Richard Young, who has died of heart disease aged 73, was a champion of animal welfare and an advocate of the importance of livestock in sustainable food systems. He was one of the early adopters of organic farming in the 1970s, and his deep understanding of sustainable farming principles was derived from direct experience.
Young’s rise to prominence within the organic movement owed much to his dedicated engagement with two pioneer organisations that were later absorbed into the Soil Association: British Organic Farmers and the Organic Growers’ Association, whose journal, New Farmer and Grower, he edited for several years. He played a pivotal role in the development of the Soil Association’s organic livestock standards in the late 1980s, making sure that the rules expressly prohibited feed containing animal waste.
In 1989, his family’s farm, Kite’s Nest, near Broadway in the Cotswolds, was one of the first to be visited by the then Prince of Wales, who subsequently sought Young’s advice on organic agriculture, particularly on ways to reduce dependence on antibiotics in livestock farming.
Visitors to Kite’s Nest often got the impression that they were stepping back into another century, or indeed forward to a future where animals, plants, soils and humans are respected as equals. For the Youngs, grazing their animals in wildflower-rich meadows, keeping them in family groups and accompanying them personally to the abattoir represented normal life. Farm-shop customers arriving on a sunny Sunday afternoon might leave hours later after a wide-ranging conversation and a farm tour that turned into an expert hands-on tutorial from Richard about grasses, geology, stockmanship and woodland management – interrupted to greet various favourite cattle.
Richard was born in Moreton-in-Marsh, in the Cotswolds, the son of Mary (nee Wynn) and Harry Young, who worked on the family’s College Farm at Condicote. By the age of 11 Richard was already driving tractors, milking cows and keeping native-breed pigs. He and his sister Rosamund were raised on a diet of literature by their mother, and with Stratford-upon-Avon not far away, Shakespeare and his work remained a beacon for the whole family. Richard went to Bourton school and then Chipping Campden comprehensive, where he was a champion athlete; his records at high jump, long jump and shotput stood for many years.
On leaving school, he reluctantly declined a place to study veterinary medicine at Liverpool University in order to take up the farming tenancy offered to him on a “‘now or never” basis by his great uncle on 130 acres of Swell Hill Farm near Stow-on-the-Wold.
To begin with Young farmed conventionally. His herd of cows were allowed to rear and wean their own calves, with far-reaching welfare benefits, but he grew his prize-winning crops with a full chemical arsenal. His mother suffered debilitating digestive disorders, and this ill-health, along with Young’s deep-rooted convictions about animal sentience and welfare, led him to question his approach. Inspired by a chance meeting in the 1970s with the organic pioneer Sam Mayall, he gave up farming on his own and joined the family partnership to farm organically. In 1980, he moved with his parents and sister to Kite’s Nest.
Young was a tenacious researcher and campaigner. His ability to trace patterns and connections within his vast agricultural knowledge led him to spend hours searching in literature few would even be aware of, drawing out logical consequences – however far-fetched they might at first seem – and reaching ethical and astute conclusions.
As long-time colleagues and friends, first at the Soil Association and then from 2011 at the Sustainable Food Trust, he and I worked closely to publish a series of reports that challenged conventionally accepted norms. Among his most important campaigns were those on the importance of local abattoirs to organic farming, the health benefits of animal fats in sustainable diets and the hidden environmental and health costs of UK production methods.
In 1994, as the toll on human health of increasing antibiotic resistance was starting to rise, Young, who was then policy director at the Soil Association, launched Europe’s first major campaign against the misuse of antibiotics in intensive farming. He correctly predicted that banning antibiotic growth promoters would fail to reduce farm antibiotic use without stricter regulations and improvements in husbandry. More than 25 years later, the EU finally admitted as much and banned all forms of routine farm antibiotic use. Young was also a founder of the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics, which continues to campaign on the issue.
Young’s combination of personal modesty, scientific integrity and eloquence eventually attracted international acclaim from both the general public and the scientific community. Always able to back up his claims with meticulous research, he was frequently interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today and The Food Programme, as well as featuring in the print media and as a much-valued speaker at farming conferences. Yet perhaps the project closest to Richard’s heart was a long-nurtured plan for a book on an under-explored aspect of Shakespeare’s empathy for the natural world.
During later life, he showed extraordinary dedication in caring for his mother and his research continued unabated. His attention to detail and determination to communicate precisely and correctly meant that it was not unusual to receive an email from him in the early hours, containing a draft honed through multiple revisions. His most recent report, for the Sustainable Food Trust, on the role of grazing animals in sustainable food systems, will be published posthumously.
He will be remembered by his family, friends and colleagues as an extraordinarily brilliant, capable and generous man, whose dedicated companionship and slightly risqué sense of humour will be much missed. He made an immense contribution to the public understanding of the interconnections between truly sustainable farming, love and respect for animals and the improvement of public health.
He is survived by his younger sister, Rosamund, who continues to farm at Kite’s Nest.
• Richard Young, farmer and campaigner, born 1 August 1950; died 16 September 2023
