Eric Freeman (8 September 1932 – 29 October 2023) was an English farmer and broadcaster.
Biography
Freeman was born into a
dairy farming
Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or ...
family in 1932.
He completed his
formal education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...
at the age of 16.
Later, he and his brother Barrie established a
poultry
Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quails, a ...
processing business that expanded with the introduction of
electric plucking machines.
By the late 1970s, the Freeman brothers' operation had grown to process 40,000
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
s weekly.
In the late 1980s, Freeman shifted his focus towards the conservation of rare
livestock
Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...
breeds, notably working to prevent the extinction of
Old Gloucester cattle, a
breed
A breed is a specific group of domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist several slig ...
once prevalent in his region.
His efforts extended to other traditional breeds such as the
Gloucester Old Spots pig and the
Cotswold sheep
The Cotswold is a British breed of domestic sheep. It originates in, and is named for, the Cotswold hills of the southern midlands of England. It is a large long-woollen sheep, and is kept as a dual-purpose breed, providing both meat and woo ...
, contributing to their preservation at a time when such breeds were not widely recognized for their value.
Freeman was actively involved in the revival of traditional agricultural practices and rural customs.
His contributions to the field of conservation were recognized with awards, including one from
Prince Charles
Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...
in 2013.
He also engaged in
broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution (business), distribution of sound, audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio ...
, sharing his knowledge on programs such as
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
's ''
Farming Today
''Farming Today'' is a radio programme about food, farming, and the countryside broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom.
It is broadcast each weekday morning (having been recorded the day before) from 5.45 to 5.58, and a longer programme ...
'' and the television program ''
Two Fat Ladies
''Two Fat Ladies'' was a British cooking programme starring Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright. It originally ran for four series and twenty-four episodes, from 9 October 1996 to 28 September 1999, being produced by Optomen Televisio ...
''.
Freeman was also a founding member of the
Rare Breeds Survival Trust
The Rare Breeds Survival Trust is a conservation charity whose purpose is to secure the continued existence and viability of the native farm animal genetic resources (FAnGR) of the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1973 by Joe Henson to prese ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freeman, Eric
1932 births
2023 deaths
English broadcasters
20th-century English farmers