery wintery sunshine, it may not make things any warmer but still just to see it warms my heart.

This week Britain has had a collective seizure because Hugh Fernley Whittingstall dared to show broiler chicken production on television. When the industry refused to participate in his programme on the conditions these poor animals are kept in he set up his own broiler house. HFW was plainly uncomfortable at the thought and distressed by the act, but appeared sincere in his belief that this was a necessary constituent of consumer existence and he would be a fraud, as a person who is defined by his passion for food and animal welfare, if he did not participate.