Dorset NFU’s Tim Gelfs asks why questioning costs, data and green policies now risks branding you a sceptic rather than sparking discussion

So, is Mr Trump right about the hoax of climate change? Probably not … Is Project Fear alive and well? It certainly looks that way!
Call me cynical, but with so much money being made from climate change fears, it seems to be in no one’s interest to challenge the thinking or to report opposing views.
Let’s look at the polar ice caps: we’ve all seen the reports that they are shrinking and we’re all going to have to grow webbed feet. All true, and seemingly well-documented. But no one has reported in the main media that it looks as though the ice fields have grown in the last year?
Our weather forecasts, with the help of digitalisation, have changed beyond recognition – remember Michael Fish with his handful of magnets? Back then, a heatwave was depicted by a yellow sun with the number 30 on it, stuck to a map of the UK. Now, it is in glorious technicolour with every shade of red you can imagine. I’m surprised the telly doesn’t melt!
We are told that we are setting record temperatures ‘since records began’ … that’s just the last couple of hundred years. On the scale of the planet’s life, that would barely register: insufficient data from a scientific point of view.

A fool’s game
Then we have our biggest culprit of all, CO2, the evil gas that is driving up global warming. If we don’t stop producing it, we’re all doomed, Captain Mainwaring! What is not so well reported is that more than 90 per cent of its production occurs naturally. We humans are only responsible for somewhere around five per cent: but we must do our best to not only reduce its emission, but also help with carbon capture by sequestration. It sounds commendable – indeed, our illustrious fount-of-all-knowledge climate minister has chucked billions of pounds at it. But are we playing a dangerous game with not enough knowledge? CO2 is the gas of life: take too much out of the atmosphere and we have a real problem – probably a bigger problem than having too much?

Is it just me?
And then, around the world, we have the biggest money-spinner of all: Green Energy, the saviour of all our climate issues. But you’re not allowed to question how much carbon is produced in making the solar panels or wind farms. Nor what the cost is, at end of life, for disposal? I have asked, and no one can give me an answer. And literally no one wants to talk about the pollution of a lithium mine.
By now you’re probably thinking I am a climate sceptic – if digital ID was already in place, I’d already have a big black mark next to my name!
But I’m not, not really. What I don’t like is anything we are not allowed to challenge. If the arguments are so robust, what are they scared of?
Climate change IS happening, we can see it for ourselves. Sea temperatures around the UK are higher, you can see that just by looking at the species such as tuna appearing off our shores. We go out in the sun and it does feel more intense than it did 30 years ago (or is that just getting older?). The weather patterns seem to be changing. Where are our bleak mid-winter days spent thawing out pipes and using several cans of easy-start on the scrapper tractor? Not that I am missing the ice on the inside of the window, you understand, nor the permanently cold feet for a couple of months!
Are we responsible? Or is it just a natural cycle? It seems sensible that we’re having some effect on climate change. I don’t think the world is designed to have eight billion people living off it without some effect. If it is down to us, then one thing is for sure: it is not going to be solved in the West. Asia and South America will decide the outcome, and poverty will be the driver.
The uncomfortable truth is that if we allow the world’s biggest populations to live in poverty, survival will take priority over climate change! We’d be much better off if we spent our money on pollution and resolving waste … but that’s for next month!

Free school meals made from local Dorset produce could provide healthier options, reduce food miles and support farmers, suggests Andrew Livingston

In an age when supermarket supply chains stretch across continents, it’s easy to forget that some of the best food in the world is grown right here on our doorstep. And nowhere is that truer than in Dorset, a county blessed with a combination of rolling farmland, fresh coastal air and a proud farming tradition. With such abundant local produce, why are we not using it to address two pressing issues at once?
If the Government is serious about supporting both children and farmers, then the solution is staring us in the face: free school meals, made with local produce.
The free school meals programme has deep roots in Britain. It began in 1906 and the idea was simple, but radical: a hungry child cannot learn. More than a century later, that principle still holds.
Today, all children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are entitled to free school meals, while older pupils qualify if their families are on certain benefits. But in 2025, with almost all families struggling through a cost-of-living crisis, the debate has reignited over whether free school meals should be universal.
What if the answer was in the fields beyond the school gates?
Every child deserves a healthy meal at school … and what if that meal could also support the local economy, reduce food miles and reconnect children with the land?
By sourcing from Dorset farms and food producers, schools could provide nutrition and education in one go. Imagine school dinners made with Dorset potatoes, seasonal vegetables, milk from our dairies and fresh fruit grown in nearby orchards.
This is not some fanciful, romantic notion. It’s practical and achievable. Dorset already has a network of small family farms, many of which struggle to compete with the cut-throat pricing of supermarkets. By creating a stable, guaranteed market for their produce through school meal contracts, farmers would get a fair price and the money would keep circulating within our communities. Instead of funding imports of frozen chicken from thousands of miles away, why not invest in the hardworking families tending fields and herds just down the road?

There are other benefits too. Food miles are a pressing concern in the era of climate change. The less we rely on produce flown or trucked in from elsewhere, the smaller our carbon footprint becomes. Dorset-grown carrots don’t rack up air miles. Milk from the Blackmore Vale doesn’t need shipping containers. Our countryside could feed our children in a way that is both environmentally responsible and community-driven.
And then there is the educational element. Too many children today are disconnected from how food is grown. Free school meals, proudly advertised as ‘from Dorset farms,’ could be reinforced with farm visits, school garden projects and lessons about seasonal eating.
I would also tell farmers: ‘If you want this contract , work for it.’ Simply providing the food isn’t enough – farmers have got to be the bridge for these children into the agricultural world … they must get into the classroom and make food fun.
Children could learn not just to eat, but to value food … and the people who produce it. This is about more than nutrition: it’s about fostering a culture of respect for farming and the environment.
Critics will argue this is costly, but what is the cost of not acting? Rising childhood obesity, rural poverty and climate pressures will be far more expensive in the long term. Redirecting public spending towards local food is an investment in health, resilience and sustainability. Dorset can lead the way here, showing the rest of the country how schools, farms and councils can work hand in hand.
We talk a lot about ‘levelling up’ in politics, but often forget that true levelling up starts with the basics – like ensuring every child has a hot, healthy meal.
If that meal comes from the fields of Dorset, so much the better. Feeding our children while supporting our farmers is not just good policy … it’s common sense.

Do you agree? Should Dorset pioneer farm-to-school meals?
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