ADAM HENSON
AN EXCITING GREEN FUTURE FOR FARMING
The future of British farming is green.
Farming has changed. Long gone are the days when it was commonplace for meadows to be ploughed, hedgerows destroyed, orchards grubbed up and dangerous chemicals widely used. Perhaps you recall when stubble-burning was the norm and thousands of arable fields were engulfed by flames every summer?
Today’s farmers are much more likely to see themselves as custodians of the countryside, planting woodland, creating wildlife corridors across their land and spreading birdseed along field margins. It’s a shift that has been driven by a combination of will, increased awareness and incentives, although farming and the environment have always been closely linked. What many people think of as the natural ‘green and pleasant’ landscape of Britain has, in fact, been created, managed and cared for by landowners and farmers for generations.
NURTURING NATURE
Eagle-eyed Countryfile viewers will recognise my farm in the Cotswolds, but while the barns and grain stores are easy to spot in the aerial footage, the TV images can’t always show the environmental projects that I have been encouraging for the past couple of decades. The commercial farm and the neighbouring visitor attraction, Cotswold Farm Park, fall within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), which recognises the importance of the landscape, as well as the flora and fauna it supports.
One part of the farm is particularly important to me, because it has been declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and it is home to a rare plant, the delicate Cotswold pennycress, and a scarce butterfly, the beautiful orange-and-brown-winged Duke of Burgundy. Nearby, a large area is set aside for conservation grazing, where my cattle and horses keep the sward down and turn over the soil, which helps wildflowers and pollinators to thrive.
POND PLANS
My latest project is to rejuvenate an old pond by clearing out vegetation and getting a digger in to rebuild the earth banks that will keep the water in. Dr Hannah Robson from the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) told me that as well as providing a habitat for mayflies, dragonflies, frogs, toads and newts, the restored pond would also help numerous bird species that feed on the insects. According to WWT, 100 years ago there were roughly 800,000 ponds in England and Wales; now, there are fewer than half that.
Of course, farming, like any industry, isn’t perfect and a huge amount of work is underway to improve sustainability in agriculture. As the UK begins a fresh chapter outside the EU, we’ll hear much more about green, planet-friendly farming. This is because EU subsidies will be replaced by a system of rewarding farmers for measures taken to enhance and improve air or water quality, wildlife, biodiversity and the climate. Officially, it’s referred to as farming for the environment.
But I prefer to think of it as farming with the environment.
“A huge amount of work is underway to improve sustainability”