A provocative essay Mr Roussinos, may I put the case for the other side? A 900 acre arable farm, in say East Anglia, receives a pathetic public subsidy of about £90K pa, under the ‘Single Payment’ system. For seven months of unremitting toil, under a leaden East Anglian sky, where the east wind is ” like a wetted knife” and all the way from Omsk, that is derisory. Additionally you have enough mechanical paraphernalia to maintain, that could otherwise be used to equip a Panzer Division. The only real benefit is Inheritance Tax Relief (IHT), which ensures your children and grandchildren will be ‘shackled to the plough’ forever. The other meagre respite is to be found in those five glorious months, that can be devoted to that greatest of all English pastimes, Bloodsports! On an epic scale, probably not seen since the halcyon days of Ancient Rome, and now also under threat from deranged urbanites, who view the countryside through the miasma of Beatrix Potter.
Why not sell the farm to Aris? He’s raring to g(r)ow.
And if the east wind is so powerful can’t you grow some of those wind turbines and profit from the particular subsidy racket? (If you have too much integrity to do that, I commend you).
Yes those wind turbines are very tempting, I gather Cameron’s father-in-law has some. From the rental of even one, you can send a boy to Eton. However I agree with you they are an absolute abomination that desecrates the English landscape like no other malignant structure. They are the all too visible symbol of the Great Green Hoax, that is proselytised by cretins such as Greta Turdberg, the “Swedish Eco Goblin” and many others.
Well, they are static and don’t move for one thing. The human eye is a hunter’s eye and is attracted by movement. Hence the unique visibility and ugliness of Wind Turbines.
Anyway isn’t this all a bit anachronistic, as Coal Fired Power Stations and their Cooling Towers are on their way out? Let’s go Nuclear and be done with it. We are not that idiotic old fraud the USSR, if you take my meaning.
That’s a laugh. Agricultural land is hardly wilderness, and it drives out wildlife (that which you’re not slaughtering for ‘sport’). There’s very little real, natural countryside in a lot of the UK.
Well, there are odd hills, such as the Grampians, but yes we are grossly overcrowded and it’s getting worse.
Off course we could try “wilding” the whole place. I gather there has been a very successful experiment on a two thousand acre farm in Sussex, for example.
Perhaps that and C-19 would have some very beneficial results as far as population management/harvesting go?
With the exception of some more recent changes to hedgerows to allow for larger machinery, the agricultural landscape is broadly the same as pre-Roman times in the UK.
Although, more rare animals existed outside of these areas and in the forests and uplands (wolves, boar etc).
“..the agricultural landscape is broadly the same as pre-Roman times in the UK.” Truly? I would have thought that more land would be covered by forests?!
Apparently not the case I was also surprised to learn as a side aspect of my undergrad degree – I think it was a myth perpetuated by the Victorians that the land was far more forested in the pre-industrial and even pre-medieval era. The advent of pollen graphs have somewhat debunked the myth since.
Pollen studies in Kent, Sussex, East Anglia etc point to an overwhelming consistency of land being a mix of arable/wooded lands for millennia, and many of our current field boundaries have existed since at least the immediate pre-Roman era.
I may stand corrected on other wider parts of the UK – but those were specifics I remember as part of a broader trend
The nature of modern agricultural inputs and the ability of the modern farmer to Blitz everything but the crop he wants means it may look the same but underneath the land is turning into a sterile growth medium rather than a lush ecological system thriving on the strength of its biomass and and teeming life
It shouldn’t. But you could say the same of many things including wind turbines and other energy scales, almost all the so-called ‘arts’ and the vast majority of the ‘charity sector’. If I had my time again I would have hopped aboard one of these rackets at an early age.
Michael Dawson
3 years ago
I wonder if Aris has ever worked on a farm or allotment? It is physically hard work, requires your presence at all times (if you have animals) or most of the time (arable) and is subject to the vagaries of the weather, pests and diseases, especially if going down the organic route. I’d be interested in seeing the trading accounts of some of the smallholders he cites as exemplars. I suspect that any surplus to pay themselves a wage or distribute in dividends is very small – and certainly a long way below the minimum wage when divided by the hours worked. This form of living could only be sustainable for most people if they had an alternative source of income, or an existing fortune off which they could live. I’m not against the vision he sets out, but I just don’t think it is realistic on anything like the scale the headline suggests.
