In Your Field: Tom Clarke - 'Many a grand farmhouse has a dusty portrait of a peasant in the attic'

Across the East some farming families maintain the lifestyle of a generation ago with Range Rovers, skiing holidays and private schools. But increasingly, this is paid for by selling chunks of land, or from wealth generated off-farm or long ago. Many a grand farmhouse has a dusty portrait of a peasant in the attic.

But farming is a tradition too. Farmers are part of their communities and cultivate goodwill. Here we let the local museum have part of a field as carparking. Many farmers do more and don’t expect a penny.

So last week farmers were angered when Lord Somerleyton, with a 2,020-hectare (5,000-acre) estate, launched WildEast, a plan to rewild 250,000ha (617,000 acres), with the quip that as some homeowners give their gardens over to nature for free, farmers should feel shame for expecting a grant.

Farmers, he said, should reverse species loss without subsidies. The catch is, of course, that homeowners do not depend on their lawns to pay the bills. Neither, we suspect, does he.

No farmer I know feels empowered by Basic Payments. Basically, we are on benefits. But taking it away over seven years will cause pain. The great hope is new income streams from carbon/environmental markets on top of whatever public good payments are available in the Environmental Land Management scheme.

To give away your advantages and unique assets for free is bad business. To let others make you give it away is feudal.

In contrast, myself and 21 neighbours formed the Ely Nature-Friendly Farming Zone. We share knowledge and experience of farming to benefit both nature and our bank balances.

Sustainability is a buzzword, but it is a good one because giving things away for free is not sustainable. Working together on a worthy goal and an eye on the books is.