Rhiannon Stevenson: Hello and welcome to the tea break. These are just short episodes where it's me, a cup of tea, and whatever's been on my mind this week. I've actually already drank my cup of tea whilst I've been out with the dogs, but the idea still stands. This week, anyway, I had my first comment from someone who asked why I'd want to kill animals for fun. And I actually wanted to say thank you to this person because it's allowed me time to address that. And there might be lots of other people thinking the same. And if you've never spent time in this side of the countryside. I completely understand why that might be your perception. But I thought I'd explain how I think about it. And for me this has never been about killing something. It's more about understanding where food comes from. And one of the biggest changes that's happened since I became more involved in the countryside is that I've become so much more connected to the food that I eat. During the game season now for example I very rarely buy chicken From the supermarket because my freezer is full of pheasant from the shoots that I've been involved with. I know exactly where that bird has come from. I know the life that it had and I've prepared it myself. And I try to make sure as much of that bird is used as possible. Outside of that, I do try and buy as much as I can from local butchers and farm shops. I really love knowing the people that I'm buying from. I like knowing where something was reared and how it was produced. And there's something really satisfying about knowing the story behind your food. I do think we've become really quite disconnected from the food that we buy, and it's very easy to walk around the shops and pick up a neatly packaged chicken breast or a cut of steak or even a bag of lentils. and never really think about the animal or the journey behind it. Personally, I would much rather know my food story than pretend it doesn't have one. And all food does have a story behind it, whether it's meat or plant based. Spending time in the countryside has really made me face that reality rather than ignore it and understand it and appreciate it. It hasn't made me eat more meat and if anything, it's made me value it more. it's made me waste less and buy more locally and think much more carefully about what ends up on my plate. And one example of how my thinking has changed recently is deer stalkin. Until about a year ago I wasn't keen on the idea at all. I love seeing deer in the countryside and I just couldn't reconcile how someone could enjoy watching them one day and then choose to shoot one the next. But instead of deciding that I already knew the answer, I decided to start asking some more questions instead. And the more I've spoken to deer stalkers and learned about deer management in the UK, I realize there's so much more to it than simply going out and shooting a deer. I've learned about the training and the qualifications involved to make sure that it's done safely and humanely. I've learned about the management of healthy populations and removing animals that are elderly, injured, or suffering, as well as the wider role deer management can play in looking after woodland and other habitats. So that d you know, it doesn't mean that everybody has to agree with it, but once I realised that my original opinion had been based on very little understanding, I am actually hoping to give Dear Stalker a go soon myself. But before I do I'm going on a butchery day because I feel if I'm going to take responsibility for an animal's life, I also think I should take responsibility for understanding how to prepare it and to make full use of it. And that feels like the respectful thing to do. And that's really what this podcast is about. It's not about trying to convince anybody to think like I do. I just want to encourage people to be curious enough to try and understand a world that they might not know very much about. And I appreciate not everyone will feel the same, and that's absolutely fine. Some people choose to be vegetarian or vegan and I do respect that. In fact, I've got a future guest coming on the podcast who is vegetarian. But it's also learning how to play shoot and I think that's gonna be a really interesting conversation because like I say, the countryside isn't one single way of thinking. But for me personally, if I'm going to eat meat, I feel a responsibility to to the best of my ability understand where it comes from and eating wild game that's lived a natural life and supporting local farmers and local businesses where I can, and wasting as little as possible is kind of my aim at the moment and that's one of the things as well that I hope this podcast can do is not necessarily to change anyone's mind but to help people understand a perspective that they perhaps haven't come across before. You don't have to agree with everything here either to find it interesting. And I think the more we're willing to have conversations rather than arguments, the better we'll all be at understanding each other. So thank you for listening to my little rambling thoughts this week and I hope I'll see you next week for another tea break.