So just who's laughing now? asks green prince

Published on Thursday 5 April 2007 01:25

PRINCE Charles has claimed his long-running campaign to protect rare livestock has been vindicated despite facing a "chorus of ridicule".

The prince, an environmental campaigner who owns an organic farm, said it was no surprise that there had been a shift back towards protecting heritage livestock and crops.

There are about 50 rare breeds of livestock in the UK today, and a surge in consumer demand for them, coupled with a change in farm subsidies favouring the more environmentally-aware farmer, has meant a growing number of threatened breeds are being taken off the "at risk" list.

The list includes several native Scottish breeds such as the Belted Galloway cow and the Shetland and Hebridean sheep, which have all been removed from the Rare Breeds Survival Trust's endangered register.

"Hundreds of varieties have been lost, wonderful things that our forefathers took enormous trouble to develop, which in many cases are resistant to all sorts of prevalent diseases," the prince said in an interview on Gardener's Question Time to be broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on Sunday.

"Which is why I've been going on for all these years - to a chorus of ridicule - about the importance of protecting and preserving rare native breeds of cattle, sheep, pig and chicken.

"And sure enough, now, surprise, surprise, they're beginning to come back," he said in the interview, which will mark the show's 60th anniversary.

The prince blamed "crazy" European Union laws for a sharp fall in the variety of plant seeds on sale and warned that this risked leading to a rise in plant diseases.

Charles has often been mocked for his views. When he revealed he liked talking to plants, the Sun published a photograph captioned: "A loon with his thoughts."

Lawrence Alderson, chairman of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, said the recovery of rare breeds was down to hard-headed business sense and old-fashioned sentiment.