Farming

CPRE, both nationally and locally believes that the countryside cannot flourish without a healthy farming industry. CPRE also believes that farmers should be rewarded for their role in protecting and enhancing the environment and campaigns for Government action to help farmers adapt to changing conditions.

At CPRE Sussex, we are aware that many factors influence how farm landscapes are managed and that change is often necessary to ensure a future for the working farm. In this regard, we undertook a research project between 2004-2006, to see how Sussex farm landuse has changed in the recent past, how it is expected to change in the future and, most importantly, how CPRE Sussex can help to ensure a safe future for the working farm.

In 2004, National CPRE asked members of the public to identify three aspects of the countryside that they were most worried about losing. Working farms, hedgerows and flower rich meadows were at the top of the list; all integral parts of the landscape that our local farms provide.

Our changing farm landscape

As part of our research, CPRE Sussex looked at 1990 and 2000 census data provided by DEFRA, surveyed a total of 217 responding farmers, and interviewed four farmers and an independent farming advisor.

We discovered that over the past 15 years Sussex farms:

•  have got smaller; since 1990 there has been a sixty six percent increase in the number of farms which have less than five hectares

•  have experienced a decline in traditional farming; particularly dairy, cattle, sheep and cereal farming (shown in the pie charts below).

•  have become more specialised or have diversified into other areas; such as office rental, leisure based activities and farm shops, and

•  have adopted an increasing number of environmental and set-aside schemes and extensified their farming practices.

These trends are set to continue for the foreseeable future, as farmers continue to adapt to changing market conditions, supermarket price wars, European Union and government funding and the public's changing demands for products and farm-based leisure.

Whereas a traditional view of British farms may bring to mind cows, sheep and chickens, modern farms are more likely to have woodlands, holiday homes or industrial units. Where livestock remains it is more likely to be a 'rare-breed chicken', 'a niche-market cow' or an 'organic sheep'. Supermarkets increasingly import food from all over the world, while British livestock and cereal production dwindles. Whilst for many environmentalists the rise of environmental schemes may be seen as positive news, in the long term, the food miles of our diet may be more environmentally damaging than any benefit we receive from the environmental schemes adopted here at home.

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