Gen Z — of which I am a proactive and salient member — have spoken. And they have said that farmers are better champions of the countryside than politicians. We like Jeremy Clarkson and David Attenborough. The arcadia of England is good for our mental health but bad for our mobile-phone signal. We do not trust politicians when it comes to countryside issues.
Our thoughts have been revealed by a recent poll commissioned ahead of the Future Countryside Conference. It's no surprise that only 4% of my generation rated politicians as the ‘best champions’ of the countryside. With the duplicitous antics of the recent run of prime ministers, who can blame us? Gen Z is generally defined as those born between 1997 and 2012. From then until the present day, ‘lying’ has become as synonymous with ‘politics’ as bread is with butter, fish is with chips, and our generation is with avocado toast and untenable debt. When we see politicians in the press engaging with rural affairs, they are in wellington boots that don’t have even a speck of mud on them. We don’t buy it.
We do trust farmers (32%), and our other countryside champions are ‘residents in a village or rural area’ (15%), ‘activists or environmental campaigners’ (12%) and ‘well-known TV presenters’ (10%). Our top picks? The behemoth of Amazon, Jeremy Clarkson (17%) and the indisputable King of Nature Sir David Attenborough — who received a whopping 37% of the vote. Sir David’s documentary Wild Isles came top when the cohort was asked which TV show best represents country life, closely followed by Clarkson's Farm and Countryfile.
David Attenborough is looking good for a man who has been rizzing up rural affairs since 1926.
Prince William with Kaleb Cooper and Charlie Ireland, both stars of Clarkson's Farm.
Additionally, more than half of Gen Z who were interviewed said that social media had influenced their decision to visit the countryside. And, with my Instagram clogged up with videos of rolling hills, clear-blue Scottish lochs and bountiful floral meadows all set to either Matt Berry’s Take My Hand or Daydream in Blue by I Monster, I can see why. In an increasingly frightening digital age, composed of bad news and even-worse news, a countryside escape seems more appealing than ever.
The research, conducted by ORB, also found that 36% of those who answered said that they visited the countryside to improve their mental health. Of the remaining individuals, 34% did so to connect with the natural world and watch wildlife and 30% did so for exercise. The most commonly referenced reasons for not visiting included a perceived lack of time (70%), transport costs (68%) and distance (73%). Many respondents also spoke about confusion over where they were able to visit certain areas and being put off by a lack of internet and phone signal. It’s true. We are all addicted to our phones.
The research concluded by revealing that more than 80% of my generation viewed the countryside as welcoming and worth preserving, but that only 24% of the 1,000 individuals polled would live there. Probably because, as lovely as rural life is, we just don’t know how available avocado toast would be.
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