It is like trying to squeeze on a rice pudding.
It has all become a bit like squeezing on a rice pudding. If you want to get any truth with the environmental scientists who continue to berate farmers. They will say "not them".
They will simply resort to a generalization like bird numbers are down and it is due to intensive farming methods. They fail to provide a solution. Why has ecology and environmental science failed to come up with any answers on food production other than to regulate? In essence they must be looking in the wrong place. There is something absurd, almost venal in economics where there is an identification termed ‘drivers of change’. As man has an activity bias, the masterful art of doing nothing is not a way to solve problems – you have to do something. Equally we often resort to change when commentating on something; it is so much easier to observe changes and comment in relation to problem solving. The reality is the constant of still water is what we should be looking at, hard. Drivers of change presuppose control as we are driving – well we are not in control. Change happens and is most closely associated with time. When I stop to consider this I think of the sand dunes in Namibia. These giant dunes are moved by winds, a grain at a time and it takes 5,000 years to the grains deposited at the base of the dune. This is because I come from a world where farming is central to my being; time has a different meaning in agriculture. Gradually we have changed from an agrarian society to an industrial one, where less than 1% of the workforce works in agriculture, leaving 99% to abrogate their responsibility for obtaining food. For the past few decades the populous have been happy to leave this in the hands of their elected leaders, who in turn have been swept along by the broad generalizations in concerns of the environment. The environmental problems of agriculture are very difficult for either academics or policy wonks to resolve. For too long now the whole discussion has revolved around general approaches of one-size fits all. The introduction of new technologies as manifest in Integrated Farm management or nutrient budgeting requires great skill and expertise. This critical dependence on skill and judgement makes agriculture different from manufacturing in how it adapts to new technologies. The principal policy for tackling environmental problems like nutrient emissions, soil erosion and animal wastes has been to rely on public-sector development of new systems to provide technical solutions to these problems. What they never do is link with farmers and share knowledge. They simply regulate. In a nutshell new agricultural technologies – specifically new farming systems are necessary for further improvement in meeting the 4 great challenges of the 21st century which are oil price rises, water stocks reduction, ecological depletion and climate change. We have developed agriculture in Britain that fails to serve either producers or the nation. The whole thing has become wrapped up in what is referred to as agri-business. The government payments find their way into land prices, and expensive inputs of chemicals, drugs and machines. This will continue….. but like all things if it cannot go on for ever it will stop. The item over looked is food, which is in the hands of a few major corporations and is about to become short in the shops because of the failure of the banking sector to promote credit.