Going with the grain: how restoring biodiversity led one farmer back to heritage wheat

Henry Astor looked back to his grandfather’s time for the inspiration to find older varieties that could help nature on his Cotswold farm It is the earliest harvest Henry Astor can remember. But walking through the scorched wheatfields of his Cotswolds farm, signs of life are everywhere – swarms of insects, kaleidoscopic wildflower meadows, bushy hedgerows several metres wide. A yellowhammer perches on a nearby tree. There are 18 other red-listed birds on the farm, says Astor, who this year r...

By Tomé Morrissy-Swan