OXFORDSHIRE FARMING STUDY REVEALS THE HUMAN FACE OF THE FARMING CRISIS

A newly published analysis of Oxfordshire farming shows the structural changes in the food and agricultural sector over the last forty years. The analysis draws on interviews with Oxfordshire farmers and the personal consequences for them of the current farming crisis. The analysis is published with an audio presentation from five of the ten farmers interviewed to form workshop materials. The materials are available from the project website at www.agricultured.org or the Centre for Oxfordshire Studies. The Corporate Watch briefing, commissioned by the AgriCultured Project, shows: a declining farm workforce and the loss of small and family farmers, reduced farming incomes, greater globalisation of agriculture, increasing corporate influence, supermarket exploitation of farmers and ? surprise - a concentration of corporate power. While the personal experience of farmers is retold in the farmers interviews, the research puts that into a broader regional and national context.