Jeremy Clarkson shares further worries as the TV star said 200 acres at his Diddly Squat farm were left unplanted.
He said wheat or barley on that land would have guaranteed a loss. Clarkson used his own farm to make a wider point about British agriculture.
He also said making money from growing food has become “impossible” for farmers.
Jeremy Clarkson has further concerns about Diddly Squat farm
Clarkson wrote in his latest column for The Sun: “Action is needed now because farmers have reached the point where it is quite simply impossible to make money from growing food.
“This year, I have 200 acres on my farm where we grew nothing at all. We knew that if we planted it with wheat or barley, we would definitely make a loss.”
That blunt admission points to Diddly Squat Farm in Oxfordshire, which fans know from Clarkson’s Farm on Prime Video.
Kaleb Cooper is a farming contractor from the Chipping Norton area who became widely known through Prime Video series Clarkson’s Farm.
- He works at Diddly Squat Farm alongside Jeremy Clarkson.
- He is known on screen for practical farming knowledge and a blunt, dry sense of humour.
- His role on the programme includes advising on day-to-day farm work and helping manage seasonal jobs.
- His on-screen exchanges with Clarkson became a recurring part of the series.
The series has followed bad weather, red tape and the daily grind of running the land. Clarkson now says those pressures have tightened further.
He also warned that next year could bring more pain. He predicted that “things will be even worse” because of a Net Zero carbon tax on fertiliser, citing a report by the Express.
Clarkson made those remarks during a wider political discussion and weighed the idea of Andy Burnham replacing Keir Starmer in Number 10.
He said he did not have “much hope” about that prospect.
‘I could sell the whole farm to a Chinese company’
Clarkson did more than describe the problem; he also laid out what he sees as the bleak choices facing landowners.
He suggested farmers may end up leasing land to a huge global agri-company. That company could grow plants to power anaerobic digesters.
Then he turned sharply sarcastic. Clarkson said farmers could instead put up solar farms or even a data centre.
He added: “Or sell the whole farm to a Chinese company who’d build a multistorey high-intensity piggery on it.”
- Unpredictable weather has repeatedly affected planting, yields and harvest timing.
- Input costs such as seed, fuel, machinery and fertiliser have been shown as major pressures.
- Planning and regulatory issues have formed a recurring part of the programme’s storylines.
- The series has regularly focused on how narrow margins can make arable farming difficult to sustain.
- Diversification, including retail and other farm income streams, has been presented as part of the business model.
Clarkson argued that huge change can happen faster than people expect. He said people in 1926 would never have believed factories could disappear by 2026.