Manor Farm, Alton, Hants GU34 3BD
Manor Farm Hampshire - UK Glamping, B&B, Business Units

Biodiversity

Manor Farm Hampshire - UK Glamping, B&B, Business UnitsNewsBiodiversity
13 Jul 2021
0 Comments By Anna Brock Biodiversity, Cattle, Climate Change, CO2 Emissions, Communication, Countryside, Education, Farming, Farming News, Food, General, Glamping, Habitat, Luxury Camping, Luxury Camping in Hampshire, Schools, Sheep, Summer, Topical Conversation

What do you Think a Farmer Looks Like?

Throughout a normal year I find myself talking to various groups of children whether guests on the campsite or classes of children. I wouldn’t call myself a natural by any means but with children it is all about keeping it simple.

To break the ice my first question is normally ‘What do YOU think a farmer looks like?’

This normally gets a good response with a good number of hands shooting into the air. Interestingly the answers are always the same – “really old”, “he wears a straw hat”, “always wears wellies”, “grumpy”, “checked shirt”, and my personal favourite, “hairy chest”. And whilst it should be noted that in many cases, they’re quite close to the mark with those descriptions (I confess to owning a few check shirts), it doesn’t really portray the way that we like to see ourselves as part of a modern dynamic and increasingly diverse agricultural industry.

But leaving aside the work we need to do in changing children’s perceptions of us, their answers do often lead me to ponder what the role of a 21st century farmer really is, and whether we’re in the midst of an identity crisis. My father who was born during the war in an era when the British public were still experiencing rationing has always known his role with absolute certainty – to produce as much food as he can, as efficiently as possible. This he has done successfully for his entire farming career, whilst been backed up by Government.

For most of my career, having been taught to farm in that way both at home and college and on other farms, I thought that was my role too. Why would I question it.  In the UK we have the climate, the infrastructure, the technology and the expertise which many other countries do not have so we should be pushing on to produce as much as possible to feed ourselves and export any surplus. A simple business decision.

Now being older and hopefully wiser I have questioned whether I was right to follow this path and what is my role from here?  You cannot turn back the clock, but what is the role of today’s farmer? Obviously it is to run a profitable business but we must also leave the land in better condition than we found it, and all this while making a positive contribution to reducing climate change.

All three of these aspirations require long term thinking and solutions, from individual farming families, from the wider agricultural industry, and perhaps most crucially of all, from policy makers. Because if we want those things, if we really value our rural communities and our planet and to help them survive and thrive, then we need to look at what’s working and what isn’t, seriously address the barriers we’re facing, and realise the grave consequences of both inaction and getting it wrong.

30 Jun 2021
0 Comments By Anna Brock Animal Welfare, Baby Animals, Biodiversity, Cattle, Climate Change, Communication, Coronavirus, Countryside, Farming, Farming News, Food, General, Glamping, Habitat, Luxury Camping in Hampshire, Summer

Time for Change

Changing weather patterns have been a feature for centuries but the last few years have been alarmingly difficult to manage from a farming perspective especially as the core business is struggling to pay its way.

With Brexit and changes in how agriculture is supported there is not a farmer in the country who is not having to look extremely hard at making their core business more resilient and in some cases the government is even proposing a way out completely.

Living in a small rural community like we do this has effects on us all. It is only 50yrs ago a significant percentage of the village population was directly connected to the farms within them. Over those years we have seen dramatic changes in the farms around us. In fact over 50% of the planning applications we receive in our parish revolve around change of use or diversification on our farms.

Pre 2018 over 62% of farms in the UK had diversified in some form or other and traditionally this involved adding value to a farming enterprise or offering accommodation. Being in the proximity of large populations has seen the commercial letting of farm buildings that has become the most common use in our immediate area. Why farmers diversify is a huge subject and one I will struggle to tackle in one article but what I am sure you will all agree it involves change and change is not necessarily popular with everyone.

