0:00:14 > 0:00:17This is John Latham.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21Although he may not look like it, he's a wheat farmer.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27Most people wouldn't recognise me as a farmer...
0:00:27 > 0:00:31That's because I'm not so hands-on as I used to be.
0:00:35 > 0:00:40John farms 2,000 hectares in East Anglia, Britain's bread basket.
0:00:42 > 0:00:46To do it, he uses the most advanced technology available.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52This is farming as agri-business.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00To understand how farmers like John Latham have come
0:01:00 > 0:01:03to work in this way, we need to go back to the 1930s,
0:01:03 > 0:01:07when his great-grandfather first started farming here.
0:01:15 > 0:01:20Their story begins in 1933, when John's great-grandparents bought
0:01:20 > 0:01:24a 25-hectare farm near Chelmsford in Essex.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29Their home movies show just how much their way of life has changed
0:01:29 > 0:01:32in three generations.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50There were lots of horses for the heavy work,
0:01:50 > 0:01:51and a small labour force.
0:01:56 > 0:02:00John's father was born here in 1938.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03This is him as a baby.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05These home movies might paint an idyllic picture,
0:02:05 > 0:02:08but the reality was somewhat different.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10John's father takes up the story.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18The start of the '30s saw the decline of farming in real terms.
0:02:18 > 0:02:22I mean, the price of crops was desperate -
0:02:22 > 0:02:26I think the price of wheat was anything between 24 shillings
0:02:26 > 0:02:32and 30 shillings a quarter, which was a fairly low price, considering it
0:02:32 > 0:02:36hit about 80 shillings a quarter as soon as the Second World War started.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39So you can see the '30s were desperate times
0:02:39 > 0:02:45and my grandfather and father found it very difficult to make ends meet.
0:02:45 > 0:02:47They really were almost insolvent,
0:02:47 > 0:02:49and the banks wanted to call the money in on the farms
0:02:49 > 0:02:51and put us out of business.
0:02:51 > 0:02:57But the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 changed everything.
0:03:03 > 0:03:08The country could no longer import enough food to feed the nation.
0:03:08 > 0:03:133 million extra acres of land were needed to grow more crops.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16To help this initiative,
0:03:16 > 0:03:18combine harvesters were brought in from America.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22One of them was sent to the Lathams.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26My father got a wonderful Massey Harris 21,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29which was a 12-foot self-propelled combine,
0:03:29 > 0:03:33and it was a wonderful tool for its time.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38In 1943, he did all his farms with that, he did 800 acres with
0:03:38 > 0:03:40one combine, which was almost unheard of.
0:03:43 > 0:03:44By the end of the war,
0:03:44 > 0:03:48these new machines had made a huge difference to productivity.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50In order to sustain this growth,
0:03:50 > 0:03:54the government decided to pay farmers a subsidy.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57It encouraged them to invest in new machinery,
0:03:57 > 0:04:01and, together with new agricultural chemicals and plant breeds,
0:04:01 > 0:04:05they began to farm in a different way...
0:04:05 > 0:04:07This was the birth of agribusiness.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25This was the world that John Latham was born into.
0:04:26 > 0:04:30Each decade of his childhood brought bigger
0:04:30 > 0:04:32and more sophisticated machines.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38He could not wait to have a go.
0:04:38 > 0:04:42When I was 12, are combine driver went off sick with glandular fever,
0:04:42 > 0:04:45so I was put on a combine as a 12 year-old,
0:04:45 > 0:04:47and I did the whole harvest.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50I was just in heaven. That is what I enjoy doing.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56By the time he took over the farm in the 1990s,
0:04:56 > 0:05:00the government subsidies of the post-war era had ended.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04John's strategy to survive was strength the numbers.
0:05:04 > 0:05:10So he joined forces with other farmers to try to cut costs.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14What we managed to do was bring some five or six farming businesses
0:05:14 > 0:05:18together, and while they are still trading as individual businesses,
0:05:18 > 0:05:21the actual farms are run as if it is one big farm.
0:05:22 > 0:05:27So we have one combine that that is doing it the word that five or
0:05:27 > 0:05:30six combines did five or six years ago.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35By joining together with other farmers,
0:05:35 > 0:05:38John has reduced his costs by one third.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45As with the generations before him, he has had to find a way to
0:05:45 > 0:05:49make farm pay, including the need to adapt to survive.
