WILD PEOPLE: PETER MELCHETT
Peer, farmer, environmental activist and champion of ramblers’ rights: Lord Melchett cared passionately about the health of the British countryside
Peer, activist, farmer and champion of ramblers’ rights, Lord Melchett cared passionately about the countryside.
One day, when young Peter Robert Henry Mond roamed the Norfolk fields of his family farm, he found two dead partridge chicks, killed by the new sprays deployed by his father. It caused the teenager to question scientific progress, and consider how we could farm the land, and feed ourselves, more safely.
A seed was planted and Peter, who became the fourth Baron Melchett, a quintessentially English aristocrat, turned into a rebel with a myriad of causes. This old Etonian and Cambridge graduate championed everything, from the right to roam and organic farming to pop festivals, the curlew and cannabis. He campaigned against genetically modified crops and marine pollution. As one friend said, Melchett, who died last year aged 70, “lived two lives, not one”. For critics, those two lives appear contradictory – a privileged career as a lawmaker, followed by life as a lawbreaker. But for all the diversity in Melchett’s public duties – including a long stint on the BBC’s Rural Affairs Committee – he always embodied a consistent vision for a better planet.
Melchett, who studied law and criminology and entered Government as a Labour peer in the 1970s after inheriting his title at 25, became best known for two crimes. In 1985, when he joined CND protesters cutting fencing at an airbase, an onlooker called out: “Peter, Peter, think of your career!” But his career flourished: the next year, he abandoned what he called “the lying game” of politics and became executive director of Greenpeace, overseeing a golden era for the charity.
His second act of rebellion was when he entered Walnut Tree Farm in Norfolk early one summer morning in 1999 and, alongside 27 other activists, tried to destroy a fellow farmer’s trial crop of genetically modified maize. He spent two nights in prison before a jury acquitted him of criminal damage and theft. Critics were fascinated by the irony of the great-grandson of Sir Alfred Mond, founder of British chemicals giant ICI, turning against the chemical farming that was the source of his privilege. For Melchett, however, “trying to do the right thing” was a family tradition; his greatgrandfather incurred the wrath of neighbouring landowners for giving workers paid holidays.
Like his forebears, Melchett practiced what he preached. As a farmer, he turned his Norfolk farm organic and pioneered wildlife-friendly farming years before it was supported by EU subsidies. He never married his life partner, the artist Cass Wedd, because they didn’t believe in marriage, but also it would spare their children the injustice of inheriting his title.
Melchett was years ahead of his time, and inspired change with his charm and empathy, according to former colleague Professor Tim O’Riordan. Rebels can be intemperate, but good-humoured, obdurate Melchett won admiration even among enemies. “He was never opinionated or aggravated,” remembers O’Riordan. “He was a gentle man, and he talked in a way that people listened to him and indeed loved him.” There are many examples of his prescience. He ensured curlew were protected from shooting by the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act. As the Soil Association’s policy director, he spearheaded a campaign for healthy school dinners, popularised by Jamie Oliver, and in 2000, he anticipated the outcry against plastics when seeking to stop marine pollution. Melchett’s physical legacy is found in the cowslip-filled fields of Courtyard Farm, now a charitable trust farmed by his son, Jay. Another legacy is subtle: in better environmental protections, EU-wide wildlife-friendly farming and in the deeds of environmentalists inspired by his integrity.
“He was years ahead of his time and inspired change with his charm”