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago
Oh please, spare us this nonsense. I can see Aris now, loading his small and manky crop of green beans on to the 19th century sail boat he was eulogising the other day. And by the time the boat reaches its destination the beans will be has-beens.
Yes, the EU’s CAP is evil but the likes of Aris love the EU so they can’t complain. The fact is that the EU exists to benefit large landowners and large banks and corporations. And still the likes of Aris defend it…
Meanwhile, in one trip to a market or supermarket I can get all the fruit and veg I need for a week, for three pounds or so. And it takes about 20 minutes, all thanks to the efficiency of modern farming. On these small farms that Arils is romanticising, hours of work would produce enough vegetables for perhaps one meal.
I have long seen it as a trade off. Yes, the landowners receive completely immoral and unjustified subsidies from an evil EU. But I get a supply of plentiful and cheap fruit and veg. Yes, I know that many of the people on the farms are immigrants working for very low wages, but most of them (like those working n the garment factories in Leicester) should not be in the Europe or the UK anyway, so they can’t really complain.
To me, this piece is merely an anti-captitalist polemic masquerading as an article about farming reform (it even includes the phrase “Contemporary capitalism is vanishing on its own, collapsing from internal contradictions”). It’s a shame because I think Aris makes some valid points, especially with regard to the impact of industrial farming, the destruction of the natural environment and our tendency towards over-consumption.
Stephen J
3 years ago
You can guarantee that if there are socialists leading this posited small farm renaissance, it will end in abject failure, just like everything else that is of that ilk.
James Blott
3 years ago
I find it depressing that so few people have any understanding whatsoever of our countryside and even want to share their ignorance with the outside world by writing articles like this. Has the writer ever visited the countryside?
Andrew D
3 years ago
Aris writes well and persuasively, but then it doesn’t take much for ruralist-romantic followers of William Cobbett like me to be persuaded. And as one who lives amidst the dismal, monocultural agri-plains of East Anglia, I’m all for this. However, it’s difficult to see how we can achieve such a rebalancing without a huge transfer of land ownership, while also avoiding centralised Soviet or Socialist-type solutions, which can only lead to poverty and famine. Perhaps the model should be something like the Land Settlement Act (1919), which allowed local authorities to buy farmland and rent it out as smallholdings? Giving the little platoons of micro-farmers the right to buy in due course? The main thing is to keep it local.
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago
The usual load of anti-capitalist wishful thinking. Then this:
‘It is safe to say that Thatcher’s experiment failed…’
No, Thatcher’s return to a few tried and trusted free-market fundamentals saved the country. It was not an experiment, and it worked. Sadly, as discussed yesterday, she did not have time to take on Britain’s eternally grasping and incompetent state bodies. It was the total financialization of the economy under New Labour (in the UK) and Clinton (in the US) that failed.
Anyway,, good luck with achieving national self reliance in terms of food on an over-populated island with thousands more coming in every day. And good luck with paying for accommodation, energy, council tax, BBC tax, clothing, transport and all the rest of it by growing a few vegetables in an unpredictable and often malign climate. The truth is that we will need intensive and ‘vertical’ farming more than ever. And that’s great, because it means I can feed myself for a week with about 15 minutes of work.
A Spetzari
3 years ago
Smaje suggests that as a result, “something like Detroit may soon be coming to a sleepy English village near you”. Reading the entrails of the present for a vision of the near future, where “chronically growing debt, stagnant growth and rising inequality”
Much of rural England (and wider Britain let’s not forget) has long been killed off to a certain degree. Limited public transport, fewer job opportunities, closure of most local shops, banks etc, exacerbated in some areas by over-inflated house prices from richer people choosing second homes in the more picturesque and easy-access rural retreats.
There’s a reason why many rural areas have some of the worst (certainly per capita) drug, crime and unemployment issues in the country. Seems like Smaje hasn’t been paying attention at all.
The solution isn’t to go back to the future with idealistic visions of a UK-wide hippy commune.
