Organic Futures blog

Fordhall Farm is an extraordinary place and has an amazing story to tell. Arthur Hollins was a pioneering organic farmers who refused to fit the mould and went against the grain. His grazing system, called “foggage” farming was sustainable and unique; Fordhall Farm was also one of the first places in the country to produce yoghurt.

But as Arthur grew old the farm lost its vigour and vitality. A tenanted farm, the landlords became increasingly interested in selling off parts or all of the farm for ‘development’. The huge Muller dairy lies almost within a stone’s throw of the farmhouse and the land had much ‘potential’ for all sorts of things - anything except farming.

The Hollins family were given a date for eviction and the future looked very bleak. That was until Charlotte and Ben, Arthur’s youngest children decided that they wouldn’t take this lying down. At the ages of 21 and 19 they took on the running of the farm and the fight to save it.

The story is long, complex, emotive, exciting and is a rollercoaster ride. It would make an amazing novel…only it’s real. The nuts and bolts of the story is that, against all the odds, the farm was saved and Fordhall Community Land Initiative was born. The book is an extraordinary read and highly recommended.

Fordhall Farm is nothing short of miraculous and is so inspiring. In the face of adversity, against all the odds, facing such an uphill struggle, Charlotte and Ben made it. They deserve your support, so get involved!

Duchy College is one of the largest agricultural colleges in the south west. The main agricultural site is Stoke Climsland and it was here I arrived on a beautiful sunny morning, with mist hanging in the valleys.

Robbie Brighton and I gave a talk to about 30 students, comprising agriculture and rural resource management courses, in the impressive new Agrifood centre. Having plenty of time allowed us to go in to considerable depth on the subjects concerned, from the perception of farming as a career to the history of the organic movement.

It’s fair to say that some of the students were not overly knowledgable about organic systems, but all listened intently and nearly everyone contributed to an in-depth and constructive discussion. A worthwhile visit that made some good links.

We then raced down the A30 to Rosewarne for the second Duchy audience of the day - mostly horticultural students. The mood was quite different here (largely sympathetic to organic) helped by the ever enthusiastic Steve Roderick of the Organic Studies Centre. The discussion was vigorous and constructive, with many of the students really engaged with the issues and enthusiastic about the subject areas.

It then just left me to head down to Penzance, on to Land’s End airport for a short hop back over to the Isles of Scilly. It was good to get home after an intense 9 days on the road, but it felt like a very worthwhile time. Now comes the less glamorous work of taking forward the project, but I can now do so with a much clearer vision of future direction.

Next stop on the whirlwind tour was Bicton College of Agriculture near Budleigh Salterton. This time I was on my own so had to talk about my business, Organic Futures and the Soil Association. It’s difficult to find three matching hats to wear!

The college is set in a beautiful 500 acre parkland landscape, with some beautiful Red Ruby cattle grazing right in front of the college buildings, overlooking the 5 acre lake. What an inspiring view to see whilst learning - I feel this is really important. The whole area clearly has agriculture deeply ingrained in the communities.

The talk was to about 35 students and staff, from agriculture, horticulture and countryside management. The talk was well received and stimulated some discussion later on. One of the lecturers later commented how he had done a work placement on an organic farm in Somerset back in the late 80’s. He had no doubt this had influenced his views on organic (positively I might add!) and that the opposite was true of those who hadn’t visited or worked on organic farms.

This further strengthens the notion that “seeing is believing” and how critical it is that people’s views should be based on truth rather than perception and/or fiction. The implications of positively influencing thousands of college students is tremendous, but will require a big change in culture.

Harper Adams is one of the most esteemed and popular agricultural colleges in the UK. It’s an imposing building and being a traditional sort of place Ben Raskin (Soil Association Technical Manager) and I approached with some trepidation. Our talks contain a lot of issues outside mainstream and we were expecting some tough questioning.

The audience was quite small, but they listened carefully and we held some stimulating debate after the presentations. From what we perceived as a potentially reserved approach, came some vigorous debate abut organic farming, local food, peak oil, GM, food security and a number of other pertinent issues.

We were pleased that Dr John Reade was present, who has considerable knowledge on organic systems and teaches the organic MSc at Harper. It’s strange how people accept facts in a different light if one of their peers is “on board” and undoubtedly this helped move our talk on.

All in all it was a useful visit that made some useful contacts.

Then it was back down South for some meetings at the Soil Association in Bristol to discuss some details on the development of Organic Futures.