I was mesmerised by the shambolic first hundred days of Trump’s second term and the scathing commentaries that followed. Cartoonists have had a field day. UK farmers are well used to being a political football, but the turmoil of the Trump administration has added layers of unwanted complexity and uncertainty.

Do we have to face four and half more years of toddler tantrums before sanity may return? Here we have the rise of Farage (a lesser Trumpish windbag) and his Reform party with the same empty rhetoric and no evidence of worthwhile past achievements.

Democracy is a fragile bastion against the ugly behaviour we see spreading in today’s Europe. Democracy needs nurturing, for the alternative is far worse. By contrast, farmers are a convivial, balanced, productive tribe, used to getting along and supporting each other, spiced by a tad of friendly banter.

On current showing, the ails afflicting the planet will surely increase. Why should this be so and from where might we find a possible solution?

Scientific illiteracy led HM Government into investing in carbon capture, pushed by the oil industry in pursuit of their interests.

It seems a lack of scientific knowledge and thinking is almost a prerequisite for those that seek power. If you accept that this needs changing, then science and scientific method needs to major in the school curriculum, alongside the basics.

Biology should be obligatory at GCSE level and encouraged at ‘A’ level. Why biology more than chemistry and physics? Today it embraces some of all the sciences and much else about how the planet and humans work, but is indeed demanding.

My Damascene moment came recently because one of my granddaughters is voluntarily re-taking her ‘A’ level biology after a B grade first time round. Her preparation has centred on exam technique.

In solidarity, I also completed a paper.  I am smug enough to think I am a scientist, having learned and practised medicine in an academic environment.  My daughter-in-law, Kate, a secondary school science teacher, marked my paper. I failed.

I failed because I lacked the detail currently required, and details have moved on since my days at school and university. Kate mollified my crushed ego by saying she could get me up to speed in a few weeks, but how much worse is it for those with no science? 

Can we survive if politics and governance remains a science-free zone? Trump ignores climate change and biodiversity loss totally. Our own government rows back on climate stability, egged on by ex-PM Blair pronouncing, unhelpfully, that carbon neutrality is unachievable.

Even though agriculture is unquestionably science based, farmers cannot make up for deficiencies of governance. They were already feeling the pinch when DEFRA froze the Sustainable Farming Incentive, a measure supposed to support biodiversity, farming and our faltering economy.

Farmers can, I am certain, offer significant redress for the problems humanity is creating by thinking and behaving biologically and modifying older ideas of agricultural teaching.

Post-war agricultural research and teaching was all about yield, with insufficient thought or study of collateral consequences. Much has changed, and younger farmers are now thinking ecologically, helped by organizations like the Nature Friendly Farming Network or by joining clusters.

DEFRA remains mandated to support public goods, at least in principle, as funds permit. The NFU, I believe, has been far too slow to embrace environmental deficit, retreating to the cover of food production and security. 

Milk production has also seen significant changes.  The post-war mantra was for high-yielding but fragile cattle, fed on monocultures of ryegrass, intensively fertilised and backed by high levels of concentrate. Rising demand for high protein feeds led to animal by-products being incorporated into the mix.  Science screams that feeding meat to specialist herbivores is an incredibly high-risk strategy. The catastrophe of BSE, and its consequences, was entirely predictable to biologists. A case of profit trumping science.

Cattle voluntarily choose to graze and browse many plants, each delivering something different. Our own health similarly depends on a full range of foods, and most species are no different.

The emphasis is shifting to selecting more resilient, genetically diverse cattle to graze botanically rich pastures. Adding wood pasture increases nutritional variety, further reducing the risk of deficiencies induced by high milk output. This change of thinking comes with ecological gain, too. A win-win.

On our home patch the cluster’s landscape recovery project, based on the Evenlode river catchment, will start its implementation phase this year. It is a 30-year agreement to deliver changes supported by DEFRA, Thames Water, British Rail and others.

Our farm sits at the spring-fed headwaters, so all the adjacent fields, currently in higher level stewardship, will be managed to stop nitrate and phosphate leaching and enhance water and carbon capture. More native trees, such as oak and resistant elms, will be planted and the stream slowed with leaky dams.

We anticipate this exciting project will further enhance our ecological gains of the past 20 years. Despite the politics we feel optimistic, but I am irked that I will miss the anticipated final result.

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