Remote working has never been more feasible, and with the correct application of technology and investment, farming has never been more efficient. We can adapt to provide a greater portion of our own needs without massacring our prospects and future generation’s prospects. Move away from a purely urban economic model without reverting to some rose-tinted deleted scene from an ITV Thomas Hardy adaptation…
Liz Davison
3 years ago
Some of the wishful thinking here reflects what is happening in France already. Many people of all classes and political persuasions are keen to buy locally-sourced produce. It’s no more expensive than the other French stuff but is a bit pricier than equivalents from Spain. But the choice is on a small scale, if popular. I think the supermarkets who stock some of it run it as a loss-leader to encourage shoppers to buy it with their other big shop items instead of visiting one of the several roadside stalls run by local growers.
Of course growing this produce is water-intensive which is why Spain’s rivers are running dry, but in Britain many items could be grown and help to drain rivers which would burst their banks due to lack of dredging. Sitting in the south of France we’re constantly amazed at the drought warnings and water restrictions in a country which overall has much higher rainfall than we do down here and yet we have fewer restrictions. And then in the autumn, winter and spring towns get flooded. What is wrong with planners in Britain? Why don’t they build more reservoirs?
My other concern would be finding affordable housing for all these would-be farm workers since only a few will be landowners with a proper farmhouse and outbuildings.
This is an interesting article but is a bit light on practicalities. Would voracious British supermarkets willingly sell local produce at a price which would please shoppers and return a decent profit to the grower? There’s a lot more public pressure here for such initiatives.
What is wrong with planners in Britain? Why don’t they build more reservoirs?
Partly topography I believe – although might be corrected by someone more knowledgeable.
The South-eastern half of the UK is one of the flattest and driest parts of Europe, and amongst its most populous. And even the more hilly areas are a lot less dramatic than most other European countries.
Robin Taylor
3 years ago
As you correctly point out, prior to “the Covid crash there is the spectre of automation and AI which threatens to wipe out what remains of skilled labour and much of the already-insecure white collar economy”. Covid will definitely hasten the decimation of employment in the West. Inefficient and often more labour intensive companies will go to the wall; if and when new ones crop up they will more likely employ new technology than labour. Incomes for many, tax revenues & social welfare will all be badly hit. This was the prospect prior to Covid, but now, after a few weeks of lockdown, we are seeing hundreds of people applying for one supermarket delivery driver job. Yet, the worst of the fallout is still to come; there will be many more insolvencies and redundancies in coming months.
The most depressing thing however has been the lack of acknowledgement across Western economies about the increasing impact of automation & AI let alone having any sort of strategy for dealing with it. Even if the Government doesn’t positively support the sector, the young may well start to embrace small scale farming simply because there will be fewer alternatives. It has already started happening in the rural community where I live and the quality of the food they are producing is second to none. Anyone with the energy to ‘give it a go’ should get our support because there are certainly difficult times ahead for sure.
Even if you think the restrictions are absurd, things aren’t going back to “normal” any time soon.
The commuter culture has taken a torpedo, millions realise they don’t need to go to the office, and company managers begin to realise they don’t need to pay for one. This will destroy a big piece of central London’s consumer culture and heavily impact commercial real estate. These things aren’t going to be the same.
I don’t think so; plenty of people have discovered that they can do the same job from home. No need to schlep 90m every day to office and back home. May be they can spend 2/3 days in the office per week.
Nick Whitehouse
3 years ago
Another article which is high on emotions, but low on logical thought. The country had this argument 170 years ago, with the repeal of the Corn Laws. Although the protectionist EU has rather muddied the waters.
There are two choices make farming all bucolic and a lovely place for towns folk to visit, or feed the people.
As I do not wish to starve, I know which side I am on.
“Although the protectionist EU…” Since EU trades with the rest of the world under WTO system how can it be protectionist? More of EU international trade is covered by FTAs than other similar “countries” (USA, Russia, China, India, Japan etc.)
Matt K
3 years ago
Lead the way then Aris…
Or similar time next week for the next lot of essays? What will it be this time?
Probably something about weaving our own underwear from thistles.
James Evans
3 years ago
“a radical agrarian populism is developing among a network of thoughtful smallholder-writers”
Yes… call me an awful old cynic if you will… but “smallholder writers” don’t sound (to me) like the kind of people to bet the farm on. So to speak.
It’s lovely that trendy metropolitan types want to pretend to know what soil is, but I’m not totally sure that they realise that you can get dirty from touching it.
