George Browne: Clarkson Was Right - We Should Put Teenagers to Work on Farms

Voices of the Countryside

Working summer jobs on farms did me a world of good. Could a programme to put 18 year olds to work on farms make the country a better place and help to fix our food systems?

I’m sorry to bring up the election again - it has been a fortnight so I’m sure you’ve been happily getting on with your life not thinking about politics, but something that was in the headlines in the early stages of the campaign has been gnawing away at me over the last few weeks.

You may recall that one of Rishi’s flagship proposals was to reintroduce national service for teenagers. It was widely panned as a somewhat desperate idea, and prompted a well-publicised tweet from the de facto spokesman for the Countryside, Jeremy Clarkson, suggesting that it would be a better option to get kids out working on farms.

As is often the case with Jezza’s outpourings, the response was somewhat mixed, with some ridiculing the idea, and others highlighting the difficulty in finding agricultural workers in a post-Brexit landscape. While Rishi’s plan will now never come to fruition, I think Clarkson might be onto something.