How a young British farmer fought for his survival
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- Опубликовано: 8 фев 2025
- Nowt but a fleeting thing: a film about a young farmer’s connection to the land, his animals and a changing world in the north of England. Battling against unsustainable farming methods and an unenthusiastic market, Adam Crowe continues to work on two neighbouring farms while fighting to launch his own business and breed a flock of sheep. In rural Britain, the threat of poverty is often frighteningly close
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Fine, Decent, Honourable, Hard working people. Britain stand up and look after your Farmers.......from Ireland.
Thankyou for opening our eyes to this, you inspired us to create our RUclips channel with how incredibly natural and real you are. We went through a really tough patch last year, we lost our farmland and ended up renting a really rundown patch of land. Its nothing like what you have but creating the videos is spurring us on and keeping us going. One day, you never know but we might be in a position to have a farm again. We can only live in hope.
I became a farmer for the love of cows and the farm work. I chickened out and studied law, and I've cursed and loathed myself for quitting fo rmy entire life. I haven't even become waelthy, which serves me right. I bow to your endeavour, toughness and stamina. You deserve so much more than you get. Let this be your consolation, it is like that for most of us. We are all working for the man, either way.
Farming is so hard . They work 7 days a week and they hardly survive . We need to talk more about that .
hard yes, but they seem to do ok up here in aberdeenshire going by vehicles used
sandra scotland you can't measure wealth from a vehicle , it's called leasing . And you can't compare farmers to each other as they have different demographic farming challenges and business opportunities .
No one farm is the same as the next .
@Cowardly Custard In Canada ,I never met a rich farmer . They are barely surviving .
Farmers if just feeding their families and not the world are the smartest and riches perhaps just sell the lamb wool and relax from all that work but a smaller property
Farmers tend to be right leaning ....i like farmers....and i like to eat food soo i think we all like farmers right?
What lovely, decent and dignified people. I've known small farmers for most of my life, and
I've never known one that wasn't committed to his land and his beasts.
I like these people's attitude, it's humbling and it deserves respect
This is the way farms should be, not huge factory setups. Beautiful country there. Thanks. :)
and getting up at 5 am? No holidays?
Barbara Arndt I think any farmer is going to get up at the crack of dawn! :)
@@NancyDrewe Have you ever worked at a dairy farm?
But these sorts of farms, while they certainly do look amazing and are doing great things, could never feed the world! We need large-scale farms to be able to meet demand. Indoor, vertical, automated, hydroponic farms are the future of food and produce IMO. Those with enough money will be able to choose to buy from these sorts of traditional, more eco-conscious, and aesthetic farms, sure, but for the rest of us we will be eating produce from mass, automated farms, as well as eating synthetic meats, and I'm totally cool with that. Until they bring out Soylent Green, that is, then I'll be sticking to the bug-burgers thank you very much! However, I'm sure future generations will be totally cool with their delicious Soylent Green, and I'm perfectly OK with that too! Welcome to the future, not the future we wanted, but the future we deserve!
@@sirsiralot7635 Do you know how much farmers are paid for a pint of milk? Guess not.
We in the UK do not want to feed the world. We do not want US style factories..nor chlorinated chicken or hormon enhanced beef.
Read Schlosser's book: Fast food Nation.
Some great shots here. I could read the thousands of early mornings and late nights etched into the father's face like the rings of a tree. I loved the arm around the sheepdog on the quadbike too. Knackered my back from a few years farming and more than a few in hospitality. Can't do it more than a hobby now, but that connection to the land is real special.
Thank you for funding documentaries like this Guardian. This was so beautiful. I'd say my generation and Gen Z'ers are very interested in sustainable, organic food. Unfortunately most of us barely have the money to feed ourselves. I hope this will change somehow in the future. Thank you for what you're doing Adam!
If we keep having to pay for 300 thounds a year let in then ...you will get poorer.
Poetic and graceful, both farming and filming.
Wonderful vision on the eternal problem of existence. I have seen this documentary immediately after seeing one on buying a country house in Englad and I must say that it thas been a lot touching. Thanks to the director and to the persons involved.
Still better than sitting at a desk all day.
Hard, dirty work. They deserve more respect.
And wow, when he mentioned Gummer's How, it really hit home for me.