Still, let’s hope that the next theory on “how to grow things that people want to eat” is as entertaining as this one. Perhaps the eager beavers at the Polytechnic of Islington will come up trumps again.
malcolmwhitmore18
3 years ago
Aris makes a clear proposal to address the big problem that Government faces and is misunderstood by most of the corres[ondents who take the short term view of the crisis we are in. The crisis of underemployment for the population has been foreseen for many years and Aris makes the only feasible proposal that I have seen. Technological progress has reduced the amount of work needed to survive and the system of governing by increasing the GDP has brought us to the twin crises of Climate Change and the destruction of the natural world and turning the job prospects for an increasing proportion of citizens an alternative between serving in the local pub or commuting to London to manage people serving in the pub. The fundamental problem is that without jobs the government cannot control the population and the prospect of civil breakdown becomes real.We are at that point now with the pandemic making it more acute. The Chancellor is looking for creative answers to his problems this is the solution that he should prioritise.
Jeremy Smith
3 years ago
if UK GOV does sign those trade deals with USA, Can, Aus, EU etc. most farmers will go bust.
Steve Gwynne
3 years ago
Nice summary of the Land Movement in the UK at the moment. I’m fairly acquainted with many of the people you reference and whilst I don’t always agree with their Progressive politics, I think their heart is in the right place and unlike many of the Tory libertarians who seem to comment here these days, they do acknowledge the looming human growth crisis.
Hence their strategy is to create national resilience, sustainability and sufficiency from the bottom up and should be commended as they seek to readdress the balance between the needs of humans and the needs of the rest of Nature. Their view is one of creating anew within the old system so yes they can be annoying Marxists at times but they are successful at what they do.
Other organisations that need a mention are the Landworkers Alliance, the Ecological Land Cooperative and FarmHack which helps to train new entrants.
I live on my allotment (unofficially) as a demonstrator model of low impact urban living and I grow most of my perishable food needs which also requires food preservation. I’d say, averaged out over the year, then food self reliance is a part time job including soil cultivation, fertility, propogation, preserving. It is relentless work and so is not ideal as a goal orientated lifestyle where you can finish a project with a good rest. It is constant throughout the year depending on the agroecological conditions.
The biggest barrier to small scale farming is planning, not land as such. With some English councils like Shropshire more lenient and will fast track sustainable development initiatives, but overall England is very backward in this regard. Wales of course has its One Planet Development (OPD) planning rules but are currently out of favour with locals who see English migration a threat to their culture, land and house prices.
The ideal is that the new national planning framework will incorporate a less onerous form of OPD and allow temporary dwellings to be erected along the lines of Scottish hutting regulations. My shed is fully insulated, built from recycled timber and anything else I could find in skips and is a solid structure that is built off the ground which will easily last a hundred years or more. The roof, the prime weakness of any temporary dwelling is ply board and rubber sheeting with the recently added extra protection of a cut to size marque canvas and large pieces of multi layered felt that I scavenged from a derelict shed.
Easily the most gratifying aspect of this back to the land lifestyle is the emergence of an ecological consciousness that evaporates the modern boundaries of ecology and culture.
ðŸµï¸ðŸ’®ðŸ’—ðŸ
Will D. Mann
1 year ago
Livestock farming, especial poultry and pigs but increasingly beef and dairy is now a largely industrial process where animals kept in sheds are fed on grain and soya, most of which is imported from Brazil, USA and Canada. Today’s typical diet contains far more meat and dairy than before WW2.
Good farm land is expensive, over £10,000 per acre. Smallholdings ( with accommodation or planning permission) £1000, 000 +. Any one considering taking up farming will need a considerable amount of capital
Food is cheap in comparison to the costs of production. To make a living on a small farm one needs a high value niche product to sell to more affluent middle class customers who often live in urban centres long distances from places with affordable smallholdings.
Finally one must consider the total land mass of the UK divided by population works out at about 5 acres per person ( not taking into account areas of mountain, bog, towns and cities)
The vision for farming in this article is feasible, maybe even necessary if we are to survive and feed ourselves through the coming crises but it won’t be achieved without government encouragement and ( probably most controversial) a huge reduction in the meat and dairy component of our national diet.
A provocative essay Mr Roussinos, may I put the case for the other side?
