As preparations are made to return to school I begin to think of winter stews with barley and log fires, crisp mornings, hot chocolate and all the other things that make winter in the countryside palatable, but these things all sit somewhere on the horizon for now. The opportunity to sink our teeth into big juicy apples in the orchard and the rich and restful colours of autumn lie between us and the full panoply of winter rituals.
August is the month of harvest for farmers but sometimes rather a flat month in the garden. Roses are well past their June peak and not yet into their final September rally. Many flowering plants seem washed out, bleached through by whatever sunshine has come our way and sometimes beaten down by the monsoon that so often seems to strike in July at or around the Wimbledon final.
Borders have a habit of collapsing at this time of year and if you are the type of person who resolves each spring to make this year the one when you really will keep on top of weeds (I am not) I suspect that by now your hoe will be leant motionless against a wall or may even have found its way back to its winter quarters in the shed.
So what to do about the August flop? Plants like salvias can be useful, and I rely on hollyhocks, but my honest answer is don’t fight it. Accept the languid closing chapters of summer and the sound of grasshoppers. Enjoy the flop of August just as you enjoy the fandango of June. Each season has its place. The slanting golden light and warm colours of autumn are just round the corner.
August is a month to plan and prepare. Farmers put grain in the store but I rather enjoy making sure I have things straight for winter. Now is the time to consider whether there are enough logs in the shed and possibly make a strategic order of heating oil. For obvious reasons this year we will be relying as much as possible on logs, jumpers, rugs and draft excluders in the Hart household!
Planning and preparation may be August distractions for the fortunate but they are also of particular import globally at the moment and for all the wrong reasons, and I worry that Britain seems to be in a pretty tight spot. There are myriad concerns but food production is clearly one.
Monocultures (huge areas dedicated to a single crop) will always run the risk of becoming reservoirs of disease and will also deplete the soil, taking the same things from it year in, year out; as a result they require large amounts of chemicals and fertiliser to compensate, and these have become extremely expensive. Similarly huge populations of single animals will run the risk of becoming reservoirs of species-specific disease and therefore require antibiotics, another cost, and feed which has also now become more expensive.
Far too many people in Britain are genuinely worried about being able to eat at all, and this is both unacceptable and rightly the acute concern of the moment. In other countries governments subsidise basic traditional foodstuffs (certain breads, cheeses and meats, for example) but this doesn’t seem to be the way of things here. Couldn’t a government scheme of this sort, if thought through properly, both get us away from monocultures and provide quality food at lower prices?
Not only is it depressing to think that the only way to feed the nation in a cost-effective manner is through huge environmentally destructive monocultures of plants and livestock but it seems that for the time being at least it doesn’t even have the merit of being plausible.
The government needs to manage through the acute phase of this crisis, ensuring all citizens can eat healthy cost-effective food (a basic precursor to living in a civilised country) but we also need to turn this crisis into an opportunity within agriculture. It is time to shake things up.
Agriculture reflects demand and in truth the current system actually delivers a relatively narrow band of home-grown product, to reflect a relatively narrowly focused diet (that revolves basically around wheat, chicken and pork and, as far as I can see, Pink Lady apples).
A government scheme that encouraged far greater variety in production and lowered costs for the consumer at the same time would be worthy of public support. Actually, this isn’t so complicated, it just means returning to a more traditional way of farming and eating.
Governments are rightly prepared to subsidise agriculture and provide support for those who need it; surely this combined firepower could be used to rekindle a traditional approach to food production that feeds the country better, more varied food at lower prices without the need for the hideous and environmentally destructive monocultures that abound today. Winning this prize will make farming and eating more fun, raise the health of the nation and safeguard the dual objectives of cost-effective food production and environmental enhancement, but it will also require real vision, real perspicacity and real leadership.
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