michael winter, rural politics: policies for agriculture, forestry and the environment

Agriculture and Human Values16: 93–94, 1999.

Book review

Rural Politics: Policies for Agriculture, Forestry andthe Environmentby Michael WinterRoutledge, London and New York, 1996 ISBN: 0-415-08176-9

MICHAEL WOODSInstitute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Univer-sity of Wales, Aberystwyth, Aberystwyth, UK (E-mail:zzp@aber.ac.uk)

Michael Woodsis a Lecturer in Human Geography inthe Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Univer-sity of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK. His major researchinterests concern the changing politics and gover-nance of rural areas in Britain and Europe.

The publication of Michael Winter’s book,Rural Poli-tics, in 1996 was a timely occurrence. In that yearthe British government officially acknowledged thata link existed between the BSE disease in cattle anda new strain of Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease in humans.In response, the European Union imposed a ban onthe export of bovine products from Britain, which,coupled with a collapse of public confidence in beef,caused a severe financial crisis in farming. Since1996, the crisis has been compounded by the strengthof the British pound on currency exchange markets,and between 1996 and 1997 average farm incomesin Britain fell by 46%. In December, 1997, frus-trated farmers blockaded ports and attacked vehiclescarrying imported food-stuffs. Also in 1997, the elec-tion of a Labour government foreshadowed changesto other areas of rural policy, including hunting andpublic access to open moorland. Concern among somesectors of the rural population over these changes wasexpressed in two large scale demonstrations in centralLondon, the Countryside Rally of July 1997 and theCountryside March of 1998. After years as a relativelypeaceful and neglected backwater, rural politics hassuddenly seized the agenda in Britain.

Michael Winter’s book is an invaluable source foranyone wishing to understand the background to thispolitical awakening. In his introduction, Winter statesthat he is writing for two audiences, “those involved

in the world of policy and politics who might wish toknow more about the specific aspects of rural policyand institutions,” and “students concerned with ruralissues who need to know more about the policieswhich affect, and have affected, rural land use andlife in the countryside generally.” This is an ambitiouschallenge, but one that Winter succeeds in meeting,in a text which is clear and accessible, yet extremelythorough and theoretically-grounded.

The book is divided into three parts, which collec-tively constitute a comprehensive overview of ruralpolicy and detailed studies of two of its major concerns– agriculture and the environment. The first sectionoutlines approaches to rural policy, introducing thereader to the intricacies of the policy process indetailed yet readable prose, assisted by numerousinformative diagrams. The second section concen-trates on agricultural policy, working through animpressive historical account of agricultural policy inBritain from the late nineteenth century campaign fortariff reform to the European Union, before address-ing current issues associated with the crisis of theEU’s Common Agricultural Policy. A counterpointis then provided by the third section, which exam-ines environmental policy – an arena that has oftenbeen regarded as conflicting with agricultural interests.Winter dismantles this dichotomy, skilfully discussingthe ideological and cultural origins of environmen-talism before exploring four areas where environmen-talism has been incorporated into rural policy – inprotected landscapes, agri-environmental initiatives,agricultural pollution, and forestry. Finally, Winterconcludes by identifying some of the key emergingthemes in rural policy, including the restructuringand redefinition of the British countryside, the poli-tics of sustainability, the reform of the CAP, and thefuture politics of agriculture in Britain. This discussionallows the reader to continue where Winter leaves off,exploring the future issues that follow logically fromthe account of rural policy he has presented.

Apart from its thoroughness and clarity, the book’sgreat strength is in its sure-footed conceptual basis.Conventionally rural studies in Britain have beenoverly empirical with too little engagement with widerpolitical and social theory. Winter has been a key

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figure in challenging this orthodoxy and his expertiseis evident in this book. The first chapter provides aconcise discussion of the major conceptual approachesto policy analysis before adopting the theories ofpolicy communities and issue networks as the frame-work for his study of agricultural and environmentalpolicy. Although it has been critiqued in other sub-disciplines, such as urban politics, the policy commu-nity approach has proved to be particularly informativein examining agricultural policy and Winter’s workbenefits greatly from its application.

The book’s one significant limitation is that itsscope does not quite live up to the promise of its maintitle. It is essentially a study of agricultural politics,and the impact upon that policy arena of environmen-talist ideas. Yet as recent political events in Britainhave proved, “rural politics” is about much more than

agriculture. Winter, however, says nothing in this textabout issues such as hunting, public access, the provi-sion of rural services, the non-agricultural economy, orland development, nor about the fundamental changesin the electoral politics and underlying power struc-tures of rural areas provoked by social and economicrestructuring – all of which have claim to be embracedbeneath the title of “rural politics.” In drawing theline where he does, Winter is simply reproducing adominant discourse in British policy-making that hasconventionally conflated “rural” with “agricultural”to the detriment of the wider countryside. It would,however, be churlish to chide Winter for not address-ing such issues in an already substantial and detailedvolume. For students and policy-makers interestedin the complexities of agricultural and environmentalpolicy in Britain, Winter (1996) is a landmark text.