Very exciting to be here. But im trying to understand what has happened to this land of yours, because when you arrived here, this was an intensively farmed land, wasnt it . It was. My husband, charlie, inherited it from his grandparents when he was in his early 20s, and this was back in the 1980s. And every inch of the land was ploughed, it was producing arable crops and dairy. And we fully expected to be farmers for the rest of our lives. Mm. 17 years on, we were £1. 5 million in debt, tearing our hair out and realised that, you know, this is very marginal land. Were walking on 320 metres of clay, over a bedrock of limestone, and its an absolute pig to farm. So you were literally close to going out of business . Yeah, the farm was a failing business. And we did everything we could. We diversified, we tried different crops, we tried different cows. We sold ice cream. We did everything we could. But always it was this clay that was against us. So lets just stop for a second and look a
ah, well, it s actually still, for me, very exciting to be here. but i m trying to understand what has happened to this land of yours, because when you arrived here, this was an intensively farmed land, wasn t it? it was. my husband, charlie, inherited it from his grandparents when he was in his early 20s, and this was back in the 1980s. and every inch of the land was ploughed, it was producing arable crops and dairy. and we fully expected to be farmers for the rest of our lives. mm. 17 years on, we were £1.5 million in debt, tearing our hair out, and realised that, you know, this is very marginal land. we re walking on 320 metres of clay, over a bedrock of limestone, and it s an absolute pig to farm. so you were literally close to going out of business? yeah, the farm was a failing business. and we did everything we could. we diversified, we tried different crops, we tried different cows. we sold ice cream. we did everything we could. but always it was this clay that was ag
and the scale of your ambition, it strikes me there is a basic question of priorities here. you have put the priority of healing the land and species regeneration above maximising food production. well, it s absolutely true. what we have to remember here is that this was very marginal land. it was very, very difficult to be producing food intensively in the modern system on this. but you were doing it. wheat, barley. we were doing it, yeah. and about 70% of that went to feed animal livestock. so i think the first thing we need to talk about, if we re talking about food security, is the amount of food waste. that s never brought into these conversations. what s never brought into this equation is the 30% to 40% of food that we waste, that s fit for human consumption and we simply waste it. so we ve got to address that issue first before we start
there. let s go. yes. isabella tree. having there. let s go. yes. isabella tree, having walked - there. let s go. yes. isabella tree, having walked the - there. let s go. yes. isabella i tree, having walked the estate with you, having seen your passion and the scale of your ambition, it strikes me there is a basic question of priorities here. you have put the priority of healing the land and species regeneration above maximising food production. above maximising food production. well, that is absolutely production. well, that is absolutely true. - production. well, that is absolutely true. what i production. well, that is| absolutely true. what we production. well, that is - absolutely true. what we have to remember here is that this was very marginal land, it was very, very difficult to be producing food intensively in a modern system on this land. but ou were modern system on this land. but you were doing it. wheat, - you were doing it. wheat, barley - you were doing it. wheat
having seen your passion and the scale of your ambition, it strikes me there is a basic question of priorities here. you have put the priority of healing the land and species regeneration above maximising food production. well, it s absolutely true. what we have to remember here is that this was very marginal land. it was very, very difficult to be producing food intensively in the modern system on this. but you were doing it. wheat, barley. we were doing it, yeah. and about 70% of that went to feed animal livestock. so i think the first thing we need to talk about, if we re talking about food security, is the amount of food waste. that s never brought into these conversations. what s never brought into this equation is the 30% to 40% of food that we waste, that s fit for human consumption and we simply waste it. so we ve got to address that issue