Enthusing about genetically modified crops and dismissing the effects of climate change and veganism couldn’t be further away from the green views of Prince Charles.
But these are the very forthright opinions of his sister, Princess Anne.
Giving a rare interview to mark her 70th birthday next month, the Queen’s fiercely independent daughter jokes that her conversations with her elder brother are by necessity ‘short’ due to their wildly differing opinions.
Charles has openly lobbied against genetically modified crops, but Anne counters: ‘It has been an enormous advantage in many parts of the world to use GM wisely for very specific environments.
Asked if she and Charles have conversations about farming, Anne quips: ‘Yes… occasionally, but rather short.’
‘It makes it much more likely to be able to grow what you need.
‘I have to remind people that rapeseed oil was only made non-toxic to humans by the Canadians after the Second World War by genetically modifying the plant.
‘It’s [ironically] quite popular with all those people who don’t like GM.’
Asked if she and Charles have conversations about farming, she quips: ‘Yes… occasionally, but rather short.’
‘I don’t go down the climate change route’
The princess was speaking to Australian Women’s Weekly magazine via a video call from Gatcombe Park, the 500-acre Gloucestershire estate and farm where she has spent lockdown.
Princes William and Harry as well as Charles have linked last year’s devastating Australian bushfires to climate change, but Anne said: ‘I don’t even go down the climate change route.
‘I think the way people manage ground is part of the discussion… Climate changes all the time. It has done so throughout the globe’s history, so there’s nothing new under the sun.
The Queen’s fiercely independent daughter Anne (left) jokes that her conversations with her elder brother Charles (right) are by necessity ‘short’ due to their wildly differing opinions
‘Somehow, we’ve got to learn that our kind of life is changing. We’ve got to remember to respect what’s out there and how to live with it.’
Talking with admiration of Australia’s indigenous population, she said: ‘They’ve got a lot more knowledge and I suspect their ability to pass on the relevant knowledge is better than us.
‘First Nations people have a much better understanding of what the dangers are, and fire would have been a massive danger throughout their existence.
‘They know Australia a lot better than anybody else. I suspect they existed in quite a lot of climate changes already.’
Anne on veganism: ‘You can’t have a world without lifestock’
Anne was also forthright over veganism, saying: ‘You can’t have a world without livestock. They are a necessary and very constructive part of our expectation to feed ourselves.
‘Perhaps my biggest irritation is single-issue groups… We need livestock as part of the genuine mix that keeps land healthy.’
Anne’s children Peter and Zara, and their families live on neighbouring Aston Farm.
She says her grandchildren – both Zara’s girls Mia, six, and Lena, two, and Peter Phillips’s daughters, Savannah, nine, and Isla, eight – all ride.
‘They do occasionally come over,’ she says. ‘It gives them a change of scenery and a bit more water to play in.
‘I think on the whole you’re very lucky if you can have children growing up on farms.
‘They have more time to themselves; there’s an expectation that they will actually go out and enjoy themselves on their own. You don’t watch them every minute of the day. That is quite important.
Anne turned down titles for her children when they were born, as Prince Harry and Meghan have done with son, Archie
She says she wouldn’t live anywhere but the country, saying: ‘I’ve never been a city girl. There was never a question of living in London. It was not a world for me.’ Above, her Gatcombe Park home in Gloucestershire
‘You also get to understand that if you have livestock and animals, that is part of the deal, you look after them. They’re not just a radish! If you want one, you have to look after it.
‘So ponies, dogs, whatever… that’s all part of the deal… You have to try to get the message across that you have to work hard to keep a place like this.’
She is not sure whether she will pass Gatcombe on to them, however, admitting her ‘old’ house is expensive to run.
‘My children have done incredibly well’
Anne turned down titles for her children when they were born, as Prince Harry and Meghan have done with son, Archie.
She described having a title as a ‘very mixed blessing’. But she said her children had done ‘incredibly well’.
Zara won silver in the team event at the London 2012 Olympics and was presented her medal by her mother
Daughter Zara, married to former England rugby star Mike Tindall, followed in her mother’s footsteps to compete in the Olympic games in equestrian.
Anne was the first British royal to compete in the Olympics, when she too competed in equestrian at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal – she also won gold in the 1971 European Eventing Championships and two silver medals in 1975.
Zara meanwhile won silver in the team event at London 2012 and was presented her medal by her mother.
Her son Peter toured South Africa with the Scottish rugby team and now runs a sports entertainment agency.
She says she wouldn’t live anywhere but the country, saying: ‘I’ve never been a city girl. There was never a question of living in London. It was not a world for me.’
Anne says she has embraced the farming life for close to five decades now, and for the past 27 years has been joined in her passion by her second husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, focusing on rare-breed cattle, sheep, pigs, horses – with the pigs allowed to roam in their woodland.
However she said that she had not originally intended to take up farming.
She said that when she was given the estate as a gift from the Queen after her marrying first husband Captain Mark Phillips, that it had ‘more land than we intended getting’.
Anne added that she still rides her horses every day and described her racehorse called Cloud Formation as ‘the nicest, best-behaved horse I’ve had in years’.