Description
Food is our most intimate and vital commodity, yet too many of us have lost touch with the reality of where it comes from and how it is produced.
Providing a seasonal tour of a traditional farming year, passionate beef farmer Joe Stanley seeks to bridge this knowledge gap and inform the reader about the journey their food takes before it gets to the plate, revealing the realities of modern agricultural life for a British lowland farmer.
Drawing on a lifetime of experience, he strips observations of the countryside and agricultural practices down to the core of his day-to-day, illustrating how our food is produced and why our farmed landscape looks the way it does. Along the way, he offers insight into his daily routine, such as how crops are planted, why livestock is brought in for winter, and what happens at harvest, while addressing the bigger issues surrounding food standards, sustainability, the environment, rural heritage, trade and the future of agricultural policy outside the EU.
Often undermined as an antiquated pastime, agriculture is actually the core of a GBP122bn food and farming sector (the UK's largest manufacturing industry), and Farm to Fork: The Challenge of Sustainable Farming in 21st Century Britain stands as a testament to British farming and the heart that goes into the food our farmers produce, the environmental stewardship they deliver and the landscape they maintain, whether through the assurance of food quality, animal welfare or environmental sustainability.
This is a wonderfully-detailed and candid account of the life of a British farmer - of the highs and lows and lessons learned from a lifetime on the land.
About the Author
Joe Stanley is a farmer, conservationist and writer and a passionate ambassador for sustainability and high standards in food and farming who is often to be seen in the farming and national press advocating for positive change in our food system and explaining the realities of modern agriculture to wider society. Experienced in arable, beef and dairy farming, since 2021 Joe has worked at The Allerton Project, a research and demonstration farm in Leicestershire, UK, which since 1992 has sought to demonstrate how food production and a thriving natural environment can co-exist side-by-side. In 2020 Joe was awarded the National Farmers Union's Meurig Raymond Award for farming advocacy and in 2022 Associateship of the Royal Agricultural Societies in recognition of distinguished achievement within farming. In 2021 he released his first book, 'Farm to Fork: The Challenge of Sustainable Farming in 21st Century Britain' with Quiller. He is married with two children, and two mostly trusty Jack Russell terriers.
Reviews
This book offers a compelling insight into the challenges and rewards of farming. A must-read for any agriculture student, it will also appeal to those with an interest in their food, as well as the farmers who produce it.
A wonderfully-detailed and candid account of the life of a British farmer. Farm to Fork offers something for everyone, no matter their background.
For now, the battle to defend farming against cavalier politicians, unscrupulous capitalists and ignorant environmentalists continues to be waged in the media by its champions, notably NFU president Minette Batters, who has written the foreword. Mr Stanley has made a heartfelt contribution to that fight.
The book gives an insight into the hundreds of decisions affecting what ends up on our plate, how farming life has changed, and how it might look in years to come.
It is, at its core, a love letter from one farmer, to an entire industry
Book Information
ISBN 9781846893544
Author Joe Stanley
Format Hardback
Page Count 256
Imprint Quiller Publishing Ltd
Publisher Quiller Publishing Ltd
