About

The Past Harvests project intends to provide an analysis and sustainability appraisal of land use systems at different historical reference periods, providing insights into changes over time from 1250 -1850.

It aims to inform discussion and decision-making on sustainable farming, including current farming practices and challenges, farming opportunities, nutrient optimisation, agroforestry, business diversification, and farmer collaboration models.

The project runs from Sept 2025 to Sept 2028 and will:

• Assess and create a methodology that can be used to understand the optimal environments and forces through history that shape sustainable farming and land use systems. This will follow the Global Farm Metric sustainability assessment tool.
• With partners, explore the wider infrastructure needs and support the farming sector in implementing the research findings.

The project has strong links with industry. It is funded by UK Research Innovation, Arts and Humanities Council (UKRI; £1.4 million between 2025-2028)

The appraisal methodology is shaped by the inclusion of all three sustainability dimensions/pillars, being environmental, economic and social. All three elements need to generate positive value for a sustainable system to exist and have therefore been included in the appraisal.

Background

This project is an interdisciplinary study involving historians, economists, engineers, and biodiversity experts at the University. The project came about after a recognition of a link between these experts with a common interest in land use systems.

Five historical estates have been engaged, each with comprehensive historical archives, professional archivists available to assist the project and a track record of progressive land management policies.

The meaning and pathways to achieve sustainable land use are highly contested. This project will study past farming systems using social, environmental and economic indicators in the search for previous sustainability paradigms. By analysing these historical cases, the research aims to support informed and constructive discussions about how to achieve sustainable land use in the future.

The reference periods being looked at:

Reference period 1: 1250-1450

Reference period 2:1450-1650

Reference period 3: 1650-1750

Reference period 4: 1750-1850

Aims and Objectives

The project aims to help inform current practices and answer current challenges in farming. This will be achieved by following the Work Packages as follows:

WP1: Collate historical data at each reference period to create the indicator measurements, using the Global Farming Metric Sustainability appraisal methodology, which includes the 3 pillars of sustainability being environmental, economic, and social.

WP2: This will involve a review of the literature on farm system drivers. Take the emerging framework of drivers and indicators and apply it to our historical reference periods. Populate the framework with historical data for the four reference periods to look at the wider orbit of influence within which the land holdings were situated.

WP3: Creating outcomes and impacts: A dedicated work package will focus on the implementation of findings. Working directly with the project partners to maximise system dynamics learning from the project at a policy level. We will facilitate workshops to help embed project findings within the policy community and farming sector, the aim being to generate a land use green paper featuring project findings. A film will be created intended for a practitioner audience, along with the convening of a series of seminars within the UK Farmer Group Discussion Network to enable dialogue on themes and ideas generated from the research.