Farms Not Factories

02/10/2026

Delving into the hidden economics behind the food we consume, The Economics of Eating unpacks why a tomato grown thousands of miles away is generally cheaper than one cultivated locally — and how that skewed economic dynamic is misshaping our entire world.

“It’s an artificial system, and the price in the marketplace is a political choice.” — Helena Norberg-Hodge

The film challenges the common assumption that huge farms and globalized supply-chains are efficient — and necessary to feed the world. Instead, it explores a transformative possibility: localizing the food economy supports smaller diversified farms, which actually produce more food per acre while restoring both agricultural and wild biodiversity.

Across the world, a food movement is growing — regen ag, agroecology, permaculture and more. But public policies and infrastructure continue to make industrial, globalized food artificially cheap, while farmers who prioritize soil health, biodiversity, animal welfare, and community well-being struggle to compete.

What if economic rules were changed so that local, fresh, and ethically produced food became the most affordable and accessible option for the majority?

It’s more than possible — but only if we focus on localizing the market.

‘The Economics of Eating’ provides that missing piece of the puzzle, showing us the most strategic way to revolutionize food, farming and the modern world.

“If we focus on changing the market and support systemic change, it’s amazing what we could achieve.”

Credits:
A film by Jake Marquez and Maren Morgan
with Helena Norberg-Hodge and Local Futures / Economics of Happiness

In this powerful 18-min documentary, Helena Norberg-Hodge uncovers ...

30/09/2026

Present extreme weather patterns point to a different farming system, namely organic farming where soils retain moisture and are far more resistant to drought. As organic farmer Ben Andrews says we must invest in UK farmers. ‘In 1957, a third of household income was spent on food, now it is about a tenth’. It’s time for the government to support organic food to make it affordable, and for consumers to choose organic to keep healthy, locally grown food available for everyone.

https://archive.ph/75DXX

‘Ben Andrews, a fourth-generation organic farmer producing beef, arable crops and vegetables on 250 hectares in Herefordshire, says “almost everything has been affected”, from lettuce to brassicas. While tenderstem broccoli has survived thanks to well-timed irrigation, his kale crop is “a write-off”. Andrews says that unless he invests in costly irrigation and water storage he may have to stop growing vegetables.

Andrews is unlikely to be switching kale for sweet potato any time soon. “Summers are still unpredictable,” he says. ‘Two years ago we had one of the wettest summers and lost a lot of lettuce to mildew.” On a farm where rented arable fields have been taken out of production and put into a flood management scheme after recent winters left them underwater for months, Andrews’s point is that weather extremes make future-proofing farms far from straightforward.

Ultimately it may be consumers who need to adapt. In 2022, the Sustainable Food Trust published a report looking at whether Britain could feed itself using nature-friendly farming methods. Its answer was yes, but with big caveats. My grandparents took on their farm tenancy in 1959, five years after war-time rationing ended. The country knew what it was to be hungry; a third of household income was spent on food. Now it is about a tenth. In a world of unpredictable weather patterns, people may have to adjust their expectations unless bare supermarket shelves start to do this for them.’

See our short video about Ben Andrews to see how sad it would be if farmers like him had to give up.

29/09/2026

https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/regenerative-agriculture-raw-milk-and-delicious-burgers-jerm-warfare

Intro; ‘Jerm and Farmer Angus explore the ongoing information war, the challenges of media trust, and the state of agriculture and health. They discuss the importance of regenerative agriculture, the political landscape’s corruption, and the cultural shifts between the East and West. Farmer Angus emphasises the significance of raw milk in nutrition, the role of bacteria in health, and the broader implications of food production on society. Ultimately, they reflect on the fight for truth in a complex world.’

Farmer Angus; “There’s a spectrum of milk. There’s raw milk, which literally comes out of the cow and is chilled, and you can drink that. In this country, raw milk’s allowed, but people put pet’s milk, usually on it. So it’s milk for your pets. Although in Gauteng, they just say raw milk. And then at the other extreme, you’ve got that boxed stuff in the Tetra packs. But there are two differences with milk, so here’s my question. Why do they pasteurise milk?”

Jerm; “Well, to get rid of the germs. Louis Pasteur hated germs.”