Big respect to all farmers I'm proud to be a British country man. Hard but rewarding way of life I love rural life rural people, kind genuine and tough caring people. Be proud of caring for animals my goats are my family. City slickers just won't understand till you knee deep in mud and smiling about it.
I quit meat and dairy, because of the environment and the cruelty of cramped intensive farming, castration, and the removal of calves from mothers. But on a human level I admire these young people and their persistence in following their cultural heritage and living off the land sustainably. Thought provoking piece.
It is on our blood .. please respect people like us ..Farmers who put food on your plates whatever the weather .
This is the noble and honorable profession. Enough about the money hounds, these people are the true heroes.
There's nothing "noble and honourable" about exploiting a female's reproductive system.
@Joel McWhinney Other than wanting to stop destroying the environment? Yes nothing at all...
@@TheAlanmarklewis bore off
@@TheAlanmarklewis farmers don't exploit they are noble herdsman with alot of care for their animal's go and work on a farm and see for yourself
@@simonsimon5466 I have worked on two farms. It doesn't matter how you look at it, it's still exploitation. They are purposely getting cows pregnant to then sell their milk. I'm not saying they don't care about their animals, of course they do, that's how they make money!
People have gotten too used to the cheap prices of factory farmed meats and animal products. Now people expect to eat meat every day cheaply when that's just not viable
Agreed. The supermarkets rip off the farmers. Charge us more. Pay the farmers more. But they all gotta do it.
Self-evidently it is viable for efficient producers.
@@Benzknees It isn't about efficiency. Farmers are at the mercy of big business. Prices haven't risen nearly enough over the years.
I know 40% of climate change is attributable to animal product consumption. Im not saying people need to stop eating animal products altogether, but we defiantly need to reduce our consumption on the whole.
When I was younger we used to have meat only 3 times a week, we didn’t starve, it was just more expensive back then and there is nothing wrong with that. People need to stop thinking that meat is necessary when it’s actually a luxury.
Not the life for me. My hats off and mucho appreciation for those that farm. You all deserve more thanks and fair compensation for all you do to feed the rest of us.
Brave young people !! Much respect for your choice in these times where the only important thing is money !
Smart people beautiful place
A beautiful video about beautiful people and animals
My dad was saying very similar in the 70-80s; he worked in agriculture all his life. Food is under priced and has been for a long time.
As a farmer I understand how hard this is
Lovely documentary I enjoyed it very much, we need to find a way where farmers can earn a descent living.
I am a farmer in South Africa besides the hard work we still have to deal with farm murders, well done young man proud of u dairy is hard work 😊
Stay safe my friend
Farming is one of the small number of industries where the buyer dictates the price to the seller. If the seller can't make a profit, then that's the seller's problem. That will only carry so far, once the seller goes out of business, and enough farms collapse, then we will be in trouble.
That's when the farmer who's willing to cut corners on animal wellbeing gets ahead and you end up with factory farming. Farmers like the ones in the docu need some protection from that before they disappear.
No just the opposite then they come in buy your land and factory farm it
@@celticwarrior3354 thats to feed the huge ever increasing population ...300 thousands a year we let in...mainly chicken eaters so what do you expect?
Part of the answer is for us as consumers to change our habits. We need to eat a lot less meat, and spend the money saved on supporting local farmers like this.
Drawn Also if consumers would choose farm to table dairy and meat, these farmers would make out alright. Modern society seems to be crushing this way of life, though. I hardly eat meat anymore, but I do get milk delivered in a glass bottle with the cream. :)
@@NancyDrewe Yes. I have also found a farm shop near me that has milk in a bottle. It costs more, and I'm not wealthy, but at the end of the day, it is still only milk. I can afford it, and it's a price worth paying.
In France many farmers add a guest house and create a "ferme pédagogique" activity for children on a day trip to make more money. Or they sell directly to the customers, through markets and vending machines (so succesful in the Alps that some turn into little shops)
I was talking to someone about his families farm and how not even a hundred years ago the farm would have the whole village working in harvest season. Now harvest can be done with 2 or 3 people. Keep in mind this is a ten thousand acre farm
"10,000 acre" and "2 or 3 people" do not go together, even now. I think you are exaggerating somewhat there. The point is valid, but the specifics leave a lot to be desired.
