The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #161249 Message #3831581
Posted By: Jim Carroll
09-Jan-17 - 07:54 PM
Thread Name: BS: Theresa May's new year message
Subject: RE: BS: Theresa May's new year message
"What a better world it would be all round if there were no such things as tenant farmers."
One of the great contradictions of 'progress' has been that, as the small farms have disappeared the whole system of agriculture has become short term and therefore less efficient in the long run.
Even under feudalism, farmers would tend the farms carefully to produce a livelihood for his family and so that they could pass them on to their children.
They were knowledgeable of the elements and of the characteristics of the land and crops and worked on that knowledge.
We were told by North Norfolk farmers that the average life of the massive agricultural holdings was five years max, by which time the multis had covered their investment and would then move on to something more profitable, leaving the old farms overworked and without topsoil - short-termism and waste.
Jim Carroll