0:05:49 > 0:05:54I think you have up visions that things stay the same,
0:05:54 > 0:05:57you carry on farming the way you always have done,
0:05:57 > 0:05:59but of course it just doesn't happen like that.
0:05:59 > 0:06:04The rate of change has been very fast in so many ways.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08But does he miss the way they farmed when he was a boy?
0:06:08 > 0:06:11I do miss it, yes. I would be lying if I said I didn't.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14There is something great about getting on a combine
0:06:14 > 0:06:16and bringing in a harvest.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28Come on, Gary. Come on. Go on!
0:06:28 > 0:06:32Dorset dairy farmer Will is having problems with a bull.
0:06:37 > 0:06:41Any suggestions on how to move a ton and a half of bull? Come on!
0:06:41 > 0:06:44Called Gary!
0:06:44 > 0:06:48But it is not only his bull he is having problems with.
0:06:48 > 0:06:53Will has also had difficulties just staying in business.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57Difficulties he sorted out by doing a deal with one of Britain's
0:06:57 > 0:06:59leading supermarkets.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07Will grow up on the farm with his two brothers.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11That has him on the left in the red jumper.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14And here he is four years old,
0:07:14 > 0:07:16herding cows in the same red pullover.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20He began his farming career early.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25Growing up on this farm I think was good fun.
0:07:25 > 0:07:26Great fun, really.
0:07:26 > 0:07:31Quite a young age, you were always out doing something on the farm.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38He took over the farm from his father when he was in his early
0:07:38 > 0:07:43twenties, and over the next few years doubled the cows' yield.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49My father was probably producing 4,000 - 4,500 litres a cow.
0:07:49 > 0:07:55And we eventually got from 8,000 to 8,100 litres per cow.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04Will sold all his milk to a processing company.
0:08:06 > 0:08:11From the 1920s, milk had been sold in a variety of ways -
0:08:11 > 0:08:15by a large and small processes, by retailers and by farmers.
0:08:15 > 0:08:20And 80 per cent of it was delivered directly to the customers' doorstep.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23But by the 1980s,
0:08:23 > 0:08:27this supply chain was being revolutionised
0:08:27 > 0:08:30by the increasing dominance of the supermarkets.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34And by the late 1990s,
0:08:34 > 0:08:39they were selling over 75 per cent of all milk produced.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43The supermarkets used their buying power to drive down prices to
0:08:43 > 0:08:46processors and dairy farmers alike.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49They can go to a big processor and say,
0:08:49 > 0:08:54"I need so many litres of milk by tomorrow, please deliver it,
0:08:54 > 0:08:58"thank you very much, this is what you will get paid".
0:08:58 > 0:09:01The consequences for dairy farmers were profound.
0:09:01 > 0:09:06In 1994, there had been more than 35,000 of them.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10By 2000, the number had almost halved.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12Organisations like the Women's Institute
0:09:12 > 0:09:16and the National Farmers' Union began to campaign
0:09:16 > 0:09:21about their concerns for the future of Britain's dairy industry.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24Through the WI campaign, the NFU campaign,
0:09:24 > 0:09:28and a period of time when dairy farmers in particular were
0:09:28 > 0:09:33being paid rock-bottom prices, there was an impression that maybe
0:09:33 > 0:09:38the milk supply would not be there in the future.
0:09:38 > 0:09:43And not only that, but provenance, I.E. where all milk came from,
0:09:43 > 0:09:47how the animals were kept and how farms were farmed,
0:09:47 > 0:09:52became much more important in the public's eye.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55And therefore, the supermarkets in particular decided to
0:09:55 > 0:09:58go for a dedicated producer group where
0:09:58 > 0:10:01they knew exactly where their milk was coming from.
0:10:01 > 0:10:07Will decided to apply to join the dedicated producer group
0:10:07 > 0:10:11set up by Britain's biggest milk seller, the supermarket chain Tesco.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14Its co-ordinator is Emma Rutter.
