I never thought I’d say this, but it looks like the government have got this right, and, since brexit, are enabling farmers to undertake activities which are actually benefitting England’s wild flowers, insects, animals and birds. Anything left over in the pot will be fed into distribution and impact. Which helps pay for technical screening costs in front of live audiences and develops materials for impact and education. The author has interesting things to say on gamebird shooting, particularly that relying on large releases of non-native gamebirds and seems quite convinced by the much-denied link between gamebird releases and the high densities of carrion eaters and predators in that same countryside.

Fiennes sets out to turn his North Norfolk farm into a case study of best practice, demonstrating that, with longer cycles of crop rotation, appropriate and more diverse planting in the off season, a sympathetic and intelligent approach to drainage management and hedge husbandry, significant increases (sometimes more than doubling) in wildlife diversity can be recorded in as little as one year.

Retailers:

Rooted offers us an honest look at the farming life today. It is not an easy way to make a living, but through Langford's personal story - and those of who she meets - we appreciate how it offers a connection with the land, and a firmer sense of our place in the world. Raw, earthy and inspiring.'- Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment

But there is a quiet revolution taking place, and it is coming up through the soil. Pioneered by a small but rapidly growing regenerative food and farming movement in the UK and globally, which seeks to overturn how we have farmed and eaten over the last 70 years. Our film, Six Inches of Soil, tells the story of extraordinary farmers, communities and small businesses, who are leading the way in transforming how our food is produced and our land cared for. But wild game shooting is a different matter, and he loved it at Raveningham. ‘Everything made sense. Agri-environment had just started; I was looking to improve conditions for ground-nesting birds – overflowing hedges and grassy banks. I would spend hours walking and observing – I used to just go into the woods and sit and listen. The woods tell you what’s going on.’ He really does know his wildlife, particularly, it seemed to me, birds and plants. I smiled a bit though when he described the great eye of gamekeepers when they can identify a bird in silhouette not by its colour but by its stance and its movement – by what birders would call its jizz – a commonplace skill to so many.

The Impetus for Land Healing Practices as Spiritual Practice

Holkham employs two full-time nature wardens. There’s Paul, and there’s also Andy, who is self-taught ‘and has an unhealthy relationship with spoonbills and herons – he’s out there seven days a week just looking at them, and he only recognises spiders by their Latin names.’ Over the last two and half years we've done extensive research and networking - broadening our knowledge of food, farming, health, policy, agroecology and its relationship to climate change. This pre-production phase was unfunded and done in our spare time. We’ve taken the time to build trust with the UK farming community, listening to what farmers have to say and respecting differences of opinion on how best to move forward in the face of the biodiversity and climate emergency. We’ve been featured in the national press, on radio, on podcasts, met The Princess Royal, been nominated for awards, and perhaps most importantly to those who gave to our first Crowdfunder, we have finished all our filming.

The book feels rushed; Holkham about which the majority of the book is written is the Estate Fiennes has been managing for just 3 years. Therefore although the numbers look encouraging I feel it is impossible to put down any increase in bird and wildlife numbers down solely to his ‘Land Healing’ over this time as on any given year numbers will fluctuate wildly depending on weather, predator/prey cycles and other changes in land use both locally and anywhere along migratory routes. It also sounds as if the Estate was already improving before his arrival on the scene. Spoonbills on a nest!” Fiennes sighs with contentment. Then he points to their young, who have dainty pinkish bills: “And two teaspoons there.” We have formed strong partnerships with the major not-for-profits organisations working on soil health and agroecology, alongside select corporate brands who share our values. They will also use our film as a campaigning tool, with screenings up and down the country with accompanying campaigning materials. Our NGO Partners include: The Soil Association, Farm-Ed, Sustain, Groundswell, Sustainable Soils Alliance, Nature Friendly Farming Network, Organic Farmers and Growers Association, BASE, the Pasture for Life Association and the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission. Land Healer'. What a fabulous title for a book! By having a foot in several camps, it may be that Fiennes can be a healer in more ways than one. Already, as described here, he is making changes that are restoring nature and biodiversity in North Norfolk. But also, by being able to inhabit both sides of a deepening divide, he may also help to heal the conversation.

We interviewed over twenty farmers and other experts, attended farming conferences, protests, filmed with sheep, pigs, cows as well as with our unsung heroes - the microbes, fungi, dung beetles, earthworms and other critters of the soil community.