@@elliottanderson2453 I'm pretty certain that's right. It's mixed pasture and cereal crops. With modern machinery it doesn't require many people to handle it
I recall on the Sunday after the Referendum Farage goading Tim Farron that he should be celebrating the fact that with Brexit the British Housewife will now be able to buy cheap priced and enjoy succulent New Zealand Lamb and rich creamy New Zealand butter, let alone USA Big Agriculture. Obviously Farage had no idea that Farrons Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency included people like this!!!! These will people will be the causalities of Brexit and USA trade deal. As Mogg said the EU is a protection racket, what he failed to point out is that it actually protects EU Farmers, business and workers.
@Jeb Riley - Average farm profitability could drop from £38,000 to £15,000 - source Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, as highlighted by the NFU. Incidentally the NFU backed Remain as the best option. Perhaps you are also unaware that large areas of UK farming are eligible for higher EU grants than anywhere in France.
@Jeb Riley 🤡🤡🤡
@Jeb Riley Can I ask how you know so much Jeb Riley. My family and many friends are farmers and they would all fully back John John as I do. What grounds do you have to put his comments down?
Or Britain can do like we do in Norway by protecting farmers and fishermen and their communities. That is the beauty of sovreignity, a nation can protect its weakest members. Brexit now!
What amazing people! I feel humbled. :)
"Brexit?? Piss off!" Hahahahah, love it
The directness is great: "Did you want him to be a farmer?" ... "No".
Every farmer i meet wants to leave the e.u....i work in agriculture so i see about 20 a day
I love how people worry about the rising pension age and can't wait to retire.....i just worry about how long i can keep working for. The downside of working for yourself is having enough to actually put anything away for a retirement. Basically its impossible nowadays for most people, all our income goes on bills and daily living expenses, there is nothing left.....so when he says that he will probably drop down dead in the yard, I can quite understand how that will probably happen....there is nothing to look forward to in the future but just a continuation of 16 hour days 7 days a week till i drop dead......
Yes it’s hard to be a farmer a the best you two hope everything works out for you all
Beautiful. Thanks!
An excellent video, and I hope everything works out well for everybody.
Excellent video. Thank you.
“Another level of living”. Life is what you make it.
The usung heros of Great Britain.
Watched this many times. Very moving and a super piece of filming. I grew up in Wales, not as a farmer but on a old farm. I know the life of these people: especially the winter rain. That's hard but when you've no choice. No easy celebrity money here.
Austerity means alot of councils have had to sell off their tenant farms so many young people can enter the industry and most farms are being squeezed out of existence by large corporate owned farms who effectively control food prices. Land is one of the few resources that can't be reproduce, I think a better system would be to have all land publicly owned and for all farmers to have secure tenancies and affordable rents.
11:15 what he says (from here) here is very true. But people are waking up to this. Farm shops are poping up all over the place (well here in Kent England) and the food looks excellent. Me and my gf went to one in southfleet and it was really nice. The vegetables where huge they had fresh & frozen meats , eggs and local honey etc. My gf goes to others and says they're great.
@@astroboirap no-one's ever cared about you in your entire life, hence why you're making sniveling little comments online
Interesting film that took me back to my childhood ... It's a hard life and my dairy farming dad never wanted or encouraged me to be a farmer either. 🐮NB. I am now vegan. 💚
This fantastic, great work.
The big farming set ups are a pain Long may the small family farms survive ever one wins
Unfortunately this is what has been aloud to happen by British government . Privatising the milk industry was the first wrong step to a downward spiral fuelling greed and the fires of factory farming, all not really for the better long term!!☹️😔
All that has come from this is cheap milk for supermarkets to sell & make a profit on!
There’s something sadly wrong in today’s society when a bottle of water which can be more less filled out of a tap with very little input is sold in these large retail giants for more than the equivalent bottle of milk🤔 It is is such a kick in the teeth for these small farm producers, and an insult to their hard work involved !
Industry of any kind in the uk seems to be very worryingly in decline , the government need to stop fighting I amongst themselves and work together to prevent this decline. If they allow this to carry on we become more & more detached from the foundations of what made our country great! Skills will be lost as the next generation leaves to earn money in retail / media arts tv etc.
EU membership means sustainable agriculture economy is impossible
Great documentary
Hello there. My dad didn't force me and my brother's in to he's job. I started in farming but after 11 years I jacked and went stone walling. Add it been my own farm. I probably would have carried on. I'm retired now. More thorough ill health. Diabetes and leg ulcers among other things.
