Down on the farm

THE future of farming was a precarious one a decade ago – the industry was still counting the cost of the foot-and-mouth crisis that ravaged British agriculture and imperilled the entire rural economy.
By The Newsroom
Published 9th Feb 2012, 08:52 BST

Contrast this with the sector’s resurgence and how expansion accounted for nearly half of all farmland purchased in the past 12 months, and which has coincided with one of this country’s most profound post-war slumps.

The reasons are complex – the Danes, for example, have become net sellers of land as they look to reinvest at home – but the trend shows there is economic confidence behind agriculture, in part because of growing public awareness about the quality of local produce.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It is also welcome because the purchase of farmland, for the purposes of food production, also helps to protect the countryside from obtrusive development that could threaten the economical vitality of rural areas. In short, this is an opportune moment to welcome farming’s resurgence – and to hope that a key ingredient, Buy British, is a mantra that can flourish in other sectors of the economy.