Land of Plenty

* Full of the colour of country life, Land of Plenty reveals the realities of food production in Britain today.; * People are more interested than ever in the origin of their food, as seen in the popularity of recent TV programmes like The Food Chain, Food Unwrapped and Inside the Factory.; * The great British countryside has changed immeasurably over the past century. Appealing to readers in both town and country, Land of Plenty explores its past, present and future.; * Agricultural labour, self-sufficiency in food production, farming subsidies - all are hot topics following the EU Referendum.; * The author is an experienced commentator on farming and rural issues.

A charming travelogue exploring the little-understood world of British agricultureGolden 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.