This program makes me sad. Corporate agriculture is so obsene and, here in the U.S. that horrid mass production of animals also keeps producing diseases like E coli, which flourish into untreatable mutations. If you can't see kharma in that, you're blind. 😔
Ok stop eating food now then.
Beautiful people
lovely song at the end.
I grew up in this kind of environment, sometimes milking by hand and having some trouble getting to school. My mother's partner still runs a small hill farm (about 40 acres in the Yorkshire Pennines), making about 8000 pounds a year - mostly lamb; wool and milk have no value unless the scale is huge. Obviously he works other jobs (at 67).
He should be working smarter a simple switch to chicken farming would earn min of 50k
Fantastic
my parents are approaching retirement age, they haven't got a penny in the bank. How can they retire? Me and my brother are working for nothing on the farm too
Nice video friends
It goes memorable on my uncle farm
"some illness will force him to stop." that's some foreshadowing
Still working 7 days a week at 78. Tough father.
I like British farms there not all commercialised like America
Joe Allen they are fast disappearing , the British dairy industry is fast becoming more like American and Canadian farms where hundreds are small herds.
It's sad to see it becoming more industrialised .
The cows have been sold now and Raymond has retired from milking as a business , still milking two cows to ease boredom ..apparently.
not only British farms. Most Euopean farms. Why do you think CAP is in place?
@@barbaraarndt5293 yes I know I like the eu. They have strong protection and regulation of farming standards and workers rights.
@@joeallen7172 the Uk will notice when we have left!!!!
Great people and way of life, unfortunately not well paid
Subsidy payments from government because corporations refuse to pay a fair price
If people and the food corporations would pay the farmers what it actually cost to produce food to high standards, there wouldn't be no need for a subsidy payment from the gov..
I love this woman, he's got the perfect woman there.
Lovely video. Farming just isn't sustainable without subsidies.
I love farming I’m a dairy farm
I do not believe that many people realize what goes into agriculture to produce the raw ingredients like in this documentary.... most comes from industrial agribusiness. I wonder if this man drinks and eats from stuff raised on his farm?
Sell for trade prices and buy at retail prices that is farming
One branch of my family are also Holstein farmers in the North. Not an easy life.
Tell him to watch farming secrets on you tube .....you could turn that into a thriving business
Cumbrian accent dying out
No it’s not. People in Cumbria have a Cumbrian accent.
Dads accent is pure Cumbria and the younger youth has been away for education darn Sarth...that's why :)
now I got back pain
You know, American farmers are going through similar things. Just saying
I know that it is not a factory farm.....
Factory farms are symptoms of overpopulation.
What a mad milking shed.
It is said time flys when ure enjoying youself r ure job
The farmer can bareley suvive and th farm has already been built by past generations. If you have to start from scratch it is nearly impossible. You can blame the theifs at the top of the pile for this mess of a society.
For goodness sake stop complaining, move to a country where your wanted, its time to be honest with yourself
When the capitalist market system fails, you will have to come back to the old system.
Mercantilism? Hunter gatherer? We've moved on from those. Capitalism is the best and the only system that works. It is progress.
If capitalist isnt to your liking could always go somewere else?
What are the songs used in here?
Mar Tov in. The credits at the end tell you .
From 1972 is 55 years upwards? Hmmm, I was born in 1972 and I thought that I'm just 47, going on 48.
Folks Song Title anyone?
Got it in the Credits.
Bill Gates Becomes #1 US Farmland Owner
2:20 Unfortunately, people can “keel over” at work even if they don’t farm. So, don’t be despondent; it can happen to anyone.
I guess people in the comments see what they want to see. What about the hard working cows that have no choice but to be artificially inseminated, carry a calf for months and then when it's born have it taken away within days to be shot (male) or sold into the same fate as her mum. After 4 or 5 years of this the animal is "spent" and sent to slaughter despite having a natural lifespan of some 20 years. Most of her life she will have been pregnant and suffered from being separated from her calf as well as likely suffering from mastitus, lameness or any number of issues in her short, hard life.
It may be better than the intensive alternative but it's still far from idyllic for these poor animals.
Brexit 'pissoff'🤣🤣🤣
99.9 % of farmers support brexit.