0:10:16 > 0:10:20We have very much been blamed for what has happened in the past,
0:10:20 > 0:10:22but we are out there to change and to actually say
0:10:22 > 0:10:26when not basing it on what is happening in the marketplace
0:10:26 > 0:10:29any more, we do realise we were part of that before,
0:10:29 > 0:10:33but now we're going to guarantee your cost prediction
0:10:33 > 0:10:36and your milk price will not fall below that.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40And as well as a commitment to giving farmers a better deal,
0:10:40 > 0:10:44the supermarket was also responding to public concern
0:10:44 > 0:10:45about animal welfare.
0:10:45 > 0:10:47I was hoping that maybe,
0:10:47 > 0:10:50with Liverpool University and all the rest,
0:10:50 > 0:10:53that perhaps we'd be able to get some work done on
0:10:53 > 0:10:55specific issues within lameness.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58As you know within the first year of the project
0:10:58 > 0:11:00they were looking very much at lameness issues
0:11:00 > 0:11:03because that was one of the key issues affecting farmers.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06And also consumers tend to notice
0:11:06 > 0:11:09the lame cows at the end of the heard coming in last
0:11:09 > 0:11:12because they've been waiting for the cows
0:11:12 > 0:11:16to cross the road, so it was both a consumer issue and a producer issue.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20I think that could be extremely worthwhile, particularly
0:11:20 > 0:11:25if we roll it out to the wider industry.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28For Will, the arrangement with the supermarket gave him
0:11:28 > 0:11:30a level of security that he had never had.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34It even made him reassess the way he farmed.
0:11:34 > 0:11:40I decided to go for a low output system - more pasture based,
0:11:40 > 0:11:45and produce not substantially but a little less milk.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47All round, it will be easier for me
0:11:47 > 0:11:50and easier for the animals that I farm.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52Including that bull, Gary.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12Its harvest time in East Anglia,
0:12:12 > 0:12:16but farmer Andrew cannot work in heavy rain.
0:12:19 > 0:12:24The straw is absolutely sodden, it won't cut
0:12:24 > 0:12:28and it gets difficult to rub the grain out when it's wet.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31You'll just absolutely crucify the machine.
0:12:35 > 0:12:41It's not just Andrew's time that is being wasted, but his money also.
0:12:41 > 0:12:42A field of wheat like this
0:12:42 > 0:12:45represents a huge financial investment,
0:12:45 > 0:12:48and the longer it stays out in the rain,
0:12:48 > 0:12:51the greater its chances of being ruined.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58It's a frustrating time for Andrew and other farmers in East Anglia.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06All this great technology we have, and innovation,
0:13:06 > 0:13:10but we still can't do anything because the weather is not with us.
0:13:10 > 0:13:12Looking outside now,
0:13:12 > 0:13:15it looks like the middle of winter instead of the middle of summer.
0:13:17 > 0:13:20The technology isn't working outside,
0:13:20 > 0:13:24but fortunately for Andrew, it is working inside.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27He and his colleagues are looking at what is
0:13:27 > 0:13:30happening on the International wheat market.
0:13:30 > 0:13:32The prices aren't fixed,
0:13:32 > 0:13:37but instead go up and down in response to supply and demand.
0:13:39 > 0:13:40Things aren't looking too good.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45The price of wheat at the moment is dropping away.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49Due to the fact the world is having the biggest harvest it's had
0:13:49 > 0:13:50for many years.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53That's the reality for farmers like Andrew.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57While his wheat waits in the field,
0:13:57 > 0:14:01its value is being decided across the globe.
0:14:01 > 0:14:03At his office in Cambridgeshire
0:14:03 > 0:14:07John Latham, another of Andrew's colleagues,
0:14:07 > 0:14:10is also keeping a close watch on wheat prices.
0:14:10 > 0:14:15The fact wheat is a global commodity means that we will always have
0:14:15 > 0:14:18to have an eye on global markets.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22But probably more importantly we have to be aware that we are competing in that market place,
0:14:22 > 0:14:24so there are other parts of the world
0:14:24 > 0:14:27that can produce wheat more cheaply than we are -
0:14:27 > 0:14:30we have to adapt to that, we have to be competitive.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39Until relatively recently,
0:14:39 > 0:14:44British wheat farmers only competed in a small way on the global market
0:14:44 > 0:14:48because for many years, they did not produce enough.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53That all changed in the 1970s, when a combination of science,
0:14:53 > 0:14:57technology and plant breeding ushered in new varieties
0:14:57 > 0:15:01of dwarf wheat that increased output considerably.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06Since then, British wheat production
0:15:06 > 0:15:10has trebled to around 14 billion tonnes a year.