A 900 acre arable farm, in say East Anglia, receives a pathetic public subsidy of about £90K pa, under the ‘Single Payment’ system.
For seven months of unremitting toil, under a leaden East Anglian sky, where the east wind is ” like a wetted knife” and all the way from Omsk, that is derisory.
Additionally you have enough mechanical paraphernalia to maintain, that could otherwise be used to equip a Panzer Division.
The only real benefit is Inheritance Tax Relief (IHT), which ensures your children and grandchildren will be ‘shackled to the plough’ forever.
The other meagre respite is to be found in those five glorious months, that can be devoted to that greatest of all English pastimes, Bloodsports! On an epic scale, probably not seen since the halcyon days of Ancient Rome, and now also under threat from deranged urbanites, who view the countryside through the miasma of Beatrix Potter.
‘The other meagre respite is to be found in those five glorious months, that can be devoted to that greatest of all English pastimes, Bloodsports!’
Ah yes, hunting remainers, socialists and Guardianistas! I love it.
Yes, these are exciting times, with plenty of sport of all sorts of different varieties.
A golden age, one might say.
Why not sell the farm to Aris? He’s raring to g(r)ow.
And if the east wind is so powerful can’t you grow some of those wind turbines and profit from the particular subsidy racket? (If you have too much integrity to do that, I commend you).
Yes those wind turbines are very tempting, I gather Cameron’s father-in-law has some. From the rental of even one, you can send a boy to Eton.
However I agree with you they are an absolute abomination that desecrates the English landscape like no other malignant structure. They are the all too visible symbol of the Great Green Hoax, that is proselytised by cretins such as Greta Turdberg, the “Swedish Eco Goblin” and many others.
Presumably coal powerstation cooling towers are not an abomination and don’t desecrate the landscape then?
Your sense of aesthetics is subjective to say the least.
Well, they are static and don’t move for one thing. The human eye is a hunter’s eye and is attracted by movement. Hence the unique visibility and ugliness of Wind Turbines.
Anyway isn’t this all a bit anachronistic, as Coal Fired Power Stations and their Cooling Towers are on their way out? Let’s go Nuclear and be done with it.
We are not that idiotic old fraud the USSR, if you take my meaning.
Hence tilting at windmills?
Possibly!
Nuclear power stations have cooling towers too.
None near Arcadia fortunately.
Actually can you name any UK Nuclear Power Station that still has any of those enormous, hideous, hyperboloid towers, because I can’t?
Why should such a farm receive public subsidy at all?
Because farmers are the “Custodians of the Countryside”.
That’s a laugh. Agricultural land is hardly wilderness, and it drives out wildlife (that which you’re not slaughtering for ‘sport’). There’s very little real, natural countryside in a lot of the UK.
Well, there are odd hills, such as the Grampians, but yes we are grossly overcrowded and it’s getting worse.
Off course we could try “wilding” the whole place. I gather there has been a very successful experiment on a two thousand acre farm in Sussex, for example.
Perhaps that and C-19 would have some very beneficial results as far as population management/harvesting go?
I would ask to define ‘natural’ countryside?
With the exception of some more recent changes to hedgerows to allow for larger machinery, the agricultural landscape is broadly the same as pre-Roman times in the UK.
Although, more rare animals existed outside of these areas and in the forests and uplands (wolves, boar etc).
“..the agricultural landscape is broadly the same as pre-Roman times in the UK.”
Truly?
I would have thought that more land would be covered by forests?!
Apparently not the case I was also surprised to learn as a side aspect of my undergrad degree – I think it was a myth perpetuated by the Victorians that the land was far more forested in the pre-industrial and even pre-medieval era. The advent of pollen graphs have somewhat debunked the myth since.
Pollen studies in Kent, Sussex, East Anglia etc point to an overwhelming consistency of land being a mix of arable/wooded lands for millennia, and many of our current field boundaries have existed since at least the immediate pre-Roman era.
I may stand corrected on other wider parts of the UK – but those were specifics I remember as part of a broader trend
The nature of modern agricultural inputs and the ability of the modern farmer to Blitz everything but the crop he wants means it may look the same but underneath the land is turning into a sterile growth medium rather than a lush ecological system thriving on the strength of its biomass and and teeming life
It shouldn’t. But you could say the same of many things including wind turbines and other energy scales, almost all the so-called ‘arts’ and the vast majority of the ‘charity sector’. If I had my time again I would have hopped aboard one of these rackets at an early age.