Farmer Angus; “Why? Why did they want to get rid of the germs? We changed how we raise the animals, okay? A cow, by design, is a herbivore. It’s not a grainivore. So what they did, and again America leads the charge with all these things, they took the animals off the pasture and put them in an urban environment. They basically put them, especially around New York City and the big American cities because they wanted milk right there so they put these cattle in these lairs. The cattle are living in their own manure and they feed them brewers grain, okay? And they milk them regularly. So the animals are under severe stress and so they get sick and their milk is sick and their milk has pus in it, okay? It’s called the somatic cell count. You can go to a dairy 50 kilometres from here and you’ll see the pus in the milk, okay? So to make that milk, I’m putting it in inverted commas, ‘drinkable’. You have to pasteurise it, you nuke it. So you kill all bacteria. But so what do you do when you do that? You’re killing the bad and the good. You’ve thrown the baby out of the bath water. So then, then the next step was that people said, oh, I don’t like the layer of cream on the top, it looks ugly. And also sometimes some of the milk had a thin layer of cream and some had a thick layer of cream. Why did I get this one? And people would go into shops, they’d always take the one with a thicker layer of cream on, okay? So they said, we’re not going to do that anymore. They homogenise the milk where they shake the milk so much that the fat and the protein molecules break, and then therefore there’s no separation between them, just a homogeneous thing. Okay? So now you pour the milk you can’t see the cream in it. It doesn’t settle. The cream doesn’t go to the top anymore. So your human body which co-developed with raw milk, can’t recognise this. Now people say I’m lactose intolerant. You’re not lactose intolerant. You’re intolerant to homogenised milk. So that’s why there is increasing support for the raw milk movement, but particularly the raw milk movement that has grass fed, grass finished. So these are animals that are on grass their whole lives. Okay. And that’s where Sally Fallon, Weston Price, has powerful data at her fingertips about the benefits of raw milk, the nutritional differences with raw milk versus conventional milk. And again this is the point Jerm. So in South Africa end result is this, that the average years of lactation…so lactation is when a mammal’s giving milk, is 2.1 times. So we get an average of 2.1 lactations out of our dairy herds across South Africa as an average.That animal is capable of giving you 10 lactations and some have records of 15 lactations, okay, so you’ve taken an animal that can give you 10 calves and milk 10 times, 2.1. Why? Because you are firstly milking her three times a day and second you’re treating it like a monogastric. Monogastric is one stomach. You and I and the pig and the chicken are monogastrics. We have one stomach, which is why we can take in anything. You put anything in us and we’ll just try it, but cattle are not monogastrics, they have four stomachs, they’re designed to take grass, herbivores, and produce the meat and the milk. So we violate their digestive system and exhaust the animal and then they can only give us that because this is where we are today Jerm.”

Regenerative agriculture is important. Learn about raw milk, the role of bacteria in health, and food production in this discussion between Jerm and Farmer Angus.

28/09/2026

Farms that practice regenerative farming without glyphosate often reach the same high standards of soil health, high animal welfare and biodiversity protection as Organic. But because some regen farms use the herbicide glyphosate, there should be a distinction between chemical regen and chemical-free regen.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Db-3LyfN3cS/

Tom Swarbrick; “Ultimately, if you look at natural systems, whether that’s a roadside verge or a forest, or take your pick, you will see that they are faring better than almost all the fields on the other side, those hedgerows on the other side, those woodlands, and the reason for that is because in all those systems, through different plants and trees and combinations, what is happening there is the soil remains covered with plants. The plants harvest sunshine. They feed this incredible universe of creatures in the soil. It’s home to two thirds of terrestrial life. And all of those creatures massively extend the reach of plant roots to go and get the nutrients they need and the moisture they need, and to grow healthy plants that then, in a farming context, become healthy crops. So we just need to mimic those systems. Farming isn’t natural, so there are limits to that, but we can massively embrace it. And the resilience that flows from that is rapid. One of the things that I’ve seen again and again over the past 15 years or so of growing food is that you give nature half a chance and it comes roaring back.”

27/09/2026

Charles Malet from UK Column interviews regenerative cattle farmer, Rachel Ward

https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/from-silver-screen-to-soil-structure-uk-column-interviews

Rachel Ward; “What I do is I farm regeneratively, or I attempt to farm regeneratively, which. Five years ago, before we had the big fires, I was a conventional farmer, which meant that essentially I wasn’t really paying much attention and I had a farm manager and we used chemicals and we did set stocking, which means that you keep the cattle, the livestock on the ground ad infinitum until basically they just eat it away and the roots are very short and just ain’t great for biodiversity or for soil health. So what I was initiated into was this thing of farming principles and practices that increases biodiversity, enriches the soil, improves water quality and enhances ecosystems, and that is called regenerative farming. So I basically moved into that from having not farmed at all, but really from a place of deep impotence, where I was very alarmed by the trumpeting of climate change and what that meant and how disastrous it was going to be, particularly for my grandchildren, of which I had just had my first. And then we were hit by these massive fires that tore through New South Wales and that our farm was one of the first to be hit. So I was ignorant, really, of how huge it was going to be. But we’d never had fires before, we’re not particularly in country that has regular fires. Anyway, it decimated the farm. My neighbour’s house was burnt to the ground. All of my fencing was burnt. I did not think my house was going to withstand the fires. Anyway, we got through it and after that I sort of really had an existential crisis of like I saw really that governments were really beholden to corporations. Nothing really was going to be done in the time frame that we were being told we needed to do something. And I guess it was out of this frustration and sense of impotence that I started to look at what else can I do? And out of that I realised I was a farmer, I could change my farm to regenerative principles. I’d read this amazing book called ‘Call of the Reed Warbler’ by an Australian farmer and writer, Charles Massy, who basically just did this great narrative on all of the early adopters in Australia of regenerative farming. And each and every one of them was so inspiring and they had really reached a head banging moment, a moment where they had to change the paddock between their ears in which to change the way they farmed. And I think that sort of happened to me as well. I sort of got to a crisis point and I think almost you have to get there to embrace fundamental change, this sort of radical change of your farming practices. So not only did I become a regenerative farmer, but I was a filmmaker and I could make a documentary about my journey from conventional to regenerative farming, which I did. But most importantly, I realised I am a consumer and where I spend my food dollar is what is of utmost importance. I don’t know why it took me so long to really understand that that was really how I could encourage farming by spending my food dollar with farmers who farmed regeneratively? Not easy, because there is very little, the supply chains for regenerative farmers are disastrous. But really there’s been a groundswell of awareness of not only regenerative farming, but of people understanding the connection between their health and the food they eat. So it became a sort of an obvious thing for me to do was to start buying boxes of food, of meat from regenerative farmers and vegetables from organic vegetable gardens and that sort of just became my raison d’etre and from that I just felt empowered that I was actually doing something fundamental that made me feel a bit more potent with this climate crisis that we are dealing with.”