0:15:10 > 0:15:15And most of it is sold by dealers in trading rooms like this one in Lincolnshire.
0:15:17 > 0:15:22And then it went down to about 25 and it closed around 35, 38.
0:15:22 > 0:15:26I mean, it was all to do with the Fed bailing out.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30..Liverpool market is December 260.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32This is a centralised trading desk,
0:15:32 > 0:15:36all wheat that we sell, we sell through this desk.
0:15:36 > 0:15:38So we are selling from Aberdeen down to Cornwall.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45The world's biggest wheat producers like Russia, the Ukraine, Canada
0:15:45 > 0:15:48and the US dominate the market.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52128, won 28. Between 128 and 130.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55The size and quality of their harvests determine the price
0:15:55 > 0:15:59the UK from a gets paid within Britain and abroad.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04The UK produces a surplus of wheat,
0:16:04 > 0:16:07so we have to be a competitive exporter.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12Our main market is Spain, and it is the export market that sets
0:16:12 > 0:16:15the prices that the farmer ultimately get paid.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19- That's what we're looking for. - All right, cheers, goodbye.
0:16:19 > 0:16:24- Good man, thank you. - The global marketplace never sleeps.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27And there is no rest either for Andrew Tetlow.
0:16:30 > 0:16:32It's past midnight, but the rain has stopped
0:16:32 > 0:16:36and he needs to make the most of the dry spell to get the harvest in.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40It's a juggling act when we go with the forecast as it is,
0:16:40 > 0:16:43it looks like we will have to take every chance we've got.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03Its upside-down, whatever it is.
0:17:05 > 0:17:06And a leg tucked back.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12Got some fun and games.
0:17:12 > 0:17:14This is always a tense time on a dairy farm.
0:17:14 > 0:17:20Nick and Chris Gosling are helping a cow give birth.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23I think it's front...
0:17:23 > 0:17:25Upside-down.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28They are expanding their herd of pedigree Guernsey cows, but only
0:17:28 > 0:17:31a few years ago they were on the verge
0:17:31 > 0:17:34of giving up farming altogether.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38She's still alive, or he. Calf's just bitten me.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44What saved them was becoming organic.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47We may have to do a proper calving
0:17:50 > 0:17:55Nick grew up on a farm in Wiltshire. That's him as a young boy.
0:17:57 > 0:17:58To go out with dad was a thrill.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01I used to ride around with him everywhere.
0:18:01 > 0:18:03I was just his apprentice, really.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09And Chris, his wife, joined him in 1981.
0:18:09 > 0:18:11As soon as we were married,
0:18:11 > 0:18:14I was taught to milk and looked after the calves.
0:18:16 > 0:18:18fell in love with this farm.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23In those days, the family farmed in a conventional way.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25They used chemical sprays
0:18:25 > 0:18:28and fertilisers to help their crops grow.
0:18:28 > 0:18:33If the cows had problems, they used antibiotics.
0:18:35 > 0:18:39And they managed to get through any tough economic
0:18:39 > 0:18:43times by processing and delivering their own milk door to door.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49Farming goes in dips and troughs, highs and lows.
0:18:49 > 0:18:55And whenever there was a trough, the milk rounds pulled us through.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57And then went the good times were on,
0:18:57 > 0:19:00we had the good times and the farm.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06In the years following the Second World War,
0:19:06 > 0:19:0980 per cent of milk was delivered in this way.
0:19:09 > 0:19:14But things changed dramatically as the supermarket chains began
0:19:14 > 0:19:15to dominate the high street.
0:19:17 > 0:19:23By the late 1990s, they were selling 75 per cent of all milk produced.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27With their enormous buying power,
0:19:27 > 0:19:32supermarkets could control the price paid to farmers for their milk.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36By 2000, it had dropped from 25-17p per litre.
