Author Sarah Langford: ‘Farming’s more than a job – it's who people are’

But as anyone in the industry will tell you, the face of farming is constantly changing. Factors such as Brexit, climate, Covid, and even the Ukraine-Russia conflict are all playing their part – meaning the future is uncertain.

That’s why local author Sarah Langford decided to explore the issues surrounding farmers, and hear their side of the story, culminating in her latest book, ‘Rooted’.

Sarah, along with her husband, former Ipswich MP Ben Gummer and their two children, moved from the big city to the calmer pastures of the mid-Suffolk countryside in 2017. Explaining the big move, she says: “I was criminal barrister and worked all over the circuit. One day I’d be in Bristol, the next I’d be in the Isle of Wight. But then I had a baby, and when I was pregnant with my second child, I had a book deal to write my first book, ‘In Your Defence’.”

Sarah is also a barrister and spent years working in London (Image: Richard Allenby-Pratt)

While Sarah was working on her book, Ben lost his job in 2017 - so the two decided to relocate to find themselves.

“We were both unemployed with two small children so thought we’d head to Suffolk – where Ben is from – to get our ducks in a row,” she says.

The family rented a cottage just a stone’s throw away from where Ben grew up, and took on his parent’s farm.

“They’d built up this farm over the last decade or so, which was three fields of pasture, and just under 200 acres of arable. Originally, we thought we’d be there for six months and have a bit of a respite – but we ended up staying for two years,” she says.

And as Sarah wrapped up her first book in 2018, she began immersing herself more in farming life, gradually becoming more interested with her new surroundings.

“Once my book came out, I leant into managing the farm, and I realised we had accidentally become farmers at one of the biggest changes in agricultural history for over two generations.

“All of the subsidies that had supported food production in Britain, for an extremely long time, were going as a result of Brexit. So instead, farmers were going to be paid public money for public goods – and public goods didn’t include food.”

At the same time, the prices of farming essentials such as fertilisers, sprays, and diesels were rising.

“Land prices were also increasing as farms were being bought by people who didn’t want to farm on it, but rather rewild it,” she adds.

Sarah Langford (Image: Richard Allenby-Pratt)

“So I had to think very hard about what we were going to do with this very small plot of land. And I started to try and figure out where farming was going, and if it had a future in Britain. At the time, the message that seemed to come through in the press, and especially in the city where I’d been living, was that we should rewild and import all of our food.”

Eager to understand what it means to be a farmer in today’s climate, Sarah also looked back on her own history, as she herself comes from a farming background.

Her grandfather became a farmer when the war started in 1939, and continued farming in post-war Britain.

“Everybody was still rationing, and when it became clear that food was under threat, we had to get back to self-sufficiency very quickly. My granddad took on his first tenancy in Hampshire in 1959, and this was at a time when farmers had a clear job – which was to make as much food as possible and feed a very hungry nation,” she explains.

“My uncle, on the other hand, became a farmer in the 1980s, and it was a very different time then. The unintended consequences of intensive farming were beginning to be noticed, and he found himself perceived by the public not as a hero but as villain for having destroyed soils and decimated wildlife and insect populations. All of the ecological consequences were much worse than they were aware of at the time.”

As Sarah began to research more, speaking to her neighbours, she found many farmers were working to right the wrongs of the previous generations.

Sarah and her family moved to Suffolk a few years ago - and haven't looked back (Image: Richard Allenby-Pratt)

“I found this quiet revolution taking place all over the country, which focussed on regenerative farming. Farmers were working to put more back in than had been taken out – and it’s happening everywhere. There was this new generation who didn’t necessarily want to do what their dads had done. And they had access to all of this technology their predecessors didn’t,” she says.

“I’m part of a group on Whatsapp that started in early 2020, and it’s a group of farmers who are all mob grazing their animals, which means you rotate them to different patches of your pasture rather than letting them graze in the same spot for a long period of time. It’s got multiple benefits for both the land and the animal, and can double the amount of growth in your pasture.

“When the group started, there were just four of us – now there’s over 170 farmers. It’s a real indication of how fast the pace has grown, and how technology is being used by a new generation to share ideas.”

With sustainability at the forefront of modern farm life, Sarah also notes that self-sufficiency is key. “With the Ukraine war going on, two of the world’s biggest grain producing nations are unable to get grain out, so food security has to become a real objective. Among this summer of discontent, there’s a real hope this new way of farming may address any issues not just surrounding ecology and loss of biodiversity, but also self-sufficiency. It’s really exciting that this is happening,” she says.

With all of this newfound, fascinating knowledge under her belt, Sarah knew she had to get pen to paper.

“When I was going on this exploration, talking to farmers, I wanted to make it as human and tangible as possible like I did with my previous book on law. If I told the story of how we got here, rather than blaming and shaming the farmers for using chemicals, maybe I could explain how these people are changing things on the ground. There’s a real wave of change sweeping across the countryside, and I felt it was best to share that in a story-led way.”

As Sarah began to talk to more of her fellow farmers, she uncovered some eye-opening revelations. “I felt like I'd been sleepwalking through life,” she says.

Sarah has just completed her tractor driving course (Image: Richard Allenby-Pratt)

“When you start farming without chemicals, you have to learn an ecological knowledge – and it’s so much more complicated than anyone thinks. My biggest takeaway from this journey, as naïve as it sounds, is how connected everything is - especially when you’re farming with chemicals. For instance, with insecticides, you’ll kill the aphids that are eating your crops but you’ll also kill the other insects like ladybirds that would’ve eaten the aphids. You soon realise there’s a ripple effect with everything you do.”

Sarah’s culmination of the last few years, Rooted, is out now – but what does she hope readers gain from it?

“My ultimate aim is to change how farming is perceived, because what I’ve seen of farming is that while it is not hugely financially rewarding, it’s incredibly intellectually demanding. It’s more than a job – it's who people are.”

And the last few years have certainly made an impression with Sarah. She’s still the farm manager on the very same farm where her journey began, and is now able to drive the grain trailer pulled by a tractor. “I hope I can drive the corn cart over the summer. I’m also doing a graduate diploma on agriculture in Cirencester,” she says.

“I’d love to be more hands on, so I’m getting the experience and academic qualifications I need to do that.”