I thought I was going to be a farmer, but practical experience put paid to that idea. Instead I became a writer, focusing my attention on travel, conservation and how people can make a living from the land. The result is over a dozen books and scores of feature articles for the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph, the New Scientist and many other publications.
“I’d rather read Hegel and Shakespeare than worry about saving foxhunting.” We paused, knives and forks suspended above the hors d’oeuvres – pig’s head terrine for the omnivores, green salad for the vegetarians – to gaze down the table at the philosopher Roger Scruton. “But if hunting is banned,” he sighed, “then Shakespeare will be […]
Two-thirds of the population in Africa are employed in agriculture, with the vast majority being smallholder farmers. Agriculture could provide one of the best pathways out of poverty, but many farmers lack the knowledge and means to improve their farming practices. However, digital technologies are beginning to change this.
“Charlie Pye-Smith’s Land of Plenty… captures the spirit of the English countryside. This is no sentimental journey, but a real reflection of rural life by a formidably well-informed commentator, yet it’s the easiest of reads, with memorable characters, surprising statistics and incisive reflections. Even those of us steeped in agriculture will find new insights […]
In 2016, the Netherlands-based Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) invited me to visit the Caribbean to explore how the region was tackling two distinct – but unrelated – crises. On one hand, the failure of governments and the private sector to invest more heavily in the agri-food sector had meant that the region’s food […]
Towards the end of last year, the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) invited me to attend a forum in Apia, Samoa, which focused on ways to link the food sector to local markets, with the aim of enhancing economic growth and improving food and nutritional security in the Pacific. The forum was […]