With large landowners it is common for them to have an estate plan for which they can back up planning applications justifying the direction they are driving their businesses. Like a village design statement or Parish Plan this gives some direction to the community of the aspirations and changes that might happen in the future. This is not always easy on a smaller farm level.

We are seeing more pressure put on our rural areas with more development both in the form of housing and farm diversification. We as a community have seen our fair share of this pressure and rightly or wrongly any new application is now viewed with suspicion. This is understandable but perhaps if the understanding behind the changes were better communicated this might help.

Personally with farming on the cusp of its 4th Revolution and the emphasis on working with nature and looking after our soil I feel hugely invigorated about our farming future. As I have discussed in previous articles these changes could be vastly different especially if we are serious about climate change and keeping food prices at current levels. Whilst the industry weans itself off government support expect more diversification and at Manor Farm with these aspirations, we will have no choice but to diversify further to survive too.

03 Feb 2021
0 Comments By Anna Brock Animal Welfare, Biodiversity, Climate Change, CO2 Emissions, Communication, Coronavirus, Countryside, Education, Farming, Farming News, Food, General, Glamping, Habitat, Luxury Camping, Luxury Camping in Hampshire, Schools, Topical Conversation, Winter

Some Science, Interesting Politics and Getting our Food System Right.

 Will’s Online Day:

Every year there is a gathering that happens in Oxford to discuss the current trends and future of our agricultural industry. The Oxford Farming Conference has the mission statements of Inform, challenge and inspire in its logo and this the 75th, certainly didn’t disappoint.

Brexit dominated last years and as nothing had been agreed till just before the title of this years was very apt; Business as Unusual. Of course like so many of these events it had moved onto a virtual platform and I must say didn’t detract too much from the atmosphere of a conference. There was even the facility to network with other delegates in the breaks between lecture’s .

The morning session starts with the politics session. This gives the ministers of the devolved nations their chance to outline future policies and how they might impact the industry. Interestingly George Eustice our current Environment minister chose to boldly give his parties vision of the future with the particular emphasis on technology and how it will benefit the future of food production. The other ministers chose to reassure farmers that policies were there to support the industry through very turbulent times. This different approach by each minister reflects the importance of agriculture to each government.

The trade session had Tim Smith, Chairman of the newly formed Trade and Agricultural Commission previewing their findings. The paper will be launched in February. He was joined by representatives from Arla, Waitrose and Rob Ward who runs an investment fund in Agri tech. Interestingly they all referred to a future culture with sustainability and transparency at the forefront. The other comment worth noting is the customer will be an important part in how trade develops post Brexit.

Commonly known as the ‘Godfather of Sustainability’, John Elkington gave the next lecture. He is well known for his insights into how corporates and supply chains are responding to global sustainability challenges and argues that current practices are not going far enough. He discussed how ‘Regenerative Capitalism’ is changing their mind set’s . I will let you look up the definition but he emphasised this could have big implications on how we produce, distribute and eat food in the UK.

The scene was now set for the science lecture given by Prof Tim Benton who leads the Energy, Environment and Resources Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. His theme was ‘Getting our Food System Right’. He described how our food systems are damaging the planet causing climate change and leading to biodiversity loss, environmental pollution, poor water and soil quality. For me the most profound statement was the damage to our health poor diets was causing. Apparently in 2017 11 million deaths were attributed to poor diets. This is alarming if you compare this with the 1.86 million due to Covid in 2019.

There is a fundamental mismatch in what is grown and what would be an optimal diet. If everybody tried to access all the foods needed for a nutrient rich diet (fruits and vegetables, nut ,fish and pulses) they would be able too. This suggests farming at this moment in time does not provide food that underpins Public Health.

This brings into the question is cheap food really a public good. In simple terms if we had a more varied and wholesome diet this would encourage diversity in crop production and would help create more sustainable food systems. Public Health would be improved and the environmental pressures could be mitigated. We have a long way to go but it feels now we might have the tools to help plot a path and of course we need the consumer to play their part.

Interesting reading

https://www.rethinkx.com/food-and-agriculture