British Agriculture Research Articles

Risk and risk management in English agriculture, c. 1750–1850

This article scrutinizes the claim that the residual claimant in English agriculture was the fixed rent tenant farmer rather than the landlord. Examination of methods of agricultural insurance and risk management indicates that the income risks of farming were sizable, not straightforward to manage, and largely borne by the tenant. Thus the farmer's profit appears to have fluctuated by more over time and space than did the rent paid to the landlord. Attempts are made to assess changes over time in the nature and size of the production and price risks to which farmers were exposed.

森建資著, 『イギリス農業政策史』, 東京大学出版会, 2003年, xi+395頁

森建資著, 『イギリス農業政策史』, 東京大学出版会, 2003年, xi+395頁

Review of Farming in the First Millennium AD: British Agriculture Between Julius Caesar and William the Conqueror by Peter Fowler

Review of Farming in the First Millennium AD: British Agriculture Between Julius Caesar and William the Conqueror by Peter Fowler

Farming in the First Millennium AD: British Agriculture between Julius Caesar and William the Conqueror

Farming in the First Millennium AD: British Agriculture between Julius Caesar and William the Conqueror

Two Labour Markets in Nineteenth-Century English Agriculture: The Trentham Home Farm, Staffordshire

Traditionally, historians have tended to accept the view that agricultural labourers in nineteenth-century England were subject to seasonal unemployment. In this article, however, it is argued that this is an over-simplification, and that there were in fact two coexisting labour markets. Using two sets of micro data, a wage book and the Census Enumerators' Books, it will be revealed (1) that there were two groups of agricultural labourers: those who were employed throughout the year (core workers) and those employed only in the busiest season (casual workers); (2) that the core workers and casual workers performed different tasks; (3) that they had different places of residence; and (4) that the casual workers' wages were more market-dependent. The movement of wages at the time of the arrival of Irish migrant labourers sheds further light on the different natures of the two markets. While core workers' wages appear to have been unaffected by this change in labour demand, English casual workers' and women's wages increased sensitively.

Nature or Nurture? Explaining English Wheat Yields in the Industrial Revolution, c.1770

This article presents the first agricultural production function for the eighteenth century, thereby quantifying the effect of many new technologies coming on stream in English agriculture. It shows that some traditional technologies were effective in raising wheat yields, such as drainage and marling; but some innovations of the eighteenth century were much more effective, particularly turnips and seed drills. Environmental factors are incorporated into the model. Climate is shown to be a crucial factor in determining yields but soil quality was much less important. This undermines the accepted argument that England's success was due to a superior natural endowment.

Salmonella and food safety – why it matters for the British pig industry

SummaryThe production and marketing of safe, wholesome pork, bacon, ham and other pork products is of paramount importance to British farmers, processors, retailers, food service companies and those that supply them. It is not possible to guarantee the complete absence of bacteria in meat production. Most bacteria found on meat are harmless, but some can cause foodborne disease. Control processes to reduce or eliminate food safety risks are applied to every stage of the production and marketing chain from the farm to the consumer.Key approaches to reducing the risk of foodborne disease include: reduction of zoonotic pathogens in slaughter pigs; prevention of cross contamination during activities such as transport and slaughter; safe processing of foods underpinned by HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point); safe handling and preparation of food in the retail and catering sectors, including the adoption of HACCP principles and effective enforcement; safe handling and preparation of food in the home and enhanced surveillance of foodborne disease to monitor effectiveness of controls.

What Can We Learn From Retailers' News Releases? A ‘Stakeholder Engagement’ Perspective

This paper explores press releases, a neglected area of retail and marketing research, from leading British supermarket retailers over a two-year period to December 2002. Major themes for press releases are found to be products and services, corporate social responsibility, and corporate affairs and performance, although individual retailers show different emphases. A stakeholder engagement approach demonstrates how the releases seek to build networks of common interest, which is particularly demonstrable in relation to support for British farming and charitable activities. However it is noted that both these could be considered “easy targets”, grateful for any support they can obtain.

Local food production: some implications for planning

Following a catalogue of problems in British farming, attempts are being made to re-localize agriculture for reasons of rural regeneration and sustainable development. It is a move that is both consumer driven and encouraged by government policies and grant schemes. This article examines what the implications for the land use planning system might be from this small revolution in farming and retailing. Research in Somerset using planning history records reveals that in some cases planning permission has proved an obstacle to the establishment and expansion of local food businesses. This is especially so for applications for farm shops and agricultural workers' dwellings. Survey data shows that a significant proportion of local food producers selling through box schemes, farmers' markets and farm gate sales are new entrants to farming. New entrants present particular difficulties for planners and planning committees, because they challenge the conventional conception of what farmers and farm businesses are like, and invoke concerns about abuse of the agricultural dwelling concessions provided by the system. A tension is identified between the interpretation of ‘sustainable development’ in planning circles and among local food proponents. The neglect of ‘food miles’ as a consideration in retail planning policy is highlighted as an example of this clash of perspectives.

