The Carbon Farmer

Transcript

There was a time when the world seemed so close to falling apart. They say it very nearly did. But they changed. Just in time. That’s when my grandfather became one of the first carbon farmers …
Grandad: It’s all about climate change really. At least it always was for my grandparents. I mean they remembered when things were really bleak, you know, before the changes happened.
My grandfather, and his grandfather, and way back for generations, we worked this moor. But there came a point where it just wasn’t doing us good any more.
Here they are … the first ones to call themselves carbon farmers, ’cos that’s where their priorities went. They themselves never changed. I can’t believe just how hard they worked.
Now look, this is my moor. These are my helpers, working away. I like to get out there and do it myself though, if I can. It’s my job after all.
So, this ... is the infamous sphagnum moss. Hard to believe that in my grandfather’s time so much of this was completely lost, for various reasons. The actual moor was contributing to climate change. But now, it’s a carbon sink again. So, instead of being up there, it’s trapped in there, and that’s where it will stay – if it’s up to me. People are happy for their taxes to go towards this, like any other public service. Cos that’s what it is. And sometimes the private sector gets involved, and they can make really big changes. And that’s important. It’s important that we’re all part of this. This moor, this living, breathing moor, it’s part of who we are I suppose. And as for me, well, I just think I’ve got the best job in the world, haven’t I?
My granddaughter, Sophie, she’s working down at the Fens. Still working peat. I keep telling her though, she’s got to remember she’s still a carbon farmer at heart.
Sophie: Hello Grandad, how are you?
Grandad: Hiya Sophie, I’m having a great day thanks. Would you mind just telling these fellas what you’re doing now?
Sophie: Oh yeah, of course. Well it’s really what Jamie’s family have been doing for generations. And, like, what our lot were doing up on the moor. People at the time chose to rewrite the Fens on their own terms, before they lost the peat entirely. Um, and they tried many different things before they settled on glyceria. Or as we know it, British rice. Hang on, I can actually show you what we’re doing here today. So, this is the nursery plot, and we have a couple of hundred hectares that we’re managing of food-producing, carbon-storing healthy wetland between here and the coast.
Grandad: Have you got that video of the flyover that you showed me the other day?
Sophie: Oh yeah, hang on. So this is a clip from one of our monitors, and as you can see, everything looks pretty good.
Grandad: Aah, brilliant. Could you send them, pet?
Sophie: Yeah, yeah, of course.
Grandad: Oh, you’re a star. Soph … why d’you think it’s important that we do what we do?
Sophie: Well, people need to eat and we need to make a living. But we need a healthy world to work, eat and live in. And that’s what we’re a part of really.
Grandad: See all this, this is mine. But it’s also theirs. It’s my children’s, and it’s their children’s, and their children’s children’s. I’m just doing my bit. To me, that makes sense.