0:19:38 > 0:19:40Less than the cost of production.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46Nick and Chris Gosling's Wiltshire farm faced bankruptcy.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49By 2002, they'd had enough.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54We actually had the heard up for sale.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57And we were going to probably have to close the processing plant
0:19:57 > 0:20:01and rent the buildings out.
0:20:01 > 0:20:03And my wife and I sat up in bed one morning
0:20:03 > 0:20:06and realised that we were only one month away from selling,
0:20:06 > 0:20:10the brochure was ready to go out to the public,
0:20:10 > 0:20:12and we suddenly thought, gosh,
0:20:12 > 0:20:15we do know what else we can do other than dairy farming.
0:20:15 > 0:20:17So I said, well, I'll give it one last chance
0:20:17 > 0:20:21and try to find someone who wants our milk.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24The plan to become organic was hatched.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29I've always tested Nick, ever since we got married, that we
0:20:29 > 0:20:32should be organic.
0:20:32 > 0:20:37But it was his decision, his commercial decision, to go ahead.
0:20:37 > 0:20:42We were actually given a grant, and things didn't change overnight.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46It took us three years to become organic.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50The farmers who farm organically will not used drugs or other
0:20:50 > 0:20:52chemicals on their livestock.
0:20:52 > 0:20:57And with the land, they will tend to fertilise naturally by a crop
0:20:57 > 0:21:01rotations, seaweed additives, things like that,
0:21:01 > 0:21:05rather than using insecticides and chemicals.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08As the time has gone on, even Nick,
0:21:08 > 0:21:10who can be quite cynical about these things,
0:21:10 > 0:21:15he has actually decided that organic farming is the right way to go.
0:21:15 > 0:21:16And he does prefer it.
0:21:16 > 0:21:21In the way that we treat the animals, the way we treat the land.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28On the land, I find it fascinating just to see how rotations work
0:21:28 > 0:21:31and how you can control some of the horrible weeds that
0:21:31 > 0:21:34I used to know this farm had, like black grass,
0:21:34 > 0:21:38by just changing from a winter to a spring rotation.
0:21:40 > 0:21:46We chose to go organic originally because of financial reasons,
0:21:46 > 0:21:49but the more we have got involved with the organic movement and
0:21:49 > 0:21:54farm organically, the more we realise that working with nature does work.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58Farming organically is much more fun, it's more interesting.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02I'm working in a stress-free environment,
0:22:03 > 0:22:08you notice that with less stress on the cows, they are healthier.
0:22:08 > 0:22:10We've noticed that all the way through,
0:22:10 > 0:22:13and they are easier to manage, they do as you want.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19I've changed my ways of farming and how we treat animals.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26On certain things, you can treat their care without having to
0:22:26 > 0:22:31use antibiotics and drugs that do tend to have long-term effects.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37The goslings have made a success of organic farming
0:22:37 > 0:22:40and their future now looks assured.
0:22:40 > 0:22:45- Just as it does for this cow and her calf.- Job done. One live calf.
0:22:59 > 0:23:00This is Harold Cooper.
0:23:00 > 0:23:05He's been farming wheat in East Anglia since 1982.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09Today, he is celebrating his 90th birthday along with his son
0:23:09 > 0:23:11Ashley and nephew Oliver.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16We're here today to celebrate and give thanks for this hugely
0:23:16 > 0:23:21long life that you had an to applaud everything you've achieved.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27Over the course of Harold's lifetime,
0:23:27 > 0:23:32government agricultural policy has changed dramatically.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36After the Second World War, new policies
0:23:36 > 0:23:40and government subsidies encouraged farmers to grow more food
0:23:40 > 0:23:45which would be made easier by the use of new technology and science.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48Harold first learned of this at a lecture
0:23:48 > 0:23:51he attended by a leading agricultural scientist.
0:23:53 > 0:23:55He said that in a few years'
0:23:55 > 0:23:59time we will all be growing two tons of wheat per acre.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04And I foresee in the future that you will be able to grow perhaps
0:24:04 > 0:24:06four tons an acre.
