Will Barnard Moor Association Coordinator Expand Will has been closely involved with the grass-fed movement for more than five years and was an early director of the Pasture Fed Lovestock Association, overseeing development of their groundbreaking animal traceability software. To spread the word about the benefits of grass-fed foods he set up the company GrassRoots Food in association with Graham Harvey, and published the book The Carbon Fields. Having transitioned the family farm into a hub for a novel, collaborative land management system on a SSSI near the the mouth of the river Parrett, he is now working to facilitate others who are interested in the opportunities afforded by similar ideas, across the Somerset Levels and Moors within the Co-Adapt project.
Worm by Ted Hughes Expand Lowly, slowly, A pink, wet worm Sings in the rain: ‘O see me squirm ‘Along the path. I warp and wind. I’m searching hard. If I could find ‘My elbow, my hair, My hat, my shoe, I’d look as pretty As you, and you.’ from the collection ‘The Cat and the Cuckoo’
Worms by Ted Hughes Expand I hear for every acre there’s a ton of worms beneath. I hear that worm-meat’s better meat than fatted barley beef. We’re farming only half our farms, and that’s the new belief. I think I’m growing barley, bullocks, pigs and lambs galore. From six a.m. till nine at night I toil my body sore. But I’m only feeding the roots of the worms, it’s worms I’m working for. Below my clover meadows worms are bellowing in the dark. They’re bound for nobody’s oven, one or two might go to the lark. They gobble their way through the earth’s black pudding safe as they were in the ark. Worms riot and revel in their rude and naked hordes. And most of what I fatten, far, far more than my farm affords Falls into their idle mouths, and the whole lot live like lords. from the collection ‘What is the truth?’
Zara Blackmore Assistant Farm Environment Adviser Expand Zara joined FWAG in June 2022 after graduating from the Royal Agricultural University with a degree in Agriculture. She works mainly across Exmoor providing assistance to other advisers in the team, alongside supporting the Hills to Levels project in Somerset, and advising on the Countryside Stewardship Mid-Tier and the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme including completing applications. She has an agricultural background being born on a mixed farm in Wiltshire and now living on a beef and sheep farm on Exmoor, running her own flock of sheep which are shown throughout the summer.