When the United Kingdom left the European Union it also left its Common Agricultural Policy that has subsidised food production; transforming landscapes over 45 years. Farming is a devolved issue and each of the four nations are trying to establish what comes next. England's new Environmental Land Management Scheme or ELMs is being designed in Westminster; testing how farmers can instead be paid to restore nature. The atmosphere is heating and the web of life is dying. Land lies beneath these emergencies. This moment is said to be a historic opportunity. Some are optimistic. Others are deeply sceptical. Context and traditions matter. Values clash. The Lake District National Park holds UNESCO World Heritage Site status as ‘an unrivalled example of a northern European upland agro-pastoral system’. This is a system that is now being called on to change. A multiplicity of voices needs to be heard. The transition has begun.
Credits:
Produced by Louise Carver, Charlie Gere
Directed, Shot, and Edited by Oliver Bradley-Baker
Contributors in order of appearance
Ewan Allinson - Sculptor, PhD Researcher, Dry Stone Waller and member of the Uplands Alliance
Jim Lowther - Land Owner, Lowther and Lonsdale Estates
John Dunning CBE - Founder of Westmorland Motorway Services
John Atkinson - Farmer, Nibthwaite Farm
Lee Schofield - RSPB Site Manager Haweswater Farm
Tim Winder - Gaisgill Row Farm, Orton Fells Farmer Cluster
Maria Benjamin - Dodgson Wood and Nibthwaite Farm
Hannah Field - PHD Researcher University of Cumbria and Coordinator of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission
Julia Aglionby - Professor in Practice, University of Cumbria, Executive Director, Foundation for Common Land and Chair of the Uplands Alliance
Karen Lloyd - Writer and Enviromental Activist
Music Harry McSwaine
Sound Assistant Stella Gere
With Thanks to Lancaster University - Faculty of Science and Technology Impact Award Lancaster University - Future Places Centre
