COUNTRYFILE viewers were LIVID after they slammed 'cheating' farmers for a 'criminal' food waste mistake.
Sundays episode of the BBC series saw Charlotte Smith exploring 'greenwashing', as she explained: "In the drive to fight climate change, big carbon imaging companies are adjusting to a new world and new ways of going green.
"That's changing our countryside, with thousands of acres being bought up and converted from growing food to growing trees.
"By planting trees to draw in carbon dioxide, companies can claim to be off-setting the carbon they omit.
"While it's vital that we plant more trees here in the UK to help tackle climate change, using farmland is controversial because after all, we still need to eat."
She then met Ben Hawkins, a young farmer who works on a dairy farm in Pembrokeshire, who is keen to buy his own farm.
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Charlotte explained how land was available across the road but companies had offered £1.7 million to plant non-native conifer trees to sell for carbon credits.
However, Ben thinks it would be a huge waste of productive land and it seems his fellow locals agreed as Charlotte revealed the company offer was pulled after the residents got up in arms about the loss of good, local farmland.
Ben was also concerned about how the big money offers were making it difficult for young potential farmers like him to get into agriculture as they cannot afford to compete with the prices being offered by the corporations, which means farming remains an older person's gamewhich doesn't bode well for the future.
Viewers agreed with all of his concerns, with one writing on Twitter: "Offsetting is cheating. And doing it by planting NON-NATIVE conifers all over land that could be producing food is criminal. FFS!"
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Another added: "Soul carbon it’s bullocks, farmers need to get on with growing food for this country, ‘carbon credits’ feed no one and planting 4 million non native trees is utter BS loads of companies doing it when you buy shoes etc we’ll be swamped with trees…if it’s true."
A third tweeted: "This carbon credits thing seems to be a way for farmers to get paid and big companies to be able to pollute at will by paying a fee."
Meanwhile a fourth shared: "Greedy farmers sold their land, orchards etc for housing development because farming has become to much hard work for many and they just can’t be a**ed but want subsidy’s for doing naff all. #countryfile poor farmers my bottom."
Countryfile airs Sundays on BBC One and is available on BBC iPlayer.
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