The End of British Farming by Andrew O鈥橦agan, Profile Books, 拢5.99,
ISBN 1861973926
Andrew O鈥橦agan leaves us in no doubt that Britain鈥檚 farmers are stuck in a
crisis largely not of their making. Production costs soar, produce prices
plummet, supermarket oligarchs profiteer, livestock diseases run rampant. Too
many farmers kill themselves.
But surely this is cause for getting the economic balance right for
21st-century conditions, not for moaning that 鈥渢hings ain鈥檛 like what they used
to be鈥� down on the farm. They ain鈥檛, but nowadays there are more mouths to feed,
trade is global, and the British public have no appetite for truly living off
the land once again.
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The End of British Farming is a slim volume rich in evocative images
of the human cost of Britain鈥檚 agricultural mismanagement, including the
day-to-day horror of foot and mouth disease. But what does it all mean? How do
you make things right? Organised facts and reasoning would surely be more use
than scattered observations and confused nostalgia.
O鈥橦agan never supports the sensational conclusion of the title. British
farming will change, not end. But it will take harder heads than his to end the
misery. At least O鈥橦agan, unlike most peddlers of cures for Britain鈥檚 rural
crisis, has talked to a few farmers.