Rooted by Sarah Langford

Rooted
By Sarah Langford

This book is my choice for September. Sarah argues the case for finding a sustainable future for our food and ourselves

This book is all about farming and its future. Sarah, a barrister and author, left her city life and found herself back in the world of farming.  Today’s farming life is very different from the one she remembered, that of her grandfather. He was considered a hero for feeding the nation after the Second World War. Now many farmers face bad press, accused of ecological mismanagement alongside fighting extreme climatic and political changes. As Sarah went back to the land and learned to farm, she discovered a new generation of farmers committed to finding a new way, a path of regeneration and change

This book offers us an insight into the human side of modern farming. How the land connects us all, not only in terms of global sustainability but also in our relationships with physical and mental health, with our rural and urban communities and ultimately our planet

This is an important book, up there with James Rebanks’, English Pastoral, Sarah writes beautifully and exemplifies in her stories of farming, where we have gone wrong, quite what is at stake and offers us hope for the future

Candida Hopkinson