I wonder if Aris has ever worked on a farm or allotment? It is physically hard work, requires your presence at all times (if you have animals) or most of the time (arable) and is subject to the vagaries of the weather, pests and diseases, especially if going down the organic route. I’d be interested in seeing the trading accounts of some of the smallholders he cites as exemplars. I suspect that any surplus to pay themselves a wage or distribute in dividends is very small – and certainly a long way below the minimum wage when divided by the hours worked. This form of living could only be sustainable for most people if they had an alternative source of income, or an existing fortune off which they could live. I’m not against the vision he sets out, but I just don’t think it is realistic on anything like the scale the headline suggests.
Oh please, spare us this nonsense. I can see Aris now, loading his small and manky crop of green beans on to the 19th century sail boat he was eulogising the other day. And by the time the boat reaches its destination the beans will be has-beens.
Yes, the EU’s CAP is evil but the likes of Aris love the EU so they can’t complain. The fact is that the EU exists to benefit large landowners and large banks and corporations. And still the likes of Aris defend it…
Meanwhile, in one trip to a market or supermarket I can get all the fruit and veg I need for a week, for three pounds or so. And it takes about 20 minutes, all thanks to the efficiency of modern farming. On these small farms that Arils is romanticising, hours of work would produce enough vegetables for perhaps one meal.
I have long seen it as a trade off. Yes, the landowners receive completely immoral and unjustified subsidies from an evil EU. But I get a supply of plentiful and cheap fruit and veg. Yes, I know that many of the people on the farms are immigrants working for very low wages, but most of them (like those working n the garment factories in Leicester) should not be in the Europe or the UK anyway, so they can’t really complain.
To me, this piece is merely an anti-captitalist polemic masquerading as an article about farming reform (it even includes the phrase “Contemporary capitalism is vanishing on its own, collapsing from internal contradictions”). It’s a shame because I think Aris makes some valid points, especially with regard to the impact of industrial farming, the destruction of the natural environment and our tendency towards over-consumption.
You can guarantee that if there are socialists leading this posited small farm renaissance, it will end in abject failure, just like everything else that is of that ilk.
I find it depressing that so few people have any understanding whatsoever of our countryside and even want to share their ignorance with the outside world by writing articles like this. Has the writer ever visited the countryside?
Aris writes well and persuasively, but then it doesn’t take much for ruralist-romantic followers of William Cobbett like me to be persuaded. And as one who lives amidst the dismal, monocultural agri-plains of East Anglia, I’m all for this. However, it’s difficult to see how we can achieve such a rebalancing without a huge transfer of land ownership, while also avoiding centralised Soviet or Socialist-type solutions, which can only lead to poverty and famine. Perhaps the model should be something like the Land Settlement Act (1919), which allowed local authorities to buy farmland and rent it out as smallholdings? Giving the little platoons of micro-farmers the right to buy in due course? The main thing is to keep it local.
The usual load of anti-capitalist wishful thinking. Then this:
‘It is safe to say that Thatcher’s experiment failed…’
No, Thatcher’s return to a few tried and trusted free-market fundamentals saved the country. It was not an experiment, and it worked. Sadly, as discussed yesterday, she did not have time to take on Britain’s eternally grasping and incompetent state bodies. It was the total financialization of the economy under New Labour (in the UK) and Clinton (in the US) that failed.
Anyway,, good luck with achieving national self reliance in terms of food on an over-populated island with thousands more coming in every day. And good luck with paying for accommodation, energy, council tax, BBC tax, clothing, transport and all the rest of it by growing a few vegetables in an unpredictable and often malign climate. The truth is that we will need intensive and ‘vertical’ farming more than ever. And that’s great, because it means I can feed myself for a week with about 15 minutes of work.
Much of rural England (and wider Britain let’s not forget) has long been killed off to a certain degree. Limited public transport, fewer job opportunities, closure of most local shops, banks etc, exacerbated in some areas by over-inflated house prices from richer people choosing second homes in the more picturesque and easy-access rural retreats.
