"Rooted" by Sarah Langford

If you are looking for a light summer read, maybe more memoir than science based, you could do a lot worse than reading "Rooted" by Sarah Langford.

This is not a detailed scientific text and it is certainly not an unbiased review. It is unashamedly a memoir, but a memoir which covers a lot of ground in telling the story of a country girl who heads for the bright lights of the city and a legal career, before recognising that the call of the countryside remains deep in her veins. When the opportunity presents to run a family farm, her initial rather romantic but sceptical view of farming is challenged and changed by a combination of diligent research and practical experience.

Langford has managed to cleverly capture the changing farmer perspective of the last twenty or so years; I suspect it is only possible to do this when she fully understands and has also gained the trust of the farmers she interviews. She presents a range of farmer attitudes, based on real farm situations: some individuals are open to change, while others are deeply cynical and resentful of what they see as government interference.

The book also presents an interesting historical perspective. That story begins immediately after World War II, when the green revolution encouraged farmers to apply increasing quantities of fertiliser and agrochemicals, in order to produce cheap food, that in many cases was surplus to requirements. Older readers will recall terms such as the ‘butter mountains’ and ‘wine lakes’, measures of incompetent agricultural policies which thankfully, are rarely encountered anymore.

BSE, better known to the world as ‘Mad Cow Disease’, is also discussed. This disease, now largely forgotten, developed because of the use of animal protein in animal feed; a sad reflection on the intensive nutrition required to pump out milk, no matter the cost.

The development of regenerative and organic approaches is well covered, warts and all, as we follow the stories of several farms faced with the fundamental challenge of survival; survival that may be financial in nature, or in some cases, may be a failure to survive the demands of intensive agriculture. One emotional story tells of Tom, hiding in the house rather than help with the disposal of unwanted bull calves.

Worms and the advantages of healthy soil figure prominently in several chapters. The advantages of healthy worms to soil ecology is not contested; and while the impact of agri-chemicals upon worm populations is not difficult to imagine, it may come as a surprise to some to learn that ploughing can also have a major deleterious effect on worm populations.

There are many authoritative, fully referenced scientific texts which will provide a lot more information than this book, on regenerative agriculture. But few will provide a better insight to the situation of farmers and the complexities of the daily decisions they make. Sarah Langford is to be congratulated on producing a highly readable, very relevant book which provides a lot more than her personal memoir.