Farmerama Radio: Episode 22 – Beauty, land, rewilding, upland sheep farming and spiritual ecology

This month’s Farmerama Radio episode is a little different to usual as we weave in and out of a conversation we had with Dame Fiona Reynolds, former Director-General of the National Trust.

Her recent book The Fight for Beauty is a call to arms for all of us to pay more attention to matters of the earth and oceans. Fiona charts the power of the people who have fought for their right to beauty over hundreds of years of land disputes in the UK. Of course farming and fishing communities feature heavily in this fight. We caught up with Fiona and she told us how she sees farming fits into the future of a Britain built on beauty.

The Fight for Beauty

We are well aware that beauty seems a little airy-fairy and disconnected from the realities of running a farming business. But please do hear us out to the end…this is about bringing power back to the people.

As Fiona discusses beauty and rewilding we hear from upland organic sheep farmer (with a passion for whole thinking), Martin Peck, asking his long-time neighbour and fellow upland sheep farmer, Rees Roberts, for some of his thoughts on these topics. It’s brilliant to hear the views of an upland sheep farmer, this voice is so often missing from the rewilding debate. Rees Roberts is from Dyffryn Tanat (The Tanat Valley), Powys. He still practices Hafod a Hendre known as transhumance in English – hafod meaning a farm on the higher pastures where he takes the sheep during the Summer (haf is Welsh  for summer) and hendre, the old settlement or farm where the sheep go for the Winter.

We also hear from spiritual ecologist and artist behind The Milking Parlour, Nessie Reid for a completely different perspective on beauty and being.

Thanks to all contributors and Martin Peck for his recording. This episode was produced by Katie Revell, Jo Barratt and Abby Rose.

Also we forgot to say last month – THANK YOU we are now an award-winning podcast thanks to your support. We were awarded silver in the British Podcasting Awards Represent category. This is thanks to everyone who has ever contributed, listened and shared about Farmerama… thanks for the support and we are excited to share many more voices from the smaller-scale farming community. Thanks to Katie Revell for representing us on the night…