[Diggers350] The National Trust is trying to eliminate livestock farming by pushing tenants out for 'pantheist' rewilding projects

Tony Gosling tony at cultureshop.org.uk
Tue Aug 2 01:50:25 BST 2022 


The National Trust is trying to eliminate 
livestock farming by pushing tenants out for 'pantheist' rewilding projects

https://tlio.org.uk/the-national-trust-is-trying-to-eliminate-livestock-farming-by-pushing-tenants-out-for-rewilding-projects/
https://www.fwi.co.uk/business/business-management/tenancies-rents/national-trust-rewilding-projects-leaves-tenants-feel-pushed-out

Several farming tenants and the Tenant Farmers 
Association (TFA) are concerned by what they see 
as the over-zealous way in which the National 
Trust is taking productive agricultural land back in-hand for rewilding.

Farmers Weekly talks to some tenants who have 
lost the land they have farmed for years.

See also: 
<https://www.fwi.co.uk/business/business-management/tenancies-rents/why-farm-tenants-are-criticising-national-trust-landlords>Why 
farm tenants are criticising National Trust landlords


Devon farmer leaves after 28 years

Patrick Greed, who farms on the Killerton Estate 
in Devon, feels he has “betrayed agriculture” 
after accepting an incentive from the National 
Trust to give up his Agricultural Holdings Act (AHA) tenancy after 28 years.

As well as the main 160ha holding he farmed, he 
had another 60ha of river meadow grazing on a Farm Business Tenancy (FBT).

“The National Trust kept renewing it every five 
or 10 years, depending upon what environmental 
stewardship schemes we were in,” he says.

“Most recently, we had been in Higher Level 
Stewardship and once that ended, they decided to 
take it back for tree planting, scrapes and rewilding.”

Loss of this land meant 61-year-old Mr Greed had 
to reduce his Limousin suckler herd. “We had 550 
head (cows and followers) before we lost the river meadows. Now we have 340.”

[]


Mr Greed’s pedigree limousin © Patrick Greed

With it becoming increasingly difficult to farm 
the land productively, alongside TB risks and 
greater public use of the land, Mr Greed accepted 
the incentive to quit and will leave the farm next year.

But he is uneasy about the direction the National Trust is taking.

“It is not reletting it as a farm. It plans to do 
a lot of tree planting on the main holding. But 
just over 120ha of it is Grade 1 and 2 arable land.

“It [the National Trust] even wants to plant 
trees on some of the permanent pasture. It is 
wrong. Farmers ought to be producing as much food as possible from this land.”

Mr Greed is not alone. Land agent Kevin Bateman, 
director of Bateman Hosegood, has come across 
numerous cases, particularly in the past two 
years, where the National Trust has taken back 
tenanted land for rewilding and tree planting.

“It feels like re-enactment of the Highland clearances – a land grab,” he says.

Typically, tenants are finding that their FBTs, 
which have been historically renewed, are being 
taken back in-hand, which is significantly 
affecting the viability of some businesses.

“And some tenants with AHA tenancies are being 
offered cash incentives to give them up too, says Mr Bateman.

“The policy feels like it is financially driven, 
with the trust targeting big grants for 
landscape-scale nature recovery at the expense of its tenanted farms.

It sees this as a way of creating significant 
income for itself. However, it does not 
understand the implications for the farming 
businesses and family homes that it is effectively destroying,” he explains.

“The way it is doing this suggests that it has 
complete contempt for the farmers who have farmed the land for generations.”


Cornwall farmer feels ‘destroyed’

When Tom Hasson, 42, and his partner Becki 
Prouse, 37, took on the 220ha mixed farm FBT in 
Stowe Barton, Cornwall seven years ago – having 
farmed 60-80ha of it for 14 years – they fully expected to continue.
[]


Tom Hasson and family © Tom Hasson

“When we took it on, the National Trust said it 
wanted to let it to a young farming family like 
us. In June last year, we went with a proposal to 
renew our Mid-Tier stewardship and tenancy,” says Mr Hasson.

