First the excellent book – written by Isabella Tree – which I read almost as soon as it was published; then an illustrated edition, more of a coffee table version; and now Wilding the film. The pond at the top, as they say in true crime fiction, was posed by models; in this case the lovely Priddy Pool on the Mendip Hills which is on one of our favourite walks. I loved the book and we loved the film too when we saw it in the Bath Picturehouse yesterday along with a half empty theatre and a mostly elderly audience which was completely in agreement with the thrust of the film – if the subdued nods and grunts of agreement were anything to go by. Why it’s become a thing to suggest that older people are mostly reactionary and conservative is a mystery to me; just another way the media frame the arguments by associating them with a bunch of cliches – tall tales without any real evidence.
So we loved the film in spite of the occasionally romanticised view of nature – the Attenborough effect – with some occasionally ravishing filming of misty waters at dawn. I very much hope that I’m right in thinking that the film-makers had one eye on a later television showing. It’s just about short enough to fill a single slot and it presents the arguments in favour of rewilding along with some compelling evidence.
There is, however, quite a herd of elephants skulking in the woods, and these are mostly about funding. How do we take a brilliant idea for improving a few thousand acres of depleted farmland and extend it across the whole country without the benefit of all that bankable collateral, inherent in owning an inherited estate. With next to no income the Knepp estate must have sunk eye watering sums of money into legal fees, infrastructure and last, but by no means least, fencing. With a moribund subsidy system in place; strong opposition from many local farmers and stolid lack of imagination from the government it must have been a terrifying journey at times and we have to applaud their tenacity.
But at times you had to wonder whether the financial pressures have led to a kind of theme park temptation. Safari rides, miraculous appearances of storks, Monarch butterflies and beavers ; the Painted Lady butterflies flying over the horizon right on cue like the visionary apparition of a saint and vanquishing the plague of Creeping Thistle in one season; glamping sites and so forth are more suggestive of Woburn than wilderness. The references to the Oostvaardersplassen rewilding scheme in Holland didn’t quite spell out the public opposition that forced a change of direction on account of the perceived suffering of sick and dying animals. The direct to camera segment about the so-called wood wide web, linking trees together in a sympathetic collegiate structure through mycelial links is by no means a done deal in scientific circles; the absence of any boring detail on the funding and income streams which any farmer considering this idea would need to know. I’m trying to be a critical friend here but such a wholesale upscaling from one estate to the whole country would need huge amounts of subsidy, review, research and feedback. The question asked by one farmer – “how are we going to feed the country?” demands a convincing answer which I don’t think DEFRA has really grasped; and with the average age of a British farmer nudging 70, many working almost single handed, how on earth are they going to cope without at least some telehandling and labour saving machinery?
I’d love to let more young people see the film if only to help them grasp the mess we’re in more completely. Knepp may only be a few thousand acres but it’s a few thousand recovering acres which are already attracting attention from a generally conservative constituency on farms all over the country, struggling to make a living.
What I’d really like to see is the development of many more farms, each exploring progressive, locally inflected ideas and reducing harmful practices including chemical use; soil compacting heavy equipment and enormous fuel costs. The agrochemical industry will howl and lobby furiously but – going forward (how I hate that phrase!) there’s no alternative. Knepp will be part of the answer and that’s a lot better than being part of the problem.
