{"id":2878,"date":"2014-09-12T11:23:01","date_gmt":"2014-09-12T11:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/socio-cultural-anthropology\/?p=451"},"modified":"2018-09-13T07:38:20","modified_gmt":"2018-09-13T07:38:20","slug":"50-years-50-stories-the-dynamics-of-farms-and-farming-in-ukcs-backyard-1965-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/2014\/09\/12\/50-years-50-stories-the-dynamics-of-farms-and-farming-in-ukcs-backyard-1965-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"50 years, 50 stories: The dynamics of farms and farming in UKC\u2019s backyard, 1965-2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"women<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Principal Investigator:<\/th>\nRaj Puri<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Co-Investigation:<\/th>\nAlan Bicker,\u00a0Ian Bride<\/a>,\u00a0Mike Poltorak<\/a>,\u00a0Joseph Tzanopoulos<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Research Team:<\/th>\nAnna Durdant-Hollamby, Anca Mamaische, Louise Rasmussen, Katy Sharpe, Joe Spence<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Project Design:<\/th>\nAttiat Gamal, Alex Graham, Laura Leahy, Vivien Macdonald, Emily Malkin, Alison Mckeand, Emma Molloy, Treya Picking, Ren Piercey, Louise Sykes, George Uren, Anette Vestergaard, Tim Wilcox<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Project dates:<\/th>\nSeptember 2014 – December 2015<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Funding:<\/th>\nUniversity of Kent 50th Anniversary Fund<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Summary<\/strong><\/h3>\n

To celebrate 50 years of the University of Kent, we have studied social and ecological changes in the Kent landscape over at least the last 50 years, through an analysis of geographical images and historical data as well as 50 videotaped interviews with farmers, conducted by SAC undergraduates, on how their farms have changed during this period. An overview of the research collated thus far is presented below:<\/p>\n

Video<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Excerpts from interviews with four farmers: Kenneth Jenner, Bridgit Boty, Jon Hinchliff and Tony Redsell (filmed by Joe Spence).<\/p>\n

\"50<\/a><\/p>\n

Audio transcripts<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"Tractor“Whereas we used to have a whole lot of people hoeing potatoes and walking through corn stubbing out the thistles, now it was all done with a sprayer\u2026That was a big step forward, but it also means you tended to meet less people.”\u00a0Chandler and Dunn<\/strong><\/p>\n

“When I started at 18 there was a…sort of romantic idea of being outside in the open on the farm\u2026and it was a way of life.\u00a0But now it\u2019s much more a business\u2026they are businesses with 8-10 million pound turnover and lots of complexity, lots of paperwork. Many growers probably preferred it the way it was 20 or 30 years ago.”\u00a0Chris Rose<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Group“Before, somebody came in for a load, took it away \u2013 just gave ’em a ticket for 20 whatever-it-is, and now you have to produce paperwork to say what it was sprayed with on what date, when it was picked, the date it was grown, what fertilizer!\u00a0And those are things that are very hard for an old-fashioned person like myself to understand.”\u00a0Martin Twyman<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Nearly every farm around here would have grown some hops…If something needed doing to the hops you did that first cause it\u2019s a very high value crop for beer.\u00a0And I think there\u2019s only about half a dozen hop growers left in East Kent now.”\u00a0Mr. Holdstock<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Array“Land is a finite resource\u2026The population\u2019s going up but the land area\u2019s effectively going down\u2026There\u2019s a bigger population wanting maybe a wider variation and a better quality of food to eat.”\u00a0Chandler and Dunn<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Supermarkets are bigger than the government, the way they control our lives, how they pay us, how they price us, their policy of going and getting produce from other counties before us\u2026And we have to have them.\u00a0We can\u2019t farm without them.”\u00a0Martin Twyman<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Women“Picking was done by women, usually women with young children who could have the children on the fields when they were picking.”\u00a0Chris Rose<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The whole pattern of having local labour, predominantly female, coming out at half past eight or quarter to nine harvesting through until approximately three o’clock when they will go and pick up their children, that\u2019s all gone. It\u2019s become seven days a week, long hours – a labour-intensive site.”\u00a0John Hincliff<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Ploughing“I suspect 50 years ago there would still have been the odd farm with a horse left on it.\u00a0Our biggest tractor would have been about 40 horsepower then, when our biggest one now is 220 horsepower. And that isn\u2019t big by what some of the arable farmers are running:\u00a0 4-500 horsepower tractors!\u00a0 They can do in a day what somebody would have taken a month to do.”\u00a0Mr. Holdstock<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Spatial Analysis Maps<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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\"Arable<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Arable<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Urbanisation<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

Click on thumbnail for larger image.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maps created courtesy of KISS (Kent’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Spatial Studies) with thanks to Kent County Council’s ARCH project (Assessing Regional Habitat Change).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Aims<\/strong><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Using a holistic approach to challenge the hegemony of EU\u2019s CAP as a change driver, and recognising the creative, experimental nature of farming in Kent, we will explore the ecological, social, cultural, economic and political causes of change and response. Perhaps the university has, in some as yet unknown way, influenced these changes?<\/p>\n

Outputs<\/strong><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n