Welfare Assessment of Working Donkeys: Assessment of the Impact of an Animal Healthcare Project in West Kenya

AbstractDevelopment agencies and animal welfare charities try to improve the health and welfare of livestock in the developing world by educating owners and providing healthcare. The impact assessment of these projects relies mainly upon input-related parameters (eg number of animals treated or educational lectures delivered). The aim of this study was to investigate whether animal-based parameters, such as scores for skin lesions, body condition and lameness, could be used to assess the impact of interventions by development agencies on working donkeys. A general checklist for integument assessment of livestock, developed and then tested on two British farms, was redefined for assessment of equine animals in West Kenya. In total, 346 donkeys were assessed over four days with a mobile clinic of the Kenyan Society for the Protection and Care of Animals, using 25 animal-based parameters. The checklist was easy to use: the parameters could be scored using visual assessment or palpation, and the procedure was completed in approximately 5 min per animal. The method was found to be acceptable for owners and animal health technicians, and no special equipment was required. Significant observations included a reduced frequency of leg lesions when head-tethering (as opposed to leg-tethering) was used, and a reduced frequency of foot lesions in regions previously visited by the charity. This animal-based method proved that the charity had made a positive impact on donkey welfare through owner education.

On-Farm Assessment of the Effect of Management and Housing Type on Behaviour and Welfare in Dairy Cattle

AbstractThere is a trend toward increasing intensification in dairy farming in the United Kingdom. In particular, there is concern over systems in which cows are housed throughout the year, as the behavioural restriction implicit in these systems is associated with poor welfare in other species. The aim of this on-going project is to determine how this affects the behaviour and welfare of dairy cattle. A range of behavioural, physical and health measures are being used to assess cow welfare on about 40 commercial British dairy farms. Initially, five farm types were identified from analysis of returns from a farmer questionnaire. Milk production level and housing type were the principal factors explaining variation in farm type. The sample groups are: high-, mid- and low-production cubicle-housing units, mid-production straw-court units, and cubicle-housing high-production zero-grazing units. Observations will take place over three winter housing periods (2000/01 to 2002/03), with recording on each unit taking five days. Our main hypothesis is that the behavioural and physical responses of ‘at-risk’ younger cows provide a sensitive indication of farm-level ‘stress’. Cows are marked according to age, and the feed-face videotaped continuously to record feeding time and social interactions. Temporal organisation of behaviour will be analysed using fractal mathematics and qualitative assessment approaches used in a human interaction test. Cow cleanliness, condition score, response to a novel object and the incidences of lameness and leg injury are recorded, and building quality is assessed. Ultimately, multivariate methods will be used to test our underlying hypothesis and to assess effects of housing and production type on behaviour and welfare. This analysis may identify key objective measures of welfare for use in farm assurance schemes.

Mental health of British farmers

Aims: To estimate the prevalence of neurotic symptoms in a sample of British farmers, to investigate whether farming characteristics are associated with psychiatric morbidity, and to test the hypothesis that...

The Rise and Fall of a National Strategy, 1945-63

Part 1 National strategy. Part 2 Western Europe and the United Kingdom's future, 1945-50. Part 3 The United Kingdom and the Schuman Plan, 1950: first reactions to Schuman's proposal the rejection of the Schuman proposal should participation in the Schuman plan have been rejected?. Part 4 The European defence community and the European political community, 1950-54: proposals for a European defence community reaction to the ECD proposals defining a policy towards the federation debate and division within the Conservative party the European defence community treaty the European political authority the collapse of the defence community. Part 5 Association with the European coal and steel community, 1950-55: debating association coming to terms with the Treaty of Paris the treaty of association with the ECSC. Part 6 United Kingdom agriculture and Europe - the green pool. Part 7 The decision not to join the European economic community, 1953-55: the origins of the common market the choice before Britain the United Kingdom and the Spaak committee the decision not to join the European economic community. Part 8 Euratom. Part 9 Responding to the common market - the boundaries of political possibility, 1955-56: the search for a response to the common market the free trade area proposal - plan G the Suez crisis and plan G. Part 10 The failure of the free trade area proposal: the constraints of domestic politics commercial issues - trade in manufactures agriculture and the free trade area proposal the USA, free trade area and the common market. Part 11 The decision to apply for membership of the European communities, 1959-61: the meaning and timing of the decision who made the decision?. Part 12 The disintegration of a national strategy, 1961-63 - Britain and the world: preserving British influence? the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and the EEC negotiating for the Commonwealth relinquishing the Commonwealth suzerainty, economic development and international trading systems - the unattainable vision the disintegration of a national strategy - Britain and the world paying for the community - British agriculture, food supply and the common agricultural policy. Part 13 Questions of sovereignty: national sovereignty and parliamentary sovereignty sovereignty and the common market - labour mobility sovereignty and the common market - welfare and taxation. Part 14 De Gaulle's veto -its causes and significance.

Accidental injuries in agriculture in the UK.

