James Rebanks is an English farmer who has grown up in the farming tradition. His book is about his experience as a farmer in a changing agricultural landscape, told with a mixture of anecdote and broader points, backed up with statistics.
I would wholeheartedly recommend anyone with an interest - or lack of knowledge - in modern farming and many of the issues that are not present to those of us that live in urban surroundings. It is well-written, very interesting and important for our futures.
Review
City life is often hectic â too hectic, sometimes, for much of the reading that we aspire to do. For me, like many, holiday periods are the perfect opportunity to catch up on some that I might not have had time for otherwise. In fact, this theme of hectic lifestyles is a fitting one given a very interesting book I read recently: English Pastoral by James Rebanks.
James Rebanks is a farmer from the Lake District, and he comes from a family that have lived and worked the land there for over six centuries. He is perhaps best known for his 2015 debut book The Shepherdâs Life, now a No.1 Bestseller. Clearly, heâs very well-qualified to illustrate changing lives and landscapes in the British countryside, something that masses of the population have completely lost touch with.
It's almost inconceivable, now, to imagine a time more than two hundred years ago in which almost everyone in Britain relied on an unforgiving, subsistent farming-based system to live. People led lives which revolved around their farms, growing small amounts of food that were barely sufficient to feed their families. Localised trade did occur but was small in scope and based off what happened to be in excess at a particular time on a particular farm. A difficult life, yes, but a purposeful one.
In England, 81.5% of us live in âurban locationsâ (according to government figures), including cities. Those with family or who visit the countryside get to occasionally experience it on a surface level, without any true understanding of the simultaneously robust and fragile landscapes that support us.
People now have forgotten what each one of us relies on: food (and, therefore, farming). Very small proportions of the modern workforce are farmers, made possible â as Rebanks laments â by intensive factory-style farming, genetically modified crops, and an effective pesticide for every unwanted species under the sun. Throughout last century, this was one of the main aims in technological innovation. Now, with modern environmental concerns over monocultures, biodiversity loss and, of course, climate change, many have begun to question whether the implacable desires of âbiggerâ, âbetterâ, âfasterâ, âstrongerâ are appropriate at all.
Another issue that Rebanks raises in English Pastoral is that of the economics of food. In the past, much larger shares of household income, if not growing their food themselves, would be devoted to buying food â arguably the most important household expense. Now, we feel outraged when we are asked to pay any real amount of money at all for our food and supermarkets are in constant competition to âprice matchâ with each other in a totally consumer-driven industry. Rebanks reminds us that it wasnât always like this: we used to be answerable to our land and not the other way around.
Of course, the recent cost-of-living-crisis has put immense pressure on households which means that many simply cannot afford more âethicalâ produce. I think it is fair, however, to talk about priorities. For example, sacrificing on some of the greater excesses that many have become accustomed to with fast fashion is one such accommodation. A supposed need to replace outfits constantly to stay ahead of trends whilst creating enormous waste and spending money that could be better spent on how we feed ourselves is detrimental ecologically, socially and economically - we all can (and used to) deal with far fewer clothes.
A shift from food simply being âfuelâ to proper nourishment, with the added health and social benefits from taking time over our meals - not to mention the environmental and ethical improvements - would benefit everyone in the long-term.
Before the advent of these new technologies, the land was something to be respected and use as nature intended. Meals were family time, with meat eaten rarely, as a treat, and seasonal produce taking centre-stage year-round. This point about seasonality perversely reminds me of one December when my brother proudly showed me his plate of a supermarket mince pie and strawberries â a perfect example of everything wrong with todayâs limitless food offering. One question he raises is whether something so vital should be valued so little in the economic systems of an industrialised world.
Rebanks is careful to distinguish between the land being respected, and the land being perfectly preserved. We tend, in trying to maintain our natural environments, to designate them as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and employ scores of gardeners to keep them looking ânaturalâ. Of course, natural land was natural because it was farmed responsibly, within the limits of the capabilities of one or two families and the technologies of the day. Farmers and locals knew the land they tended and rotated crops to protect the integrity of their fieldsâ nutrients. With land that is respected, we neednât make concerted efforts to make areas look wild and natural: they just will be.
English Pastoral is written with a charming interspersion of James Rebanksâ personal farming experience, having been taught much of what he knew on his grandfatherâs farm as a child, working with his father as a young adult and now teaching his children on his own farm, and the grave concerns that he has about the present-day farming system and what it means for the future. This was a highly engaging format, grounding the overarching general and societal issues in lived experience and heart-warming anecdote.
Though Rebanks labours his point slightly at times, I feel very confident in recommending English Pastoral to anyone interested in . This is particularly eminent given the very urban environment that many of us find ourselves in - we all too often lose sight of the pastoral systems that sustain us.
