UK Countryside history - 2000 AD
A conservation headland in spring barley rich with biodiversity - part of agriculture's attempt to supply the "public goods" sought by a consumer, stake holding society.
- Population
59 million.
- Crops
Mainstream crops included wheat, barley, oats, oil seed rape, potatoes and
sugar beet with an increasing range of horticultural and speciality crops
but all subject to fierce international competition and very low prices.
No energy crops were grown as the tax regime discouraged their introduction.
- Livestock
The industry was in the grip of a spate of crippling diseases that included
BSE, swine fever, foot and mouth and TB in cattle. Legislation and red tape
were burdening economic recovery in this sector and leading to rationalisation
with fewer and fewer producers. Despite this, production methods were becoming
more welfare friendly with UK producers leading the way internationally.
- Farming Systems
Integrated farming and organic farming were increasingly adopted amidst
a new direction that was sought by policy makers and farmers alike. Severe
financial pressure existed with nominal prices for products often the same
as those 30 years earlier despite 5 times cost inflation during the period.
With farm incomes at crisis point, consolidation of the industry's workforce
was under way with a significant skills loss and depopulation of the rural
workforce. Agriculture was continuing to decline as a land use (down 5%
in 40 years) and was giving way to leisure and urban development. Patterns
of ownership and management were changing too with a small number of highly
mechanised contract farmers beginning to dominate production.
- Woodland & Hedges
The woodland area stood at 11%, greater than the medieval period some seven
centuries earlier and similar to the Roman period (albeit of different species
composition). Hedgerow length had increased since the early 1990's, a fact
not widely appreciated at the time.
- Social Economy
Internationalised economy with an urban population disconnected from agriculture
and unconvinced by the need for support of an industry that provided less
than 1% of GDP and employed only 2% of the workforce. Despite this agriculture
still accounted for 70% of UK land and provided an overall sufficiency in
food products of 65%.
- Climate
Warming gradually.
User comments - post
a comment
