On planning a forest: theoretical issues and practical problems

Injecting social psychology theory into conceptualisations of agricultural agency: Towards a post-productivist farmer self-identity?

“…Community Forests represent one of the first concerted attempts by the UK Government to encourage farmers away from dependency on productivist roles towards becoming independent leisure providers, conservation managers and diversified businesspersons (Countryside Commission, 1990;Bishop, 1992). Researchers have repeatedly observed that farmers have a strong cultural resistance to applying non-agricultural uses to existing agricultural land (McEachern, 1992;Allison, 1996) and, in particular, its use for timber production. As Williams et al (1994, p. 27, emphasis added) observe in their study into Community Forests, 'the idea that 'farmers were not foresters', was prevalent beneath the surface of many negative answers, and that it would be 'wrong' to allow productive, hard won arable land to revert back to woodland'.…”

The ‘Good Farmer’: Farmer Identities and the Control of Exotic Livestock Disease in England

“…For example, Burton () suggests that farmers may be reluctant to take up particular schemes (e.g., the Community Forest scheme) or change their practices in any way that may undermine their primary identity as producers of the nation's food. In short, studies around farmer identities often conclude that farmers want to farm , potentially limiting efforts to influence uptake of particular behaviours which may be considered to be at the side‐lines of productive farming (Allison ; Burgess et al . ).…”

Is forestry really more profitable than upland farming? A historic and present day farm level economic comparison of upland sheep farming and forestry in the UK

“…A study in Scotland identified that only 18% of farmers surveyed in the Grampian Region had any interest in establishing new woodland (Stubbs et al, 2010). There is a body of evidence regarding the attitudes of UK farming culture, notably the widely held opinion that agricultural land is for livestock and crop production and too good for planting trees, and the majority of farmers want to farm, not grow trees (Allison, 1996;Watkins, 1996;Burton, 2004). In addition, UK legislation imposes replanting conditions on the felling of forests, so the decisions to afforest agricultural land is an irreversible decision, and not one often taken lightly (Lawrence and Dandy, 2014).…”