I’m a farmer's daughter and I have become more and more interested in depicting the realities of farming, from the perspective of someone who appreciated the sacrifices and commitments men and women make to carry on a lifestyle and tradition that has usually been inherited.
I don’t farm, and never have done, but it is most definitely a part of my identity.
I work as an artist and also work for a climate change charity Size of Wales (www.sizeofwales.org.uk).
The farming debate regularly arises; the suggestion that eating less meat or not eating meat at all as a way of reducing climate change. The majority of farming I am surrounded by is for meat production, on a small scale. I often feel like I’m sitting on the fence, having extreme compassion for the planet and the need to change our ways of living, but equally extreme passion for the culture and traditions surrounding farming. I feel if everyone eat local produce that has been farmed sustainably, surely the farming debate should become less heated.
Here in Mid Wales, in the Cambrian Mountains, we have been at the centre of a rewilding debate, and was very interested in a recent article written by local farmer and University lecturer, Ffion Jones.
Ffion’s research argues that -
“part of the failure of Rewilding Britain to establish their project within the Cambrian Mountain area relates to an underappreciation of the importance of situated knowledge, and that within the context of the polarising ideas of rewilding, sensitivity, and the need to listen to embodied, situated, agricultural knowledge and practice, should be taken seriously.”
You can see the full article here:
Ffion article follows a study created as part of her practice-led PhD and screened as part of a site-specific performance in the main shed on her family farm in the uplands of Wales. It examines the relationship between her family and their flock of Welsh Mountain sheep which have been bred over three generations. You can view the video here:
I found this body of work by Ffion inspiring and relatable. She has evoked feelings in me I didn’t realise I had and has managed to express it in a way I never could. I found this work beautiful and sad at the same time.
This week I have been drawing and printing crows and lambs. Crows notoriously peck the eyes of living lambs and sheep as they give birth, it’s brutal. I feel it’s symbolic of the contrasting elements of farming, life and death, nurturing and killing, kind and cruel. The maternal/paternal instincts that require switching on and off in certain circumstances. Familiar farming traditions are inherited that create a hardness or resilience.
In 2019 Chris Packham became the focal point of a dispute between conservationists and farmers since he campaigned successfully for a ban on the shooting of 16 species. This is an article by Richard Godwin written for the Guardian in May 2019:
Again, this is an environmental debate, portraying the farming community as cruel and short sighted. We could all benefit from ‘situated knowledge’ as is referred to by Ffion Jones, and this applies to every individual on a global level.
I don't claim to be an expert on any of this, it’s just my experience and observations and I’m interested to investigate further. Sometimes I feel I have to be careful of what I say in case of confrontation, and I don’t want to seem ignorant.
What I am depicting is what I know now. It’s all I know.
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