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Forgotten Farm Workers: Contemporary Farm Labour and Sustainability in the South West of England

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Forgotten Farm Workers: Contemporary Farm Labour and Sustainability in the South West of England Forgotten Farm Workers: Contemporary Farm Labour and Sustainability in the South West of England Volume 1 of 1 Caroline Nye Centre for Rural Policy Research, University of Exeter 1 Forgotten Farm Workers: Contemporary Farm Labour and Sustainability in the South West of England Volume 1 of 1 Submitted by Caroline Nye to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Politics December 2017 This thesis is available for library use on the understanding that is it copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without prior acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other university. Signature: …………………………………………………………………. Date: …………………………………………………….. 2 Abstract The mass decline in agricultural labour in Britain since the industrial revolution has, ultimately, led to it becoming a significant ‘blind spot’ in the agricultural research agenda. Data regarding those who actively work at the ‘frontline’ of agriculture, and how they interrelate with other agents in their network to achieve multiple national and global agendas, is minimal. This thesis contributes and develops a comprehensive body of knowledge concerning the composition of labour on farms in the South West of England, as well as identifying and exploring contemporary relationships between farm labour contributors, the community; and the land, through the examination of the lived experience of different contributors to agricultural labour. These changes are considered under the lens of agriculture’s ever-encroaching challenges of productivity, labour skills shortages and sustainable intensification. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, incorporating a postal survey of 1251 farms, as well as 45 semi-structured interviews with farm labour contributors via a case study approach. Quantitative data provides a useful picture of those contributing to labour on farms in the South West of England, and brings attention to associated labour issues experienced by farmers. Qualitative data fleshes out these results with the guidance of Actor Network Theory. The concept of the lifescape is utilised to achieve this most pictorially while principles from the Human Capability Framework are applied to weaknesses in network chains that were revealed during the research process. Results reveal how new worker profiles have arisen from the increasingly flexible labour market, with contractors exposed as playing a progressively more crucial role to the survival of the industry. Due to an impending labour crisis, rapid technological development, and disparities in knowledge between farmers and other labour contributors, relationships of independence and interdependence between the various cohorts were discovered. Multiple actors within the lifescape of the farm labour contributor mean that clear distinctions cannot be made between farm, land, nature and community, with no single element more important than the other in the playing out of behaviours. Similarly, that same array of actors is seen to contribute significantly to the capacities, opportunities and freedoms available to farm labour contributors, and where a match between the two fails, substantial issues can be seen to arise. The research makes a valuable contribution to rural sociology through understanding the lifescape of the farm worker from the ground up. Overall, it addresses the importance of incorporating farm workers and contributors into the agricultural and more specifically, the sustainable intensification research agenda, particularly emphasising the importance of agricultural research and policy-making parameters being inclusive of all individuals who actively contribute to the land, rather than exclusive. 3 ‘If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.’ ― J.R.R. Tolkien In memory of Ben Rodwell and Vicky Welch 4 Acknowledgments This PhD crept up on me by surprise back in 2014, and it has been a wonderfully interesting journey that has swept up many equally wonderful and interesting people along its path. I’d like to express my thanks first and foremost to the John Oldacre Foundation, without whom this PhD would not have been possible. I’m also indebted to my supervisors, Matt Lobley and Michael Winter. Their knowledge, experience, kind-heartedness and wit has made this process far more enjoyable than it probably ever should have been! Tim Wilkinson, Hannah Chiswell, Becca Wheeler, Nick Kirsop-Taylor, and Patrick Weir have also played a vital role in my PhD journey and I’m so grateful to each and every one of them for their patience, good humour, advice, and gifts of crisps, along the way. I’d like to say a special thank you to my friends in the Methow Valley who put me up and put up with me during my final chapter writing phase. Anaka Mines, Danbert Nobacon, Eörs Markos, Rich Brennan, and Ed Welch kept me sane with laughter, mountains, games of cribbage, home-grown organic food and of course, plentiful goats and bears. A humble thank you to James Oxer for teaching that awkward young girl that anything was possible, and for continuing to inspire female pioneers of the future. Of course, I cannot forget my family, whose patience and love was a welcome tonic throughout. I’d particularly like to thank Cassie Hampton for picking me up and dusting me off in that first year, and Steve Bailey, Kay Tudor, David Batten, Mark Simon, Peter Farmer, Mike Lind, and my dearest friend, Debbie Van Camp for your enduring love and encouragement. A huge shout of thanks to all of the farmers, farm workers and contractors who gave up their precious time to share some of their world with me. And to Tom Mayhew, whose love, laughter and support lifted me over the finishing line. And To Vicky, who inspired me to love all things farming, goat and community-related. You and Ed made being a farm worker one of the most enjoyable things on earth. To Ben, who never failed to believe in me or any of my endeavours, however far- fetched or crazy they may have seemed. You will always be remembered. 5 Table of Contents List of Tables .......................................................................................................... 12 List of Figures ......................................................................................................... 13 List of Acronyms .................................................................................................... 15 Chapter One: Introduction ..................................................................................... 16 1.0 Sustainable Intensification: An Introduction ................................................................16 1.01 The Dichotomy of Sustainable Intensification ...................................................17 1.02 The Farm Worker as a Key Actor in the Sustainable Intensification Nexus .......18 1.03 Contemporary Farm Workers and the ‘New Worker Profile’..............................20 1.1 Research Aims ...........................................................................................................22 1.2 Structure of Thesis ....................................................................................................25 Chapter Two: Contextualising the Place, Role and Value of the Farm Labour Contributor ................................................................................................ 27 2.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................27 2.1 A Brief Note on Data ..................................................................................................28 2.2 A Historical Placing of the British Farm Worker .........................................................32 2.2.1 Late Victorian England and the Beginning of the Decline ...............................32 2.2.2 The Edwardian Period Prior to WWI ...............................................................35 2.2.3 The War Years ...............................................................................................35 2.2.4 A Note on Gender ..........................................................................................38 2.2.5 The 60s and Onwards .....................................................................................39 2.2.6 Howard Newby and The Deferential Worker ....................................................40 2.2.7 Since Newby ...................................................................................................44 2.2.8 The Post-Productivist Phase ...........................................................................45 2.2.9 Structural Adjustment ......................................................................................47 2.3 Technology and Automation of Work ..........................................................................48 2.4 Conclusion .................................................................................................................49 Chapter Three: The Contemporary Farm Labour Contributor and the Sustainable Intensification Agenda ..................................................................... 51 3.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................51 3.1 The Flexible Labour Market ........................................................................................52
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