“So it came as a bombshell when the trust said it 
had different plans for the premises. It wanted 
to take all the land back and create a nature 
reserve with agricultural production as a 
‘by-product’ rather than the main aim.”

At their last meeting, the National Trust 
suggested running 50 head of cattle over 220ha on 
a year-to-year grazing licence.

“But there would be no security and how could we 
get an income when they would be taking the 
payments? Our plans are up in the air,” says Mr Hasson.

“It has totally destroyed us and upset the kids.” 
Ms Prouse agrees: “There is no recognition of what we have done. I feel empty.”


Devon farm goes to public access

Echoing this sentiment is Tim Jankins, who came 
out of his 180ha mixed farm FBT on the South 
Devon Estate, near Plymouth, in November last year.
[]


Tim Jakins © Moostones

“We were there for 25 years. The National Trust 
approached us in 2018 when our tenancy was up for 
renewal and said we couldn’t renew it on the previous terms,” he says.

“It wanted a large amount of public access, and to rewild some of it.

“My gut reaction told me to get out. I’d put a 
lifetime’s savings into it and I didn’t want to 
be there when it reverted back to whatever it was 
supposed to be reverting back to.”

He has since heard that the farmhouse is empty 
and that there are many weeds on the farm. “It is 
good, productive land,” he adds.

“We used to supply a good amount of beef and 
lamb, with grain going to local feed mills. This 
now has to be brought in from further away, which 
doesn’t help the carbon footprint.”


TFA: ‘Wrong-headed’ policy

Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) chief executive 
George Dunn says that what is happening to some tenants is devastating.

“They have put their heart and soul into a place, 
hoping to get some sort of tenancy renewal and 
are told this is not going to happen.

“People are bringing up families on these farms, 
they are involved in local communities and go to local schools.”

While he is aware of conversations on other 
National Trust estates, Mr Dunn says the 
situation is most potent in the South West, 
particularly affecting coastal properties.

“The Trust is focusing attention on what it 
considers is needed for biodiversity net gain and 
carbon reduction. It doesn’t see these farms as 
particularly important from an agricultural perspective.”

The TFA thinks the policy is entirely 
wrong-headed. “It is a vanity project driven by 
the current media frenzy around rewilding, which 
in our view is not based on sound science,” says Mr Dunn.

The TFA is also challenging Defra over spending public money on such projects.

“The government’s objective is to maintain the 
landlord/tenant system in agriculture.

“If a landlord like the National Trust decides to 
bring someone’s occupation of a farm to an end, 
it shouldn’t have access to public funding for 
planting trees and rewilding,” Mr Dunn suggests.

He advises tenants who have been approached about 
giving up their tenancy not to go quietly and to 
speak up for what they believe to be right.

“Contact the TFA,” he adds. “We are building a 
database to help lobby the National Trust on a 
joint basis – the more cases we have, the better.”


National Trust insists it values its tenants

The National Trust says it wants to make its land 
“better for nature”, to help tackle the nature and climate crisis.

“We want to create and restore 25,000ha for 
nature on our land by 2025 – work started in 
2017. This means we may retain land in-hand, 
often temporarily, to reset the management model,” says a spokesman.

Any payments made as incentives to surrender 
tenancies are from National Trust funds, and each 
case is considered in its local context.

The trust denies taking land back so it can claim 
future Landscape Recovery or other environmental grants.

“If we hold land in-hand, it is with a view to 
taking some time to plan its future use and 
management,” the spokesman explains.

“When we decide to make changes to our land, we 
look at the different options available to 
support any capital investments needed and to 
secure appropriate long-term management.

“We anticipate future funding will come from a 
variety of sources and that rental income will 
continue to be part of that mix.”

The National Trust says it is acutely aware of 
the impact on tenants when tenancies are not 
renewed. “We work hard to support our tenants 
with the challenges they face as a result of this,” it insists.






















