I was really pleased when I opened my copy of Farmers Weekly earlier today to find that Executive Editor Philip Clarke had chosen to focus his editorial piece on standing up to the racist slur shown towards dairy vet Navaratnum Partheeban, who incidentally wrote a discussion piece here on thinkingcountry a couple of weeks ago. Seemingly in response to a ‘Talking Point’ piece he wrote for Farmers Weekly Theeb received a simply disgusting letter from an anonymous person to his work address, which has been shared on Twitter well over 2000 times.
The Twitter response has been brilliant and actually, in my view, done far more positive in terms of raising inclusivity as a subject in the farming and veterinary sector. However, most of the problem is still down to silence and ignorance. Words such as that in the letter should be quite rightly instantly condemned and there is simply no place for these views, but we must also be aware that not positively acting to improve diversity and acceptance in the sector is almost as bad. The conversation needs to continue. On this note, if anyone is interested in writing a guest blog post on any area of diversity within farming, conservation or the countryside it would be a pleasure to publish it. Contact me.
thinkingcountry.com 