Devereux, and our other farm, Walton Hall are like rural enterprises across the UK looking to the future. The principle arable enterprise bumps along with incomes that go from unexciting to non-contributory to the business. The days of a nation wide network of government funded agricultural research stations are gone. The term food security for the UK raises its head occasionally, but not ahead of economic viability. In fact food security and climate change are two huge issues whose importance is accepted, but neither gain political traction for long enough to develop a cohesive long term plan.
It is an old farming adage – live as if you will die tomorrow, but farm as if you will farm for ever. Live well, but look after the land because it is a vital resource. 2016 will be a pivotal year for this farm as we grapple with whether we should have a long term view on protecting our land from the sea. It seems that within five years the natural cliffs that protect our farm from the sea will have been breached by the sea.
Records for Walton Hall farm go back to the 12th century, when St.Paul’s of London owned the land. There were sea defences then, but clearly nothing like our 5m high sea walls. All the same the farm, not only was a sizeable part of the farm lost to the sea but a whole village with it. Their lives commemorated in a pew created in the cathedral for the purpose. Through the centuries there has been a continual battle of both government and private investment to hold the line against the sea, with varying degrees of success.
1953 was our last failure. A tide that cost the lives of 300 along the East anglian coast and 1800 in Holland and Germany. The resultant new wall on the Naze was constructed with 100% government funding both to rebuild the wall, but also to start a ten year process to re-juvenate the soil into productive arable land. Land that had been used for sheep grazing improving yields by one third following huge leaps forward in plant breeding and mechanisation.
The land now has a capacity to grow four tons of wheat, but within a global market, this enterprise is hardly profitable in an industry that demands high rates of investment in machinery to keep productive.
So if the land is economically non-productive – should we just abandon it and let it go to sea? If wheat can be imported cheaper, what is the reason for continuing? If UK agriculture requires public funding to keep it solvant, is this sustainable either politically or economically?
But as that old farm adage indicates, we should respect the value of the soil because you never know when you might need it. In 1953, Europe was starving and that was the driver for government to maintain farm assets and maintain productivity. History tells us of the times when we needed these assets to feed the nation and these were times when the nation was great, but then plunged into crisis.
Our challenge here is a climate change issue. A rising threat of unpredictable and long term proportion. Coastal farmers in other parts of the world have already given up their land because they do not have an option. But on the East Anglian coast we do have options. Partnerships are developing and innovative ways of reducing flood risk are being trialed. The risk has grown. Walls are bigger and stronger, but as I reflect that our 5m wall came within 0.4m from being overtoped in 2013 and that this was a surge tide that we see every five years the risk is real.
This was one of the drivers for Devereux farm developing an alternative enterprise by growing sea buckthorn. Farmers have diversified for years and the drivers for this have always been economic. All businesses have to react to market changes and have to evolve to survive. Our position here is no different to one reflected on all low coastlines.
Farming is an industry that looks to the long term. Land may be handed down through generations but with that comes responsibility. In an age where short term accounting and success is gauged on business growth not survival, there are few places to look for for advice. What is for certain is that where there is a will there is a way. The sea buckthorn enterprise is working and looking forward to its first crop. It has taken time, and so it is good to allow time to resolve problems and find the ways to reduce the mountain back down to a molehill.
