Processing the Moors

Who prefers processed food to the real article? The answer is some do but few admit to it. Among those who say they do are inevitably those engaged in the food processing industry. In business few ‘do a Ratner’.

So we should not expect the farming industry and the conservation industry to speak up against their own interests. It’s up to us.


The moors around Sheffield are processed nature and processed landscape. The vested interests spend our public money telling us that the landscape and its vegetation should be managed (read processed) and that it’s good for us that it is. They use specious slogans like ‘A Cherished and Working Landscape’ and misleading spin with words like ‘wild’ and wilderness to describe land that’s among the most managed and controlled in the country. They are shameless in pursuing what they want. A grouse moor described as a wilderness is brazen propaganda directed at the ignorant: In the same class as the marketing of processed food to the masses including children.

There are attractive managed landscapes but not here. Those need some artistry such as the landscape gardening attached to many stately homes.

Blacka Moor's advantage is that we can still find raw elements that feed our imagination.

There is only one week left to let Sheffield Moors partnership know what we think about their Master Plan to over-manage a large area of our countryside. If you’ve not done so do it now.