Journalist and part-time shepard Tim Metcalfe on an attack on farming

George Monbiot, environmentalist and fellow of Green College, Oxford, has created quite a stir with his claims that sheep farming in the fells of Cumbria is “a slow-burning ecological disaster”.

He also claims that sheep farming has “has done more damage to the living systems of this country than either climate change or industrial pollution” and describes the fells as “sheep-wrecked”. He is also calling for changes in the EU’s farming subsidy regime which, he claims, supports the way of life he is attacking.

Monbiot, who studied zoology at Oxford’s Brasenose College and went on to work for the BBC’s Natural History Unit and the World Service, makes the claim in a new book entitled Feral, which promotes the “re-wilding” of the countryside. He also suggests changes to the EU’s agricultural subsidy system which currently supports hill farmers.

In his “Manifesto for Re-wilding” Monbiot writes: “Re-wilding, in my view, should involve reintroducing missing animals and plants, taking down the fences, blocking the drainage ditches, culling a few particularly invasive exotic species but otherwise standing back. It is about abandoning the biblical doctrine of dominion which has governed our relationship with the natural world.”

So what will farmers do to make a living as their land is returned to the wild? Speaking on BBC’s Countryfile programme he offered some very vague ideas. He told presenter Tom Heap: “I think when people see what some of the benefits are, particularly the economic benefits, the possibilities from wildlife tourism, the money that can be made through carbon storage and flood management, that actually people could be doing an awful lot better by re-wilding the land than by keeping sheep there.”

Farmer Carl Walters, from near Penrith in the Lake District, commenting on Monbiot’s ideas, said: “If the hills had no sheep or cattle then the communities would no longer exist, a lot of people (besides the farmers) would lose their employment and the tourist industry would collapse. The fells would become overgrown to the point where they would be inaccessible. “Environmentalists and farmers alike recognise the role of livestock farming in the uplands and appreciate that this managed landscape needs the animals and the farmers.”

Monbiot, who lives in Machynlleth, Wales, after leaving Oxford in 2007, has agreed to meet hill farmers to discuss his views at the Federation of Cumbria Commoners’ (FCC) annual general meeting next month. He will address the FCC meeting at Newton Rigg College, Penrith, on March 7.

The Countryfile feature has sparked much debate on Twitter, with farmers using the site to vent their anger. Monbiot was unmoved by his critics. “Farmers’ fury about critical voices on Countryfile last night highlights fact that democracy and pluralism are weakest in the countryside,” he tweeted.

But the environmentalist probably won’t be quaking in his boots thinking about the confrontation. Working as an investigative journalist, Monbiot’s activities led to his being made persona non grata in seven countries. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in Indonesia, shot at in the Amazon, beaten up by police, shipwrecked and stung into a poisoned coma by hornets.