Today Online 9 Feb 09;
THE United Kingdom’s University of Newcastle recently surveyed 500 dairy farms and discovered that those where the cows were treated well were more productive than others.
I knew that 60 years ago in my first career as a farmer. Every one of our cows had a name; each was an individual. We pandered to their little foibles and encouraged their quirky personalities. They repaid us by producing more milk.
Then came the Farming Revolution — something like the City of London’s Big Bang, only without the same devastating consequences. Every creature was tagged with a number; they were herded, sometimes cruelly, with impartiality and insensitivity. To plough the soil became an act of powerful aggression; to sow became an act of rape.
Now the wheel is coming full circle. Why?
In my day, we treated our livestock decently because we felt at one with nature. Cattle, pigs and chickens were all part of us and we were part of them. We treated them as we would treat our own children. It produced a harmony many people do not have today.
The reasons for now reverting to this behaviour are more commercial. Treating your cows well makes you better profits. A slightly cynical approach, perhaps, but good behaviour is good for whatever reason it is practiced.
Are we becoming too cynical? The definition of a cynic is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Is that how we are looking at the world today? I fear it may be.
A good, healthy skepticism helps us to deal with liars and cheats, enables us to see through some of the promotional hyperbole that surrounds us. We must not take it too far or we shall become like the man I recently met at dinner who told me the age of morality is past.
I reacted strongly to this provocative thought, saying that my experience, especially where the young were concerned, was that there were plenty of moral people around. It’s just that the immoral ones got the headlines and made the best-selling news stories. Much of our cynicism came, I suggested, from a lack of transparency, an unwillingness to come clean even when what we had to say about ourselves was not very flattering.
My opinion has been reinforced recently by the behaviour of the British Parliament. In the UK, there is a Freedom of Information Act. Under this legislation, a great deal of information previously hidden may have to become public. The Members of Parliament at Westminster are now in the process of voting to exclude their expenses from this Act.
What a scandal. The legislators — the people who passed the Act in the first place — want to be exempt from it. Not about matters of national security but about their grubby little expense accounts.
Transparency and naming cows have a lot to do with each other. Both are acts of honour to a fellow creature, and as every Asian knows, an act of honour given is an honour doubly received. The rituals of civilised behaviour often mask underlying problems and animosities, but they do make dealing with those problems easier and more successful. We cannot gossip about what we know, only about what we suspect.
So my Lunar New Year resolution is to encourage transparency at all levels. I would like to see everybody’s wealth, income, bonus and benefits published. Those who are underpaid would have a chance of a fair deal. Those earning more than is reasonable would have to perform or bow out. The biggest benefits would be an increase in productivity and a more agreeable life.
Good behaviour is good behaviour, whatever the motive.
John Bittleston mentors people in business, career and their personal lives at www.TerrificMentors.com