There’s a reason why many rural areas have some of the worst (certainly per capita) drug, crime and unemployment issues in the country. Seems like Smaje hasn’t been paying attention at all.
The solution isn’t to go back to the future with idealistic visions of a UK-wide hippy commune.
Remote working has never been more feasible, and with the correct application of technology and investment, farming has never been more efficient. We can adapt to provide a greater portion of our own needs without massacring our prospects and future generation’s prospects. Move away from a purely urban economic model without reverting to some rose-tinted deleted scene from an ITV Thomas Hardy adaptation…
Some of the wishful thinking here reflects what is happening in France already. Many people of all classes and political persuasions are keen to buy locally-sourced produce. It’s no more expensive than the other French stuff but is a bit pricier than equivalents from Spain. But the choice is on a small scale, if popular. I think the supermarkets who stock some of it run it as a loss-leader to encourage shoppers to buy it with their other big shop items instead of visiting one of the several roadside stalls run by local growers.
Of course growing this produce is water-intensive which is why Spain’s rivers are running dry, but in Britain many items could be grown and help to drain rivers which would burst their banks due to lack of dredging. Sitting in the south of France we’re constantly amazed at the drought warnings and water restrictions in a country which overall has much higher rainfall than we do down here and yet we have fewer restrictions. And then in the autumn, winter and spring towns get flooded. What is wrong with planners in Britain? Why don’t they build more reservoirs?
My other concern would be finding affordable housing for all these would-be farm workers since only a few will be landowners with a proper farmhouse and outbuildings.
This is an interesting article but is a bit light on practicalities. Would voracious British supermarkets willingly sell local produce at a price which would please shoppers and return a decent profit to the grower? There’s a lot more public pressure here for such initiatives.
Partly topography I believe – although might be corrected by someone more knowledgeable.
The South-eastern half of the UK is one of the flattest and driest parts of Europe, and amongst its most populous. And even the more hilly areas are a lot less dramatic than most other European countries.
As you correctly point out, prior to “the Covid crash there is the spectre of automation and AI which threatens to wipe out what remains of skilled labour and much of the already-insecure white collar economy”. Covid will definitely hasten the decimation of employment in the West. Inefficient and often more labour intensive companies will go to the wall; if and when new ones crop up they will more likely employ new technology than labour. Incomes for many, tax revenues & social welfare will all be badly hit. This was the prospect prior to Covid, but now, after a few weeks of lockdown, we are seeing hundreds of people applying for one supermarket delivery driver job. Yet, the worst of the fallout is still to come; there will be many more insolvencies and redundancies in coming months.
The most depressing thing however has been the lack of acknowledgement across Western economies about the increasing impact of automation & AI let alone having any sort of strategy for dealing with it. Even if the Government doesn’t positively support the sector, the young may well start to embrace small scale farming simply because there will be fewer alternatives. It has already started happening in the rural community where I live and the quality of the food they are producing is second to none. Anyone with the energy to ‘give it a go’ should get our support because there are certainly difficult times ahead for sure.
Get rid of all the absurd and vindictive Covid restrictions and we will soon be back to full employment.
Even if you think the restrictions are absurd, things aren’t going back to “normal” any time soon.
The commuter culture has taken a torpedo, millions realise they don’t need to go to the office, and company managers begin to realise they don’t need to pay for one. This will destroy a big piece of central London’s consumer culture and heavily impact commercial real estate. These things aren’t going to be the same.
I don’t think so; plenty of people have discovered that they can do the same job from home. No need to schlep 90m every day to office and back home.
May be they can spend 2/3 days in the office per week.
Another article which is high on emotions, but low on logical thought.
The country had this argument 170 years ago, with the repeal of the Corn Laws. Although the protectionist EU has rather muddied the waters.
There are two choices make farming all bucolic and a lovely place for towns folk to visit, or feed the people.
As I do not wish to starve, I know which side I am on.
“Although the protectionist EU…”
Since EU trades with the rest of the world under WTO system how can it be protectionist? More of EU international trade is covered by FTAs than other similar “countries” (USA, Russia, China, India, Japan etc.)
Lead the way then Aris…
Or similar time next week for the next lot of essays? What will it be this time?
Probably something about weaving our own underwear from thistles.
