At the exact moment farming finds itself most in need of our support, farmers are finding the love and the loyalty they have enjoyed for decades starting to wear thin.
Another reason few understand farming is the lack of jobs in farming and opportunities to have a small farm now compared with previously. When nearly every worker has been replaced with an expensive (subsidised) machine and you have so few opportunities in farming rural communities are no longer farm workers nor allies of farmers even. Only 3 generations ago whole communities would have been employed and helped at least during harvest time etc. the disconnect is huge and farmers isolated. Improving machinery and technology has brought a different set of problems. Rural unemployment and migration to cities since industrialisation has transformed the whole country. It all started long ago with the enclosure act when they seized communal land that made living in these areas viable for so many commoners impossible. And so under 250 years later here we are. A ruined landscape and a general population totally ignorant of nature and food production.
I really hope the government has a come to Jesus moment and realises that this is an easy thing to fund and we would get infinite dividends from strengthening and increasing the reach and budget of ELM. Great read!
Great article Ben. Farmers have failed to accept responsibility for their fundamental role in the ecological damage to our countryside and wildlife. Small farms have just been about survival for decades and the large conglomerates just about profit. The countryside is the capital they have now exhausted. With growing veganism and alternatives to farmed meat livestock farming is dead. A realisation needs to take place that conventional farming is over in this country and alternative uses for the majority of the nations land will soon appear the obvious path.
You are likely to be trolled but keep writing these thoughtful pieces Ben, they are crucial. Understanding the complexity of the politics and the policy is beyond most folk as they succumb to the scourge of shifting baselines. Your kind of pragmatism will help. More power to you.
Another reason few understand farming is the lack of jobs in farming and opportunities to have a small farm now compared with previously. When nearly every worker has been replaced with an expensive (subsidised) machine and you have so few opportunities in farming rural communities are no longer farm workers nor allies of farmers even. Only 3 generations ago whole communities would have been employed and helped at least during harvest time etc. the disconnect is huge and farmers isolated. Improving machinery and technology has brought a different set of problems. Rural unemployment and migration to cities since industrialisation has transformed the whole country. It all started long ago with the enclosure act when they seized communal land that made living in these areas viable for so many commoners impossible. And so under 250 years later here we are. A ruined landscape and a general population totally ignorant of nature and food production.
I really hope the government has a come to Jesus moment and realises that this is an easy thing to fund and we would get infinite dividends from strengthening and increasing the reach and budget of ELM. Great read!
Great article Ben. Farmers have failed to accept responsibility for their fundamental role in the ecological damage to our countryside and wildlife. Small farms have just been about survival for decades and the large conglomerates just about profit. The countryside is the capital they have now exhausted. With growing veganism and alternatives to farmed meat livestock farming is dead. A realisation needs to take place that conventional farming is over in this country and alternative uses for the majority of the nations land will soon appear the obvious path.
The world needs more people like you
You are likely to be trolled but keep writing these thoughtful pieces Ben, they are crucial. Understanding the complexity of the politics and the policy is beyond most folk as they succumb to the scourge of shifting baselines. Your kind of pragmatism will help. More power to you.
Someone needs to send Starmer a copy of Amy Bateman’s ‘Forty Farms’… – and make him read every single page.