A couple of weeks back I alluded to problems in the thatching industry in the UK and linked to a piece by Danny at Rurality. Well, I put in the wrong link (now fixed), and anyway Danny’s post was pretty short and it was talking about an article that is not online. But never fear, if you’re really interested in the crisis in British thatching, you can read about it in the Telegraph. Or you can get the bullet-point version at Cronaca.
This piece is very misleading and avoids dealing with the key issue in this ‘crisis’ – the fact that straw growers are not able to grow the best older varieties of thatching straw – the ones that last twice as long as what they are now putting on – because these old varieties are illegal. DEFRA won’t allow these old varieties to be circulated and grown, so thatchers are forced to use poor quality materials such as Triticale straw, cheap water reed imported from China, S Africa or Poland, etc. Our farmers are desperate for new crops yet the govt is turning thatchers and straw growers into criminals. I didn’t see this in the article you’re circulating.
Thanks so much for pointing this out; saves me having to and being accused of obsession!
There’s a wider point about the way in which new varieties are assessed for “suitability” before being permitted onto the market. There’s a test called Value for Cultivation or Use which is designed to ensure that new varieties are actually better than the old ones, rather than cosmetic changes to allow fresh seed sales. Anyway, the standards for VCU are geared towards very standard uses indeed: simplistic, intensive agriculture. Growers who want lots of straw, for example, perhaps because they also have animals and use the straw for bedding, are not considered at all. Same, obviously, for thatching.
Once again, what this shows is that there is a monolithic attitude within regulatory forces, especially in Europe, that essentially says “There is only One True Way”. The rest of agriculture can go hang.