Harvest in Wiltshire, South West England (N51º 25’ 38 W1º 51’ 16) Card 150x150mm with recycled envelope and biodegradable cello. Detailed caption on the reverse of the card. Card is blank for your own message.
Harvest in Wiltshire, South West England (N51º 25’ 38 W1º 51’ 16)
It is harvest time on the rolling chalk lands of Marlborough Downs, close to the World Heritage Site of Avebury, one of the most complete prehistoric complexes in Europe. The English rural landscape, with its patchwork of fields and hedgerows has slowly evolved, through centuries of cutting and ploughing, from a landscape that was once densely forested. Crops grown today in the UK include wheat, barley, oats, oil seed rape, potatoes and sugar beet. Increasingly, integrated farming and organic farming has been adopted by farmers to satisfy demand but agriculture has continued to decline as more land is being adopted for leisure or urban development. However, 70% of the land in the UK is still used for agriculture supplying 65% of food products to the population. Ownership and management is changing too with a small number of highly mechanised contract farmers beginning to dominate production, though farming practises are being encouraged to support the long term survival of viable rural communities and environmentally friendly management to protect biodiversity.
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