Agriculture

Harvest 1938 > .
2018 British Farming > .

1943 - Holiday Ideas (Scotland) - Harvest Help Mid-8 to Mid-10 > .
British Farming - Christmas > .

British Farming >>> .

Farming & Food - tb >> .

Agricultural College > .

Wartime Farm in BBC Farm - tb >> .

BBC Farms - Tudor through Wartime - tb >> .
Tractors Working On The Farm: Power On The Land - 1943 > .

Wartime herbs for pharmaceutical industry > .

WAEC - War Agricultural Executive Committees ..

During World War I and the post-war reconstruction, the agriculture and food ministries controlled their respective industries. This culminated in the Agriculture Act (1920) which provided support for farmers in the form of guaranteed prices for agricultural products and minimum wages for farm labourers. But within six months of its implementation, falling prices and a struggling economy forced the repeal of the act, which returned the country to the laissez-faire economy that had existed before 1914, when there was a free market economy with little or no government involvement.

At this time, Labour and the Conservatives were united in their anti-subsidy approach, strongly believing agricultural issues should be solved in the open market.

These sentiments – which eventually led to a free market period lasting from 1921-1931 – are reflected in the policies of today. The 1920s Labour Party opposed state support to farmers while land was privately owned – today, Labour wants to move subsidies away from wealthy landowners.

In the 1930s the Conservatives stated: “It is no longer national policy to buy all over the world in the cheapest markets”. Their ambition today is to: “make a resounding success of our world-leading food and farming industry; producing more, selling more, and exporting more of our great British food”.

However, there were some significant downsides when the Agriculture Act was repealed: agricultural wages fell by as much as 40%. Productivity fell too, rural poverty increased, small farms failed and land was abandoned through urban migration. Some described the countryside as a desolate waste.

[And, by WWII and the Nazi blockade of Atlantic shipping, Britain was importing ~60% of its food ---- with predictable consequences for agriculture.]

https://theconversation.com/brexits-impact-on-farming-policy-will-take-britain-back-to-the-1920s-but-thats-not-necessarily-a-bad-thing-80028
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers/themes/agriculture-act-depression-subsidy.htm

Wartime Farm - Documentary Series - History - British Collection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUsU5s0ofYo
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj2leWh0oQffAt5ICQxQeZ2DSudUpSdCJ