The rate of occupational accidents in British agriculture is higher than in most other industries. The most common fatal accidents are those involving vehicles and machinery, falls from a height and electrocution. A substantial proportion of reported non-fatal injuries in agricultural employees is attributable to manual handling, but among self-employed farmers the contribution is much smaller. Few data are available on longer-term determinants of risk, but accidental deaths are most frequent in July, August and September. The main approaches to preventing agricultural accidents are through engineering improvements, and education and training of the workforce. The introduction of roll-over protection structures for tractors has been an important development in recent decades. Other engineering controls include guards for power take off shafts, guard rails to prevent falls, better handling facilities for animals and closed transfer systems for pesticides. Training on safety is available from several sources, but its effectiveness in reducing accidents is uncertain.

Occupational health in British agriculture.

If prostitution is the oldest profession, then agriculture is surely the oldest industry. It was the transition of man from hunter–gatherer to farmer that first enabled civilizations to develop and other industries to evolve. For thousands of years, the majority of the world’s population worked on the land, but nowadays most people live in cities, and the agricultural workforce in developed countries is shrinking. This has been possible because technological advances, particularly over the past 200 years, have made food production much more efficient. Mechanization has had an enormous impact, and other innovations, such as the use of agrochemicals and improved breeding of plants and animals, have also been important. Many people who, as a consequence of this, enjoy the luxury of a plentiful supply of food are now questioning the pace of change. Fears are widely voiced about threats to health and the environment from pesticides, genetically modified crops, the use of hormones in meat production and other aspects of modern agricultural practice. In Britain, the BSE epidemic, and more recently a major outbreak of foot and mouth disease in cattle, have further focused public attention on these issues. In response, the government has initiated a major review of farming and of the rural economy more widely [1]. Caught up in the middle of these developments are the farmers and their employees, who must continue to earn a living while all about them is changing or uncertain. As well as psychological stresses, they face a range of chemical, physical, biological and ergonomic hazards in the course of their work. And because of the way in which the industry is organized, with most of the workforce employed in small businesses, access to occupational health services is limited. Against this background, we have put together a series of papers reviewing various aspects of occupational health in farming. The focus is principally on agriculture in the UK, but much of the material will also be relevant to other countries.

Does Capital Market Structure Affect Farm Investment? A Comparison using French and British Farm‐Level Panel Data

AbstractThis article considers whether differences in the structure of agriculture credit markets in France and the United Kingdom alters the investment sensitivity to financial variables particularly cash flow. Using two panel datasets of French and British farms, three approaches are used to test the sensitivity of investment to internal finance, an inventory investment model, a fundamental q‐model, and Euler equations for machinery investment. The results suggest that the contrasting capital markets structures do induce differences in overall investment sensitivity to cash flow and its pattern across both farms with varying levels of collateral and between inventory and machinery investment.

Accidental superwarfarin poisoning in children—less treatment is better

Superwarfarins are anticoagulants related to warfarin, and were developed as rodenticides in response to the development of resistance to warfarin in some populations of rats. This drug class includes brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difenacoum, and flocoumafen. Over 80% of rodenticides used on British farms, and nearly all of those used in the domestic environment, contain a superwarfarin. The mode of action of the superwarfarins is similar to warfarin in that they inhibit hepatic synthesis of prothrombin and vitamin-K-dependent cofactors. These drugs have longer biological half-lives (24 days or more) and are said to be more acutely toxic to mammals than warfarin.

Computational general equilibrium models in economic history and an analysis of British capitalist agriculture

A general equilibrium arbitrated by prices arising from consumers and firms interacting in markets is a core idea in economic analysis and provides powerful insight into many historical issues. Modern computational models permit investigators to exploit the insights of general equilibrium. This article outlines the ideas of general equilibrium and of computational general equilibrium models. In the process, strengths and limitations are discussed. The discussion is given focus by using the Harley-Crafts model as its focus and explores briefly the consequences of changing the allocation principals in the agricultural sector of the model from a capitalist arrangement to a peasant arrangement. Historians aim to understand social change; economic historians specifically aim to understand how economies evolved by identifying causes and mechanisms of change. We need to know not only the details of how a proposed cause evolved and to trace its impact on the society but also to imagine cases in which the cause was not present. Unfortunately, history seldom provides exact evidence. Comparable situations, except that the imagined cause is absent, never occurred exactly as we would like. Consequently, we must use creative imagination disciplined by historical evidence and theories of social behaviour. The historian's imagination fruitfully draws on a wide range of sources. Much important history rests on contemporaries' perceptions or on insights from comparative analysis. In economic history, economist's theories provide important insights. Here, I want to discuss the use of formal

Book Reviews

Book Reviwed in this article:CHERN, W.S. CARTER, C.A. and SHEI, S‐Y. (eds.). Food Security in Asia: Economics and PoliciesMARTIN, J. (2000). The Development of Modern Agriculture: British Farming since 1931CRACKNELL, BASIL E. Evaluating Development Aid: Issues, Problems and SolutionsCLEVELAND, C.J. STERN, D.I. and COSTANZA, R. (eds.) (2001). The Economics of Nature and the Nature of Economics

British Agriculture: Texts for the Zoo-Archaeologist

This article provides a compendium of quotations from early British writers on agriculture which may be of interest to the zoo-archaeology of late Medieval and post-Medieval periods.