Traditional farming has created some of the most diverse habitats in Europe and over the last hundred years or so has benefited from considerable economic and technological developments which have drastically transformed agricultural landscapes.
Traditional farming is a move back to what we might call "the old ways" of land and animal husbandry.
Whilst the intensification of farming did much to feed us after the first and second World Wars it also caused much deprivation as it involved the use, sometimes very heavily of artificial fertilizers and pesticides.
Whilst this improved crop yields it also moved many farms toward a mono culture philosophy and this resulted in habitat and species loss, soil erosion, pollution and ultimately, climate change.
In the last few decades we have seen huge declines in many farmland species (both fauna and flora) and this has focused many of the smaller farms to look to old methods of farming and to create their own unique selling points; and in doing so bring back the diverse landscape, fauna and flora that we would have seen in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Intensification, whilst a God-send at the time began to cause major problems both for the land, the animals on the farms and the wildlife. Traditional farming now encompasses those older values and incorporates them into modern systems as a check and balance.
The result is better husbandry, better quality meat and crops and a return to putting back into the land what we take out of it; not just in chemicals (as the odd one's may still be needed now and then), but in measured natural compost and natural fertilisers.
Couple this with less intensive management of animals and you have a modern traditional farm which loves it land and animals and wants to provide its customers with only top quality food products.
That is Hagg End Farm - in fact you will see in our animal pages that our stock is very free ranging, especially those chickens! |
