Farm Diary by Gwyn Jones
Agriculture has survived very well during this time, being the hero of the fifties and early sixties, but a villain of the eighties and nineties, as a well-fed population changed its values, and as government frustratingly found itself bound by the Common Agricultural Policy.
Left to its own devices it would have seen agriculture go the way of coal and steel. Farmers were never the heroes any more than they were villains. It is absurd to pretend otherwise. Farmers have simply responded to signals from government, and embraced technology in their quest for profit. Not that farmers have ever collectively been cutting-edge business orientated. No, the quest for profit usually means money to live on, and money to invest in the farm.