Taking Stock of Complexity

What this book so beautifully illustrates is the complexity of managing the land for the benefit of everyone and everything. Current events have high-lighted the need for a much greater strategic awareness of our need to be sustainable in producing food for the nation while ensuring that we continue to monitor and control our environmental standards for the benefit of the planet.

But perhaps above all the book highlights the author’s ever-growing respect for cattle and for the individual animals that go into our diet. This is as a result of having taken on a part-time role as a stockman on his friend’s farm in Sussex and his subsequent travels around the country talking to many of the leading breeders of cattle and other stock. It is beautifully written with some very evocative descriptions of the natural world and the ever changing seasons.