Its like all the people on working tax credits because they get underpaid like their bosses
Why are we drinking a cow's milk
How clean are the piping collecting the milk and he did not wipe down the teats before putting on the suckers.... maybe its not necessary since the milk will probably highly processed after leaving the farm... ..Are the cows eating traditional feed or super feed with steroids and hormones.
casaraku1 the cows always wiped down , wiped and dried actually. Dust on the pipeline is not dust in the pipeline . There are no steroids or hormones in British feed. The milk tested daily by tanker before leaving farm . Please watch the film again , it is a traditional tiny dairy farm , not a factory farm over the water .
We have unemployed people and £12 billion a year in foreign aid.
Foreign aid benifits the UK. Read about it. Before you make yourself look stupid.
"Adam and his partner Helen"
...
All life is hard, there are very much harder jobs and they probably couldn't work at any other job, farmers work at there own pace
After Brexit things will be better supported.
BTW, I live in a farming community, I know farming, farmers and that this video is the product of a political rag.
Yes it is my friend the guardian hand picked these mupets on the vid
Time to farm something that doesn't scream and suffer when killed. Like plants.
We weren't meant to just eat plants. We have teeth for chewing meat. Meat is more calorific which means we are able to put more energy into things. People who just eat plants have low energy, they are ruining their bodies and gut bacteria and cuasing all kinds of inflammation. Eating meat and cooking meat has pushed us forward as a species. To go back or undo is to regress.
@@martynblackburn1977 never read so much BS in my life. We do not have the teeth or carnivores or even omnivores, we re only able to rip through meat once cooked. Yes animal products are more calorific and that's why we have an obesity problem here in the west. And vegans are the only group of people that on average fall into the healthy weight range. You call destroying the planet progress? I call it stupidity.
@@daniellee8815 you can eat what you like....and i will eat meat so keep your forced views to yourself.
Just wish the guardian would focus all their efforts on proper written journalism.
Shallow focus and lingering shots do not make a documentary.
Great people and beautiful farm but if they are not profitable or they did not save for their retirement that is solely their problem and they can’t force the rest of us to finance their farm and their life. Sell the farm and move on.
You really think it's as easy as that to just sell the only place they've ever known, for what? To 'retire'? Most farmers don't do retirement, they can't not be working. They couldn't 'save' as you suggest because they were never making enough to do so.
Who’s going to want an unprofitable farm in the north? They’d be lucky to get enough for another house and to put some aside for retirement
Alex West but again that is their problem... you can’t make other taxpayers pay fot it... two wrongs don’t make one right!
Serra do Japi so what do we do? Give up on the north? Have everyone live in a flat down in London?
Serra do Japi you still haven't responded to my comment which answers your original and this question.
Whine, whine, whine. If you don't like where you are, get up and move on.
"Brexit> Piss off" Great.
But seriously, Government doesn't owe you a profitable business. Do something more productive
@Raspberry I can import it cheaper and he can do something more productive. Is food important? Yes. Is his food he makes in England the only food? no.
He's not getting money because he can't compete and that's okay, he just needs a new job
@@MirkyMan That's the problem "I can import it cheaper". Consumers like you who are willing to pay for an overpriced branded shirt but not for quality food grown locally. You aren't just part of the problem. You are the problem.
@@MirkyMan Wow. It's amazing to see how some people just-do-not-get-it. You are seriously undereducated, please research food miles, carbon emissions, local economics, biodiversity importance, insect function, sustainable agriculture, etc. Land is being lost and degraded worldwide, we will not be able to depend on other countries imports for much longer.
You are clueless, please get wise and wake up asap. Thanks.
@@introvextrav1542 wow yes I forgot how biodiverse fields with pesticides on are compared to forests. I also forgot that farming isn't whats degrading land? I'm not clueless, you're presuming I'm uninformed because you hold a different view. I am informed, I just value things differently than you. Yes the cold chain is made shorter by locally grown produce, great. But should I pay taxes so some guy can raise cows to create methane? Probably not, I would argue.
@@MirkyMan Just change the laws to regulate the super large farms and back room deals but reduce the regulations on smaller farms to protect local exchanges and traditions.
No such thing as a poor farmer 👌
eh? I know poor farmers. You are incorrect, please disabuse yourself of your inaccurate beliefs. Thank you.
These places looks like they are still live in 6 century