Flavian, originally from Kenya, stumbled into the world of farming serendipitously. Upon relocating to the UK at the age of 15 from his childhood in Kenya, he initially aimed to pursue a degree in veterinary medicine at university. However, falling short of the required grades, he decided to take a gap year to bolster his qualifications. During this time, he engaged in work experience within animal-related sectors to strengthen his vet school application. While on a week-long placement at a farm in Hampshire, Flavian received a job offer that led him leaving his part time job at local hospital to spend his entire gap year working there. This experience marked the initiation of his passion for farming. Fast forward a decade, and Flavian now serves as a tenant farmer on a diversified farm, tending to pigs, sheep, goats and occasionally delving into butchery and public speaking. He chronicles his journey on various social media platforms, emphasising the fulfilling opportunities available in British agriculture despite the prevailing challenges in the industry. Dom Wightman interviewed Flavian last week:
Hi Flavian, what size is your farm and what are you producing?
The farm is 61 acres. It’s a mixture of permanent pasture and ancient woodland. Apart from the pigs we run sheep, goats and a catering business on the farm.
Do you farm alone or do you have some help?
My father-in-law to be helps as does my partner. Occasionally, friends and followers off social media pop round and lend a hand too. There’s always something needed doing!
Farmers seem very disgruntled at the moment. What gripes if any do you have?
I believe that it’s better to be positive and realistic rather than to be negative, but when there are negatives, they should be called out. It’s raining far too much at the moment but what can we farmers do about that? Look, I am not able to supply to supermarkets as their price points are unrealistic for a small farm like ours and so that mess is one I tend to avoid. Farmers are being squeezed left, right, centre and not enough is being done to make the supply chain fair. But I keep going and I find markets, whether online, via the farm shop where I’m an apprentice butcher or using our catering business. We’ve just had a child so I’m pretty happy at the moment with life!
If you were UK Prime Minister how would you fix farming in the UK?
If I were Prime Minister I’d make it illegal to sell produce below the cost of production. I’d set a benchmark cost of production via an independent body, just like commodity prices are set in the market. I’d also fix food procurement, so that, for example, schools and the NHS sourced food locally from farmers. There’d be an immediate knock-on effect whereby people’s health would improve, farms would flourish, hospital food standards would increase and everyone would be happier. I am from the developing world and I see developing world standards in some aspects of the UK’s public sector. That should not be happening. I’d also sack most of the ministers and start again, making sure none of the new ones were self-serving (a tough ask).
In a video you posted recently you mentioned that farmers don’t need thanks or clapping. What do they need that they’re not getting?
Simple. They need to be paid fairly for what they are producing. When you go to the dentist you pay the bill. When you go to the mechanic you don’t quibble with the costs of parts. We all need food to exist so the fact that food production isn’t taken seriously just doesn’t make sense.
Do you feel that the media in the UK gives farmers a fair crack?
Some of the media is in search of audience so they home in on what’s controversial to establish click-bait. They should not tarnish our good work. Yes some aspects of farming need to improve but it’s definitely not all bad.
Does the BBC misrepresent farming or is it doing a good job?
Look, the BBC reporting can be a bit off – the recent methane story for example. They need to do more to educate the people about what farming is and does, which they’re doing with the Young Farmer Diaries on Countryfile, which I feature on. The problem with some of the media personalities is that they are self-centred and, like some social media personalities, their feet are no longer on the ground – it’s as if they breathe argon and have forgotten to breathe oxygen.
Some of the ‘climate emergency’ commentators out there – the Monbiots and Packhams for example – have said a lot of negative stuff about farmers. Do you feel that sustainability is within reach on your farm? Or is making money such a struggle that the environmental aspects of your work are an afterthought?
Those kind of commentators are so far away from the reality on the ground that I tend to ignore them as do most people in the farming arena. It is their job to be in the public eye. I’ve not met them in person and I refuse to be triggered by them. Their job to remain relevant is to say something hyperbolic every few days so they get in the newspapers and can sell their books and speaking events off the back of it. They are outliers and would ignore the good work that farmers are doing towards sustainability. On our farm, for example, we borrow machinery when we need it, there’s no soy in feed, the feed we buy is grown 3 miles from the farm, we root the land with the pigs rather than subsoiling it, we engage in coppicing and so on. The only annoying thing for me as a farmer is having to transport livestock to the abattoir when the nearest one (that delivers back to us) is at Chippenham. There’s too much red tape around abattoirs – I’d do the job here if I was allowed.
What’s your advice to the public? Keep buying from supermarkets that are squeezing what farmers get paid, or find alternatives like farmers’ markets to buy from?
I do not blame the public for going to supermarkets. The public should make their own decisions based on what cash they have got in their pockets. I do not blame the supermarkets either – they are getting away with squeezing farmers because those are the rules their competitive business is set up in. They play within those rules. That’s why I think it’s down to the government to put in place rules that ensure a fair supply chain.
Does left wing / right wing even matter when it comes to farming? There seems to be so much common ground between producers.
Undoubtedly there’s common ground between farmers. Left wing / right wing I had never heard of until I arrived in the UK. Back in Kenya politics is tribal and polarisation happens that way, which is sad. In many ways left wing / right wing is unimportant but in others it’s key to progress. I have friends across the political spectrum but none exhibit discriminatory tendencies. Our common ground includes no racism for example. I tend to get on with those who do not consider any people lesser others.
Finally, do you think more could be done for attracting the young into farming? More diversity? Solving farming’s problems as we’ve already discussed would help, securing farms’ futures but what more can be done to make farming younger? Right now, the average age of a farmer is 59.
A lot needs to be done. Diversity is important but what we need is for the older farmers’ knowledge to be disseminated and handed down to the younger farmers. It is all very well a younger farmer coming out of college and knowing how to operate a robotic tractor but what they have learnt in the textbooks will not always be relevant at the first farm they take on. I learnt when I played rugby that teamwork leads to a successful campaign and that’s missing out there. It would be great to see more apprenticeships and, as the average farmer age increases, younger farmers somehow scooping all the older farmers’ knowledge before, sadly, it vanishes.
Flavian, thanks so much for talking to Country Squire Magazine. Best of luck with your farm, your other endeavours and your burgeoning young family.
Thanks Dom. Much appreciated.