-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mailman.gn.apc.org/pipermail/diggers350/attachments/20220802/682c4b5f/attachment-0002.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 2bb6d492.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 364582 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://mailman.gn.apc.org/pipermail/diggers350/attachments/20220802/682c4b5f/attachment-0003.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 2bb6d4f0.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 311605 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://mailman.gn.apc.org/pipermail/diggers350/attachments/20220802/682c4b5f/attachment-0004.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 2bb6d52e.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 142525 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://mailman.gn.apc.org/pipermail/diggers350/attachments/20220802/682c4b5f/attachment-0005.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
NB please reply with any unsubscribe request in 
the email body, leaving the subject line intact, 
if you do not wish to recieve further emails - thanks
https://www.youtube.com/user/PublicEnquiry/videos

"And I think, in the end, that is the best 
definition of journalism I have heard; to 
challenge authority - all authority - especially 
so when governments and politicians take us to 
war, when they have decided that they will kill 
and others will die. " --Robert Fisk
'Capitalism is institutionalised bribery' TG

Download, donation only, Tony's three watermarked 
books http://www.bilderberg.org - My books https://payhip.com/TonyGosling
Or buy Tony's three ebooks for £10-£15 here 
https://payhip.com/TonyGosling or paperback here 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254963338161

'From South America, where payment must be made 
with subtlety, the Bormann organization has made 
a substantial contribution. It has drawn many of 
the brightest Jewish businessmen into a 
participatory role in the development of many of 
its corporations, and many of these Jews share 
their prosperity most generously with Israel. If 
their proposals are sound, they are even provided 
with a specially dispensed venture capital fund. 
I spoke with one Jewish businessmen in Hartford, 
Connecticut. He had arrived there quite unknown 
several years before our conversation, but with 
Bormann money as his leverage. Today he is more 
than a millionaire, a quiet leader in the 
community with a certain share of his profits 
earmarked as always for his venture capital 
benefactors. This has taken place in many other 
instances across America and demonstrates how 
Bormann’s people operate in the contemporary 
commercial world, in contrast to the fanciful 
nonsense with which Nazis are described in so much “literature.”

So much emphasis is placed on select Jewish 
participation in Bormann companies that when 
Adolf Eichmann was seized and taken to Tel Aviv 
to stand trial, it produced a shock wave in the 
Jewish and German communities of Buenos Aires. 
Jewish leaders informed the Israeli authorities 
in no uncertain terms that this must never happen 
again because a repetition would permanently 
rupture relations with the Germans of Latin 
America, as well as with the Bormann 
organization, and cut off the flow of Jewish 
money to Israel. It never happened again, and the 
pursuit of Bormann quieted down at the request of 
these Jewish leaders. He is residing in an 
Argentinian safe haven, protected by the most 
efficient German infrastructure in history as 
well as by all those whose prosperity depends on his well-being.'
<http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fspitfirelist.com%2Fbooks%2Fmartin-bormann-nazi-in-exile%2F&h=eAQErj17O>http<http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fspitfirelist.com%2Fbooks%2Fmartin-bormann-nazi-in-exile%2F&h=eAQErj17O>://spitfirelist.com/books/martin-bormann-nazi-in-exile/ 


http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/contributor/2149
http://www.thisweek.org.uk
http://www.911forum.org.uk
http://www.bilderberg.org
http://www.tlio.org.uk
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvPbHiqhLtpNWA_cg_1NULw
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMn9GM4atN3t7AHJBbHMR0Q
https://www.twitter.com/TonyGosling
https://www.facebook.com/tony.gosling.16

You can donate to support Tony's work here http://www.bilderberg.org/bcfm.htm
TG mobile +44 7786 952037  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mailman.gn.apc.org/pipermail/diggers350/attachments/20220802/682c4b5f/attachment-0003.html>

More information about the Diggers350 mailing list