rural population – Hinterland https://hinterland.org.uk Rural News Mon, 04 Jul 2022 09:37:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.2 Only a tiny minority of rural Britons are farmers – so why do they hold such sway? https://hinterland.org.uk/only-a-tiny-minority-of-rural-britons-are-farmers-so-why-do-they-hold-such-sway/ Mon, 04 Jul 2022 09:37:41 +0000 http://hinterland.org.uk/?p=14265 Thought provoking typical Monbiot article…. Government figures show that there are 115,000 people, across all categories, working on English farms. They comprise 0.2% of the total population, and 1.2% of the rural population. If you include everyone who might be involved in farming, including farmers’ spouses, partners, directors and managers, the total reaches 306,000, which means 0.5% of the total population, and 3% of the rural population. In other words, using the most generous definition of farmers and farmworkers, 97% of rural people are not employed by the industry. But as far as government policy is concerned, farming and the countryside are synonymous. If you’re not a farmer, your interests are overlooked, your voice unheard. You’re a second-class rural citizen.

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