English Pastoral

English Pastoral: An Inheritance, by James Rebanks, is a compelling book for anyone interested in post-war agricultural developments and in some of the ways it has gone wrong. Or, in fact, anyone interested in where our food comes from. There are increasing numbers of farmers who are attempting a rebalancing of their practices in the form of, for example, regenerative farming, James Rebanks among them. Rebanks' account is particularly interesting because, not only does he write well, he anchors it in the story of his own farm through three generations. He also draws on his observations of other local farms and farms much further afield.. 

The farm in question is a small Lakeland hill farm where he rears Herdwick sheep and Belted Galloway cattle. It was his grandfather's farm. His father farmed a separate farm nearby but after his death James continued to farm on his grandfather's farm. His grandfather was his mentor and teacher. An early reminiscence was sitting on the tractor with his grandfather as he went through the cycle of field operations for growing a grain crop and the young Rebanks is fascinated by the seagulls rising and falling “in hungry tumbling waves” behind them:-

"I sat in the back of that tractor, with the old man in front of me, and for the first time in my life thought about who we were and what the field was, and the relationship between the gulls and the plough. I was a boy living through the last days of an ancient farming world".

In his account Rebanks tells of his early embarrassment about his father's outdated farming practices, the lack of modern equipment and its tenuous finances. Later, he and his father start to use more modern approaches. However, doubts crept in for both of them. Many years after his grandfather's death, Rebanks and his father are passing a neighbouring farm and notice that behind the plough there is not a single gull following the tractor. A sure sign there are no worms in the soil. This observation and how it has come about sums up the central concern of English Pastoral.

The book tracks his own changes of view towards farming and also the tensions of being a farmer in the modern world. He critiques the post-war development of industrial farming with its loss of small family farms, the degradation of the soil (agriculture's key asset), the problematic wholesale use of of artificial fertilisers, the ripping out of hedgerows to accommodate ever bigger machinery,  and the resulting impact on wildlife. The disappearance of once abundant curlews feature strongly in his mind.

Supermarkets and ordinary consumers are included in his critique too. People are so divorced from the land they have little idea of where their food comes from or how it arrives at their table. He also points out that in the 1950s, on average, 35% of household income was spent on food, whereas now it is only 10%.  Food is cheap, perhaps too cheap. The economic might of the big supermarkets are seen as major culprits in the overall picture.

A series of illuminating experiences changes Rebanks' views from the need to 'modernise' and he has subsequently adopted regenerative approaches to farming. He has also planted 12,000 trees, allowed for some wild areas and has altered the course of a previously straightened stream in order to slow down the flow. Curlews have returned. Rebanks is not an environmental idealist, however. He discusses the complexities of agriculture and food production and some of the inherent conflicts, for example, between the profitability of farming and the price of food and responsible stewardship of the land.

As a smallholder focused primarily on producing our own food, I identify with much of what Rebanks has to say. And I feel that increasingly people who are not farmers or smallholders or gardeners do too. It is noteworthy that this book was a bestseller (as was his earlier book A Shepherd's Life). 

I would like to finish up by adding my public thanks to those expressed privately to the reader of this blog who was so kind and thoughtful to seek out and send me a copy of this book after it had been recommended by a  commentator in a previous post. It was a very good thing to do.