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Land of Plenty: A Journey Through the Fields and Foods of Modern Britain

Golden fields, ripening apples, lowing cattle: our idea of the landscape has been shaped by agriculture, as has the land itself. But in a fast-changing world, how does the great British countryside continue to provide the food we eat?

Most people living in Britain today must go back several generations before they find an ancestor who worked on the land. How much do we really know about those who are supplying us with the most essential things in life: our daily bread and butter, meat and fish, fruit and vegetables?

In Land of Plenty Charlie Pye-Smith travels the length and breadth of these isles to explore the little-understood world of British agriculture. From ultramodern indoor dairy units producing millions of litres of milk a year to small, old-fashioned farms making cheese with twenty or thirty cows, and from landowners whose families have farmed the same fields for centuries to tenants who have just joined the industry, Pye-Smith investigates the timeless connection between land and people in the twenty-first century.

Revealing the dairy industry in Somerset and Gloucestershire; beef in the Scottish Borders; sheep in North Yorkshire; pigs and poultry in East Anglia and Hampshire; vegetables in Norfolk; and fruit in Essex and the West Country, Land of Plenty is a colourful and rewarding travelogue that gets to the very heart of modern British life.

“We need to take where our food comes from seriously... Pye-Smith’s investigation is thorough and at times remarkable” — Clive Aslet, The Times

“A brilliantly well observed story of the British countryside, its history and its future... a Rural Rides for the 21st century” — Western Morning News

“Pye-Smith’s writing is approachable... will be enjoyed just as much by someone who has been farming all their life as somebody who knows little about agriculture but is looking for an enjoyable non-fiction read” — Ben Eagle, thinkingcountry.com

“If you are interested in how food gets to you in Britain, be sure to pick up this book” — bookishbeck.wordpress.com

  • Format
  • hardcover
  • Pages
  • 256
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9781783963058
  • Genres
  • nature
  • Release date
  • 2017