‘Farmers are getting beaten with a stick!’: Welsh farmers protest sparks row as Jim Dale claims planet is ‘DOOMED’

‘Farmers are getting beaten with a stick!’: Welsh farmers protest sparks row as Jim Dale claims planet is ‘DOOMED’

James Fairlie and Jim Dale discuss whether farmers are justified in their decision to protest net zero measures

GB NEWS
Ben Chapman

By Ben Chapman


Published: 28/02/2024

- 09:23

Thousands are expected on the streets of Cardiff to protest

A debate about the future of farming in Britain broke out on GB News as environmentalist Jim Dale made staggering claims about the planet's destiny.

Dale claimed the planet is “doomed” if we continue on our current trajectory and farmers will have to accept net zero measures even if they come at a hefty cost to their livelihood.


He was joined by farmer James Fairlie to debate the topic ahead of a protest in Cardiff in which thousands will make their feelings clear on how green measures are impacting the agricultural industry.

“We’re getting beaten with a stick at all angles”, said potato farmer James Fairlie.

James Fairlie and Jim Dale

A debate on a Welsh farmers protest broke out on GB News

GB NEWS

“In England, they’re offering huge subsidies for farmers to plant their land in grass and wildflower.

“We haven’t learned anything from the Ukraine-Russia war. During that, gas and electricity prices went very high and the same is going to happen here if we try and import our food.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

“If we think that we don’t need to support the farmers and import, we’re killing ourselves.”

Dale waded in on the discussion to stress the importance of net zero measures, claiming the “world is burning”.

“There’s a bigger picture”, he said.

“We’ve spent the last week talking about Lee Anderson and this morning I look around the world and it’s burning as we speak.

A farmers protest in Poland

Farmers protests have broken out across Europe

GETTY

“It’s not in the news agenda but this is the big picture. It is for farmers too. They have a saying ‘no farms, no farmers, no food, no future’.

“I would put two things ahead of that. That is, no climate mitigation, no sustainable farming.”

Dale added there a wildfires in Texas during winter time, but Fairlie was quick to insist that he and other farmers are working to ensure they are operating sustainably.

“All these renewable projects have been quashed”, he said.

Farmers protest in SpainFarmers are protesting all over Europe and they are threatening to come to the UK tooReuters

“The grant fund that came with them has been demolished, we’re in a difficult position.”

GB News host Isabel Webster said alienating farmers puts the country in a “difficult position” and such an action in turn ends up impacting the environment in a negative manner.

“There’s a lot of education lost in this”, Dale responded.

“We need to get educated in terms of the climate and what it’s doing.

“It is people like Richard Tice who say ‘climate change is not happening’, it’s pathetic.”

Dale went on to show little sympathy for farmers, saying they have “not caught up” with “what is coming to them”.

“You can’t grow anything if your ground is dry and rotten or flooded”, he said.

Eamonn Holmes asked: “What you’re saying is, if we don’t look after the ground and see to these people, we’re all in a soapy bubble?”

Dale responded: “We’re doomed. We’re absolutely there.

“We will probably see the wettest February in the UK on record. There are farmers out there underwater.

“You don’t plant underwater very easily, unless it’s seaweed.”

You may like