This time last year I was given a one year suspended sentence.
Today it is officially over.
I thought I would feel nothing but relief. Instead, every time I go back over this story my emotions shift.
To mark the end of the sentence I have done something I have been putting off for a long time. I have filmed it. This is my first proper attempt at video, the first step in telling my story on YouTube and on social platforms beyond Substack.
It is rough. You will hear the nerves in my voice and see them in my face. I am still scared of the repercussions of speaking out publicly about what happened when we tried to save our farm from our local planning authority. But staying silent for fear of upsetting the system did not protect us the first time round. I do not think it will protect anyone else either.
If you prefer to read, this video is based on a piece I published on Substack a year ago, The Final Stand - Part 1. It tells the story of how we ended up homeless with a baby and a farm we were fighting to keep. The injunction. The caravan. The High Court. The suspended sentence that has been hanging over us for the past twelve months. It is also, sadly, just one example of the pressure small scale farmers are under across the UK.
Filming it brought all of that back. The hotel rooms and spare rooms. The touring caravan in winter with a toddler and a newborn. The way the council and neighbours built a case out of car movements and boiler timers. The feeling of standing in court knowing the outcome would decide not just our future, but whether we could keep farming at all.
But it also reminded me why I started Me, My Pigs and I in the first place. I want people who care about food and farming to see what happens when ordinary families collide with a system that seems designed for big developers and industrial agriculture, not small farms and local food.
If you watch the video, thank you for giving it your time and patience. It is not polished as it was poorly rehearsed. But I hope it is the first of many.
If you are reading this on Substack and want to support more work like this, you can subscribe for free to get new posts and videos as I publish them. If you are able to, there is also a paid option which directly funds this kind of independent farming and food journalism. At the moment I am offering 20% off paid subscriptions, as a thank you for backing this work while we rebuild our lives after the legal battle.
If you have found me through YouTube, you can find the full written version of this story, along with my ongoing writing on food security and farming.
Hitting subscribe on YouTube and sharing the video with someone who cares about where their food comes from makes a real difference.
Wherever you are watching or reading, I would love to know what this brings up for you, especially if you are a farmer or work in the food system.
I do read what you write.
H x
