Carwyn Graves

And though this remains true for farmers and shepherds in areas like the Carneddau today, this need-to-know and name-your-environment according to its natural features and function within the rural economy held much more broadly across pre-industrial Wales.

So what is this Welsh cultural attitude and why does it matter so much in a book about the history of the landscape? In summary, it is the deeply held conviction that the land and its people are inextricably intertwined.

The re-establishment in public discourse of a Welsh food culture, with its long history, its ingredients and methods, provides the possibility of a rooted baseline for the future of food in this country; open to change, but aware of its provenance.

We have here the ambitious groundwork, global in scale, for exactly the case for a small farm future that Smaje set out to write.