Youths: Feeding the Future of Farming

Date: 17 July 2014

I don’t know about you, but when asked about UK farmers my mind immediately presents the stereotypical image of an old, balding, slightly overweight white male. Wellies and a flatcap are optional; a giant tractor is not. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with these farmers. But the fact remains; they’re a dying breed (literally). And though it’s hard to imagine that a bright young lad (or lady- outside of the UK, most of the farmers in the world are women) will be able to mount the tractor and carry on the legacy, it is inevitable. Somebody, somewhere, must prolong the future of farming. 

So, the barley baron cannot spring, fully formed, from the soil he tills. Let us now look at the source of young farmers. As sad as it is, it seems that very few of these come from traditional farming families. Why would they? After watching your parents toil in the sun day in day out, it’s not unreasonable to want a desk job. Many people would attribute the decline of small farms and the increase in land concentration to the fact that nobody wants to be a farmer anymore. It’s just not a nice job.

As an aspiring young farmer, I can dispel that notion myself. It’s simply not true. So perhaps not everybody wants to work outside all day, not everybody wants to deal with rain nor snow nor gloom of night. There are those, however, who will endure all that and more, to be making a living off of their own land. I have been assured that the pleasure of sitting down to enjoy a meal of home-grown produce, looking out over your fields, away from the toil and pollution of urban life, is about as good as it gets.  These young hopers and dreamers will come from all types of unexpected nooks and crannies. You’re as likely to find a farmer in a schoolboy from London, as a girl from a rural village in Dorset.  But as often as not, these youths will grow up and their dreams will be crushed amidst the stranglehold of planning laws, the reams of food regulations and most of all, the lonely, aching difficulty of all those little odds and ends that need doing when starting up a farm from scratch.

It is incomprehensible to think that  British laws might be discouraging young entrants to farming. After all, everyone needs feeding, right? But that is exactly what seems to be happening. Take a look at one random promising youth. Chances are they have no farming background, and so no idea what actually needs to go into cultivating a bit of land or starting to breed a flock. But before they can even think about that, they have to find their very own little piece of heaven. And it seems nearly every likely spot has a second home and a couple of ponies on it. Those few acres that do not belong to an industrial farm, and are not home to a Tesco’s, will inevitably cost thousands of pounds because you will be competing against those who seem compelled to build more second homes and more Tescos. This is the sad reality of land as a commodity, not as a right for those that would use it to grow food.

Now let’s go back to the ineptness of the new farmer. Around the world, agricultural practices are a part of tradition and cultural heritage. Just as seeds are saved and passed on to be planted next year, so are the knowledge and skills needed to succeed.  Only, in the UK now, the barriers on both seed saving and skills sharing seem insurmountable.  Although there are no laws that prohibit young and old farmers from communicating, they often come from such different areas and perspectives that this just doesn’t happen, despite the old wishing for an apprentice and the young for a mentor. 

These are the main problems facing today’s youths. We need land, training and resources to get started. We need to try and reform some of the agricultural policies so that money from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) allows us to access land and basic infrastructure. Let’s put young farmers in contact with old and just let the knowledge flow. Let’s at least try to carry on cultivating the seeds of farming throughout the coming generations. Because without young entrants being given the support they need, it seems unlikely that the UK can continue its farming legacy, and it’s not like we can live without food.

Ele is an avid student and enthusiastic campaigner, interested in food sovereignty and climate change. She has been doing work experience with WDM for the past week.