As farmers, the land beneath our feet shapes everything we do. No matter how big and shiny the tractor is or how many staff you have, everything counts for nothing unless the land is working for you. To understand how farming in Britain has got to the present position, we have to look at the forces that drove us here.

The biggest factor surely must be the Second World War. Digging for Victory. After the war, farmers were led by government to turn more and more land over to produce the food the Nation’s workers needed to set Great Britain back on its’ feet again. Various government departments were created to achieve this, and they worked to produce the blueprints of crop production – the definitive guides to maximizing yield. Environmental concerns weren’t particularly high on the agenda given their list of priorities. The use of chemical sprays and artificial fertilisers increased dramatically.

Things inevitably stopped progressing. Problems were created by crop rotations being too short, causing pest and disease build up in the soil. Other problems included fertiliser derived nitrates and other chemicals polluting ground water, as well as the emergence of pests that had developed resistance to sprays being used too routinely. Throughout the 70’s and 80’s the Common Agricultural Policy continued the trend by rewarding production, and gradually the land began to show tendencies to work against us. more...>