How do we balance the need to feed our nation with the needs of our farmers and farming communities?

It’s a question at the heart of a debate that is raging as fiercely as ever. Minette Batters, farmer, campaigner and the first female president of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), is as well-placed as anyone to offer some answers.   

She joins us to talk about her new book, Harvest, a memoir and manifesto, her personal insight into the real lives of farmers at a time when Brexit, Covid and international conflict have threatened to push our farms, and our food production, into a state of crisis. Above all, the book is a love letter to rural life, and a rallying cry to save it – and how.

Minette Batters is an award-winning British farmer who was the president of the National Farmers’ Union of England and Wales from 2018 to 2024. She has been a member of the House of Lords since 2024, and has run Barford Park Farm for decades. She is one of the most respected voices in British agriculture, advising both farmers and government, and is a columnist for Country Life.

Adam Bedford has studied and worked in and around agriculture for the past 20 years. In his day job he develops projects in the gap between farmers and scientists to boost sustainable agriculture. He is the Founder of the Fieldwork Book Club, an online book club for books on food, farming and the natural world. Adam lives rurally near York with his wife and three sons.