The Past Harvests Project

Informing contemporary UK land use policy through a sustainability assessment of farming systems in the medieval and early modern period

The Past Harvests Project is a research project combining history, business analysis and environmental science to provide historical insight on contemporary farming challenges.

A better understanding of historic farming practice and food production in our landscape can provide a guide for UK agriculture now and in the future.

Researchers at the University of Exeter will examine archival records over a 600-year period – from the Middle Ages to the Victorian era – and assign a sustainability rating to each historical era.

“This is an independent look at how our ancestors managed the land for food, for environment and biodiversity, and cultural benefits,” says Professor Alex Inman, project lead in Exeter’s Business School and a specialist in natural resource management. “And from that, we will ask the question of whether there is anything we can learn that applies to the current debate around land management. Are there examples where farming systems were sustainable across more than one dimension? Or has such a state never existed in any capacity?”

Past Harvests: Informing contemporary UK land use policy through a sustainability assessment of farming systems in the medieval and early modern period will run from 2025 to 2028.