Film director, actress, and farmer Rachel Ward talks to Charles Malet about the challenges and rewards of transforming her agricultural landscape using regenerative methods.

26/09/2026

This paltry sum is only enough to give every farmer in the UK a few pounds whereas ditching the Inheritance tax would be a good start to helping farmers economically and so mentally.

https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/farm-policy/defra-opens-1-5m-farmer-welfare-fund

”A £1.5m government fund aimed at improving farmer wellbeing and business resilience has opened for applications. Defra’s expanded Farmer Welfare Grant will provide funding over three years for charities and not-for-profit organisations supporting farmers and rural communities across England. Two webinars will help potential applicants understand the scheme.’

A £1.5m government fund aimed at improving farmer wellbeing and business resilience has opened for applications. Defra’s expanded Farmer Welfare Grant

25/09/2026

In a horrifying blunder by the N Ireland government, 51 healthy cattle and calves were shot dead in a field in front of the public including children, because apparently their paperwork was not in order.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbeDgyAgpv3/

David Irwin, Neighbouring Farmer; “The last few days has brought to light some of the most horrific scenes of needless abuse and destruction of what are clearly healthy, thriving animals in the Clogher Valley area at the end of last month. And this is also probably the worst abuse of power I’ve ever witnessed from the department’s veterinary division. And many people have contacted me today and they wish the story to be told from their perspective. So look, it’s no secret that Martin Beattie was convicted of animal welfare issues. It’s been widely reported on, the courts dealt with this. He was punished and fined, you can Google that, it’s all there and he was banned from keeping livestock and given two weeks to sell the remaining animals. Now that’s fine. It’s the chain of events leading up to this mass public ex*****on of animals on the side of the road in front of many members of the public and children I might add, that is where this gets interesting. So this is a version of events that I’ve been told today by those involved……

24/09/2026

We can only end live animal transport if farmers are first given permission to slaughter on farm (as they do deer) or in a local abattoir. Until that happens, this transport ban will result in more livestock farmers going bankrupt and consumers eating corporate owned frankenstein meat made of highly processed animal cells or vegan gloop.

https://www.ciwf.org.uk/news/victory-brittany-ferries-to-stop-live-animal-transport/

‘Today (3 August), in a major victory for animals, Brittany Ferries has confirmed it will end the transport of all live farmed animals, including unweaned calves, from Ireland to France on its ships from September 2026 at the latest.’

‘In a decision which provoked international outcry, Brittany Ferries restarted transporting live animals from Ireland in March 2025 after a 30-year pause.’

The ferry operator will stop carrying all live animals following a sustained campaign

23/09/2026

Chickens follow cattle grazing and double farmer’s income.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbVfctbjQpE/?igsh=ZjcxZXZveTZyYTRm

Jerome Rault; “Why do we have the chickens following the cattle in regenerative farming? Because it’s the oldest sanitation system on the planet, and it’s free. The cattle graze the paddock, drop dung, and move on. Three to five days later, just long enough for the fly larvae to develop, the chickens move in, they scratch through the dung pads, spreading them out, eat the larvae and the parasites and spread that fertility into the soil. So one enterprise cleans up after the other, and you sell both. That’s what stacking enterprises actually looks like on the ground.”

22/09/2026

Corporations are riding high on the back of vegans’ rightful hatred of factory farming to sell their lab grown fake meat. Rarely are vegans given the information about meat from mixed farms where well treated animals are pasture fed and thereby fertilise the soil within a circular loop in which CO2 emissions from the cattle are offset by the carbon absorbed by the deep roots of long-term herbal leys.

https://secure.peta.org.uk/page/196273/petition/1

Plans submitted to Breckland Council would transform an existing turkey breeding operation at Great Palgrave Farm, Sporle, Norfolk, into a much larger broiler breeder egg production facility holding more than 38,000 birds. The current turkey buildings are reportedly nearing the end of their “operational life“. Instead of using this opportunity to move towards sustainable plant farming, the applicant wants to continue exploiting birds on an even bigger scale. Tell the council to reject this cruel proposal.

Tell the council you object to this cruel plan!