Conflict of opinion - So the debate over genetically modified crops again comes to the fore with Anne, the Princess Royal, saying the crops have important benefits for providing food and health benefits for animals and she would be open to growing them on her own land.

Many will have heard her telling the BBC Radio 4’s early morning Farming Today programme that she would be happy to use GM for crops and livestock on her own farming estate in Gloucestershire and, she said: “To say we mustn’t go there ‘just in case’ is probably not a practical argument.”

Her thoughts probably do not add much new to the long-running debate, but she’s right and Scotland’s former chief scientific officer, Professor Anne Glover, is right to back her.

I’m advised that there are roughly 180 million hectares worldwide growing GM crops across the United States, Brazil, India, Canada, China, Pakistan, South Africa, Spain, and Sudan but, in 2015, 19 of the 28 nations in the European Union issued orders prohibiting the cultivation of biotech crops within their borders.

It seems that the countries with the most mouths to feed and some of the greatest challenges around food see that the practical benefits provided by these crops outweigh the potential and theoretical risks to the environment or humans.

The Scottish Government is, apparently, against the cultivation of GM crops because it believes they “could damage Scotland’s rich environment and would threaten our reputation for producing high quality and natural foods. It would also damage Scotland’s image as a land of food and drink.”

It would appear that the unscientific stance is a luxury the Scottish Government thinks we can afford at the moment, but it has to be wondered what that decision says about us as a nation.

Easter Week

Rural readers of this column may well relate to this Easter message: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (ibid.). How can we fail to see in these words an implicit reference to the mystery of the Lord’s Death and Resurrection? “I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord, and I have power to take it again” (Jn 10:17-18).

Christ freely offered himself on the cross and rose by virtue of his own divine power. Therefore, the allegory of the good shepherd has a strongly paschal character, and for this reason, the church proposes it for your reflection during this Easter season.

“I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father” (Jn 10:14-15).

From the mystery of God’s eternal knowledge, from the intimacy of Trinitarian love spring the priesthood and the pastoral mission of Christ, who says: “I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd” (Jn 10:15-16). We exalt him above all for Christ, who in his Death and Resurrection became the cornerstone of the divine building (cf. Ps 117 [118]:22). The church is built on him, and the royal priesthood of every baptised person and still more the ministerial priesthood of presbyters is founded on him.

‘Hatches, matches and dispatches’

A reader reminds me of how the general introduction of the telephone led to the demise of the telegram service.

“How many of us started our working life in a job that is now defunct? I was 16-years-old when WWII broke out. The end of my school years. As I would be called up for National Service at age 18, the headmistress suggested I work in the head office of the General Post Office as that was considered a reserved occupation.

The head GPO Office was in the East Midlands, a market town with the leather trade being the main industry.

After some training, I started work on the counter but, as the young men employees were called to the Army, Navy, RAF or Bevin Boy Service (their reserved status no longer applied), I was later trained as a teleprinter operator.

The head offices throughout the UK had a telegraph room with teleprinters and phonograms switchboard and special typewriters with keyboards identical to the creed teleprinter machines -teleprinters could send and receive at the same time and could link up with any GPO telegraph room in the kingdom.

The Central Telegraph Office in London was the biggest of its kind in the world and would transmit cablegrams to overseas destinations using very curious and complicated instruments.

In my time, telegrams were nine words for a shilling and one penny for each word after that. Telegram provided a service for many of life’s emergencies, its low and high points. Hatches, matches and dispatches!

The commercial ones were often in code or business jargon. Racing and betting had a language of its own. We sometimes had ones in Welsh or Gaelic - a favourite wedding greeting to Scotland often said ‘ Lang May your Lum Reek’ (long may your chimney smoke).

Greeting telegrams were cancelled during the war. Sadly, we had many from the War Office, Admiralty and Air Ministry announcing killed in action, missing or wounded servicemen. These were always sent priority and would never be ’phoned to the recipient (although few people had ’phones in those days).

We would tell the telegram boys of the grave message. If no boys were handy for immediate delivery we would get the telegram delivered by Post Office van or, on Sundays, by the police.

There was constant hurry and bustle in a telegraph room. A telegram is timed at every step of its journey.

The teleprinter receives on quarter inch tape which is gummed on the reverse side and adhered to the telegram pad. Each transaction is numbered and all have to be accounted for at both sending and receiving points.

When the tape was nearing the end of the spool it would ‘pink’ so we would ask the operator to cease sending until we refilled the machine. As operators, we had our own lingo - TKS VM OM meant, thanks very much old man.

We always called each other ‘old man,’ don’t know why, we often didn’t know the sex of the distance operator. We operated at a steady speed, sometimes we accidentally transposed letters and, occasionally, the cylindrical inkers would come off their posts and the tape would get fainter and fainter, we would then have to stop the distant operator and explain INKERS OFF OM (all teleprinting was in capitals). Once a colleague transposed the ‘I’ and the ‘N,’ much to the amusement of the staff.

The GPO killed off telegrams in 1982 due to the widespread use of the telephone - where do we go next? (contributed)

Green machines

In a recent column, I referred to the little grey Fergie as an icon of farming history. A ’phone call reminded me that the Fergie is no longer grey but Massey Harris Ferguson red. Other changes include the demise of the Ford tractor in place of the New Holland brand (still blue), what was the white David Brown became a red Case International and, replacing what was a green, yellow or blue Standard Fordson is a whole new range of green machines, Claas, Deutz, Fendt and John Deere - all of whom have made a huge impact on British agriculture but are largely built on the continent.

Learning

She said: “I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one. I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Remember

The people who really care about you won’t have to tell you they care: They’ll show you.