THE BLIND FARMER

Throughout 2021 our focus shifted to a single family-run farm. The grandfather of the current farmer had to retire when his eyesight failed, eventually leading to blindness. His grandson described how he himself awoke from a blindness in regard to what he considers to be the harmful, agribusiness orientated practices of contemporary food production and soil management.

Currently the farm recorded here has been developing a new, and potentially progressive approach through an almost total reduction in chemical, hormone and pesticide use, allied to new models of promoting better soil health. There is also a shift in emphasis from a regional network of pork production toward a more local one.

Whilst there is a growing awareness of this approach within other sectors, with a focus on models of localised and environmentally friendly production, it is substantially out of step with the dominant model of industrialised global food farming systems.

With policy changes coming into place that would see farms focus on the re-wilding, this document represents not only a turning point in the lives of one family, but a symbol of the dilemmas that will face all agriculture in the coming years.

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