Farming Through Hard Times: A Lesson from History
At the recent NFU conference, the theme was “Stronger Together”, reflecting the turmoil facing today’s agricultural industry. Rising costs, falling margins, changing policies and unpredictable weather have left many farmers feeling under pressure. While this moment feels new to us, history shows that agriculture has faced deep crises before — and that cooperation has often been the response.
My own family story connects directly to one of those periods. My great-grandfather came to this parish in 1886, right in the middle of what became known as the Great Agricultural Depression. British farming at that time was under enormous strain. Cheap grain was arriving in large quantities from North America, made possible by new railways and steamships. Wheat prices collapsed, rents fell, and many farms that had been profitable for generations suddenly struggled to survive.
Across the country, arable land was abandoned or turned into grass, and rural labourers left for the towns in search of work. Villages changed, populations declined, and farming families had to adapt quickly or fail. When my great-grandfather arrived here, he would have found an industry in difficulty, with uncertainty about prices, employment and the future.
It was in this atmosphere of hardship and insecurity that farmers began to organise more effectively. In 1908, the National Farmers’ Union was founded to give farmers a united voice at a time when many felt powerless in the face of falling prices and rising competition from abroad. The idea was simple but powerful: farmers would be stronger if they spoke together rather than individually.
The depression of the late nineteenth century lasted for nearly twenty years and permanently reshaped British agriculture. The countryside we recognise today — with its emphasis on livestock and mixed farming rather than vast areas of wheat — is in part a legacy of that painful adjustment. Institutions such as the NFU grew out of that experience, helping to shape agricultural policy and defend farmers’ interests through later crises.
A second major downturn followed the First World War. During the war, farmers had been encouraged to increase production, supported by government price guarantees. When peace came, those guarantees were withdrawn almost overnight. Prices fell sharply while costs remained high, and farming entered a slump before the rest of the economy. By the time the wider Great Depression arrived in the early 1930s, agriculture was already struggling.
Again, collective action mattered. Governments introduced protectionist measures, marketing boards and subsidies, and farming organisations worked to stabilise prices and supplies. These policies eventually laid the foundations for the post-war farming system that prioritised food security and steady production.
Today’s challenges are different in detail but familiar in shape. Farmers now face rising input costs, volatile markets, changing support systems, environmental pressures and the growing impact of climate change. Once again, the rules of the game are shifting at the same time as margins are tightening.
History suggests that such moments do not simply pass; they reshape farming. Just as earlier depressions led to new systems, new policies and new institutions, today’s pressures may push agriculture towards environmental stewardship, new technologies and different business models.
There is also a deeper lesson. Farming has never come through hard times alone. Past crises strengthened unions, cooperatives and local networks. The message “stronger together” is not a modern invention — it is how farming has survived every previous upheaval.
For those of us who do not farm, this history is a reminder that agriculture is not just an industry but part of the life of our villages and parishes. When farming suffers, rural communities feel it too. Supporting farming is about sustaining the countryside, the food system and the shared landscape we all depend on.
When my great-grandfather arrived here in 1886, farming was in depression. Yet families stayed, adapted and carried on. Out of those hard years came organisations like the NFU and the farming systems that shaped the twentieth century. As we face another period of uncertainty, the past reminds us that agriculture has weathered great storms before — and that it does so best when farmers and communities stand together.