Village fetes and countryside shows are in full swing now and showcase the best of West Dorset communities.

The Gillingham and Shaftesbury show will also be running on Wednesday and Thursday next week, and I warmly encourage you to visit the show. I will also be there to talk to constituents if you are, and anyone interested in my work in Westminster on your behalf.  

I’ve often criticised groups for tarring British farmers with the same brush as global mass-producing agribusiness, and last week was a good case in point after I read in the Echo that, on Sunday, ‘Animal Rebellion’ decided to protest with a sit-in at McDonalds by the Monkey’s Jump Roundabout in Dorchester to ‘demand’ the company adopts a fully ‘plant-based’ menu because of deforestation and emissions.

Firstly, this typifies the well-off middle classes trying to destroy a food option that is affordable for those less well-off than themselves. But also, Animal Rebellion fails to realise that most livestock feed soya is by-product from the ‘plant based’ industry. McDonalds UK supports around 20,000 British farmers, including some in West Dorset, by buying 100% Red Tractor assured British Beef – the majority of which is fed on grassland where no other crops could grow.

Animal Rebellion claims they are ‘targeting the McDonalds Corporation, not its customers’! We know they are targeting you, if you are a consumer and your choice to consume a product you know to be ethical.

Animal Rebellion’s energies would be much better placed, protesting outside abattoirs where non-stun slaughter takes place, because this is the real injustice for animals in the food-chain.