British citizens have long been encouraged to "keep a stiff upper lip" in the face of adversity. But does that include in the face of stupidity, too?
The U.S. isn't alone in suffering from clueless members of the press who nonetheless try to talk about dairy farming like they understand it. That process is sometimes just as glaring in England, as was seen last week.
An article about the rapid decline in the country's dairy farm numbers appeared March 10 in Mail Online, an internet product of the Daily Mail, Britain's second-largest newspaper. It outlined how relentless financial losses have driven about 70 percent of all milk producers out of business since 1996.
But it also played fast and loose with myth and hearsay. Here are two examples:
- The caption under a photo of cows being milked said, "Suffering: The average yield per cow has more than doubled in the past 40 years, an increased strain that places the animals under strain, resulting in disease and infection and shortening their working lives."
- In pointing out that production per cow in Britain is up about 15.1 percent in the last decade (it's up 16.6 percent in the U.S.), the article said, "Whereas dairy cows can live up to 20 to 25 years, producing milk for 15 years, today the average British cow has just three years of milking and is then sent to slaughter."
