Farming, food production and rural life

What is the future of farming and rural life? Adam Rutherford hosts Radio 4's discussion programme which starts the week, asking about the future of food production and the communities that support it.

Minette Batters was the first female president of the National Farmers’ Union. Born and raised on the family farm that she took over running, she became a committed advocate for the UK farming industry. UK agriculture has faced challenges from Brexit, Covid as well as international conflict and energy crises. Her new book, Harvest, part memoir and manifesto, makes a case for how and why we must rally to support British farming and rural life.

Dave Goulson is Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex. Modern, intensive farming systems producing pesticide-laced foods at scale, he says, are bad for us and bad for the planet. He argues that it is time to change the way we produce food today, making the case for sustainable agriculture. In Eat the Planet Well he argues that consumers can lead this change even where governments fail to act.

The fiction and nature writer Melissa Harrison’s latest book, The Given World, is a portrait of rural society, village life and the English Countryside. The novel explores a way of life with sympathy, weaving social tension together with the rhythms of the natural world.

Producer: Ruth Watts
Assistant Producer: Emily Channon