JB Gill, formerly one quarter of boyband JLS, has spoken about his career change to become a farmer, revealing his passion for protecting the British countryside.
The former boyband member became a farmer six years ago and is now a passionate advocate of protecting the countryside and responsible farming.
Co-presenting BBC Radio 5 live’s Afternoon Edition with Nihal Arthanayake, JB Gill said he could "probably count" the number of black farmers he has seen.
On the show, he said: “I could probably count the number of black farmers that I know or have seen, or farmers from ethnic minorities that I know or have seen.
“I don’t come from a farming background. For me it’s always been a passion about my food and acknowledging a connection with the countryside.
“I come from a Caribbean family and whenever I go back there I always know where I can get certain food items from. Here, we’ve got a much wider variation for food from all around the world and we can access it – responsibility needs to be taken to actually understand where that food has come from.”
'Extremely supportive'
JB said he was keen to use the platform he built through his music career to amplify issues facing the farming industry.
“Until it’s a crisis, sometimes you don’t even hear about it,” he said.
On announcing his surprising career change six years ago, JB said his fellow JLS band members were “slightly disbelieving” but “extremely supportive.”
He said: “It’s something I think the boys can appreciate and they understand where I’m coming from and they support it absolutely.”
JB also told the radio show that he is in favour of a deer cull and touched on the issue of rewilding.
He challenged listeners to consider that given there are over a million deer in this country – the highest level in 1,000 years – it’s important to cull deer in order to safely manage the countryside.
Countryside protection
On the proposal of widespread culling, he said: “I think there’s definitely something to be done in terms of the protection of our countryside.
“There’s also a bigger issue for farmers who are under pressure to produce more food and to sustain an industry that is growing year on year.”
In addition to culling, he discussed the idea of ‘rewilding animals’ to address the over population of deer in the countryside.
He said: “Effectively you introduce lynxes and bears back into the wild and effectively they would do the job that they were intended to do.”