“a radical agrarian populism is developing among a network of thoughtful smallholder-writers”
Yes… call me an awful old cynic if you will… but “smallholder writers” don’t sound (to me) like the kind of people to bet the farm on. So to speak.
It’s lovely that trendy metropolitan types want to pretend to know what soil is, but I’m not totally sure that they realise that you can get dirty from touching it.
Still, let’s hope that the next theory on “how to grow things that people want to eat” is as entertaining as this one. Perhaps the eager beavers at the Polytechnic of Islington will come up trumps again.
Aris makes a clear proposal to address the big problem that Government faces and is misunderstood by most of the corres[ondents who take the short term view of the crisis we are in.
The crisis of underemployment for the population has been foreseen for many years and Aris makes the only feasible proposal that I have seen. Technological progress has reduced the amount of work needed to survive and the system of governing by increasing the GDP has brought us to the twin crises of Climate Change and the destruction of the natural world and turning the job prospects for an increasing proportion of citizens an alternative between serving in the local pub or commuting to London to manage people serving in the pub.
The fundamental problem is that without jobs the government cannot control the population and the prospect of civil breakdown becomes real.We are at that point now with the pandemic making it more acute.
The Chancellor is looking for creative answers to his problems this is the solution that he should prioritise.
if UK GOV does sign those trade deals with USA, Can, Aus, EU etc. most farmers will go bust.
Nice summary of the Land Movement in the UK at the moment. I’m fairly acquainted with many of the people you reference and whilst I don’t always agree with their Progressive politics, I think their heart is in the right place and unlike many of the Tory libertarians who seem to comment here these days, they do acknowledge the looming human growth crisis.
Hence their strategy is to create national resilience, sustainability and sufficiency from the bottom up and should be commended as they seek to readdress the balance between the needs of humans and the needs of the rest of Nature. Their view is one of creating anew within the old system so yes they can be annoying Marxists at times but they are successful at what they do.
Other organisations that need a mention are the Landworkers Alliance, the Ecological Land Cooperative and FarmHack which helps to train new entrants.
I live on my allotment (unofficially) as a demonstrator model of low impact urban living and I grow most of my perishable food needs which also requires food preservation. I’d say, averaged out over the year, then food self reliance is a part time job including soil cultivation, fertility, propogation, preserving. It is relentless work and so is not ideal as a goal orientated lifestyle where you can finish a project with a good rest. It is constant throughout the year depending on the agroecological conditions.
The biggest barrier to small scale farming is planning, not land as such. With some English councils like Shropshire more lenient and will fast track sustainable development initiatives, but overall England is very backward in this regard. Wales of course has its One Planet Development (OPD) planning rules but are currently out of favour with locals who see English migration a threat to their culture, land and house prices.
The ideal is that the new national planning framework will incorporate a less onerous form of OPD and allow temporary dwellings to be erected along the lines of Scottish hutting regulations. My shed is fully insulated, built from recycled timber and anything else I could find in skips and is a solid structure that is built off the ground which will easily last a hundred years or more. The roof, the prime weakness of any temporary dwelling is ply board and rubber sheeting with the recently added extra protection of a cut to size marque canvas and large pieces of multi layered felt that I scavenged from a derelict shed.
Easily the most gratifying aspect of this back to the land lifestyle is the emergence of an ecological consciousness that evaporates the modern boundaries of ecology and culture.
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Livestock farming, especial poultry and pigs but increasingly beef and dairy is now a largely industrial process where animals kept in sheds are fed on grain and soya, most of which is imported from Brazil, USA and Canada. Today’s typical diet contains far more meat and dairy than before WW2.
Good farm land is expensive, over £10,000 per acre. Smallholdings ( with accommodation or planning permission) £1000, 000 +. Any one considering taking up farming will need a considerable amount of capital
Food is cheap in comparison to the costs of production. To make a living on a small farm one needs a high value niche product to sell to more affluent middle class customers who often live in urban centres long distances from places with affordable smallholdings.
Finally one must consider the total land mass of the UK divided by population works out at about 5 acres per person ( not taking into account areas of mountain, bog, towns and cities)
The vision for farming in this article is feasible, maybe even necessary if we are to survive and feed ourselves through the coming crises but it won’t be achieved without government encouragement and ( probably most controversial) a huge reduction in the meat and dairy component of our national diet.