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Sustainability in Farming
When I talk about sustainability in farming, which I do a lot, I don’t just mean looking after the environment and reducing global warming. I mean making sure farming communities see sustainability in farming.
They need to earn a decent living whilst caring for our precious countryside.
And currently, in the UK, farming patently isn’t sustainable at all. The average age of a farmer has been rising steadily for years and is now about 65. That tells you something is wrong.
I met this tree alone in a field in Dentdale in July 2023. It is vast. A Sycamore, the girth 4 metres plus, putting it at about 450 years old. It is grazed to the base yet one or two epiphytes cling to its upper branches. It should be the centre-piece of a rehabilitated woodland, surrounded by Sessile Oak, Hazel and Birch. I registered it with the Woodland Trust that night. They were unaware of its existence.
The exact definition of sustainability bears some consideration;
“The property of being environmentally sustainable; the degree to which a process or enterprise is able to be maintained or continued while avoiding the long-term depletion of natural resources”. {OED}
That process or enterprise includes the farm, the farmer and the farming system.
In time our Shepherds of the Trees project aims to provide exactly what we are talking about – “Sustainability in Farming“
We also have a website dedicated specifically to the project at “www.shepherdsofthetrees.org”