0:24:08 > 0:24:14Well, I will never forget this, because hardly anyone believed it.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18Which was not surprising, since British wheat farmers were
0:24:18 > 0:24:21growing around half that amount in those days.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24Yet the scientist was right.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28Over the next 40 years, British wheat production trebled.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33One of the ways this was achieved was in the use of new
0:24:33 > 0:24:35agricultural chemicals.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38Little was known of their potentially toxic effects.
0:24:40 > 0:24:46This is Harold's nephew Oliver aged 13 in 1958.
0:24:46 > 0:24:51He remembers vividly some of the first herbicides which
0:24:51 > 0:24:53we used to control weeds.
0:24:54 > 0:24:58One of my memories as a child was a chemical which was
0:24:58 > 0:25:04a very yellow liquid, I'm sure it got very high toxicity levels.
0:25:04 > 0:25:09But many of the products we used were quite nasty by today's standards.
0:25:09 > 0:25:10You could smell some products
0:25:10 > 0:25:15when you came in that were being used as herbicides in those days.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18My father's generation had probably been the most exposed
0:25:18 > 0:25:23generation in all in terms of actual physical contamination on their
0:25:23 > 0:25:25hands, their skins, their eyes.
0:25:26 > 0:25:31And it was only people like Oliver's father that were affected.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34Gradually, evidence began to emerge about the damaging
0:25:34 > 0:25:37effects on wildlife and the environment.
0:25:38 > 0:25:43One of the most notorious was DDT, a man made insecticide
0:25:43 > 0:25:46developed to kill a whole range of agricultural pests.
0:25:48 > 0:25:54The ecologists were pointing out that DDT produced thin
0:25:54 > 0:26:00shells in the eggs of the birds at the top of the food chain,
0:26:00 > 0:26:05the raptors, things like peregrine falcons.
0:26:05 > 0:26:08So a question began to rise
0:26:08 > 0:26:12- are these pesticides actually always a good thing?
0:26:12 > 0:26:15And the answer was, actually, No.
0:26:15 > 0:26:21The government took action, and in 1984, DDT was banned.
0:26:21 > 0:26:27This was followed in 1985 by the Food and Environment Protection Act.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30The first in a series of regulations to control
0:26:30 > 0:26:32the use of agricultural chemicals.
0:26:33 > 0:26:38And it wasn't only chemicals which were having a detrimental
0:26:38 > 0:26:40effect on the environment.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43The post-war drive to produce ever more food
0:26:43 > 0:26:46left its mark on the landscape to.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50If you've got a big combine harvester you don't want it to make
0:26:50 > 0:26:51a field to put it in.
0:26:51 > 0:26:57So farmers tended to get rid of a lot of their hedgerows.
0:26:57 > 0:27:02Likewise, if you can get paid a lot of money for producing wheat
0:27:02 > 0:27:07and you've got a boggy bit of land, then you want to drain it.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10The effect on wildlife was stark.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12Populations of birds,
0:27:12 > 0:27:16insects and wild plants began to decline sharply.
0:27:17 > 0:27:22As evidence grew, government policy shifted towards reducing output.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27From the 1990s onwards, schemes like Set Aside,
0:27:27 > 0:27:31and Environmental Stewardship, were reduced which paid farmers to
0:27:31 > 0:27:36take land out of production and increase biodiversity.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40Harold Cooper's son Ashley was keen to sign up.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46In total, we have about 10 per cent of our arable acreage
0:27:46 > 0:27:50now in environmental schemes of one sort or another.
0:27:50 > 0:27:55And what this means is we have six-metre margins planted with
0:27:55 > 0:28:02a variety of grasses, and in some cases wild flowers around each field.
0:28:02 > 0:28:07I've been able to replant the wood that my father removed.
0:28:10 > 0:28:12I'm very lucky, because I love it,
0:28:12 > 0:28:16so it is added enthusiasm to my farming career.
0:28:17 > 0:28:20It's almost a complete reversal of farming policy
0:28:20 > 0:28:24since Harold's career began 75 years ago.
0:28:24 > 0:28:29No wonder he finds the future so hard to predict.
0:28:29 > 0:28:31I find it terribly easy to look back
0:28:31 > 0:28:33but awfully difficult to look forward.
0:28:33 > 0:28:37# Happy birthday dear Harold
0:28:37 > 0:28:41# Happy birthday to you. #
0:29:01 > 0:29:05Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd