Simon Fairlie: 'People are so detached from the land'

Simon Fairlie is possibly the most influential - and unusual - eco-activist you might not have heard of. A hippy in the 60s and a pioneer of the road protest movement, he's now a persuasive advocate of micro-dairy farmingThis is my dream yard," sighs Simon Fairlie, standing in a small quadrangle of rough stones strewn with hay, surrounded by low redbrick barns, where swallows dip in the summer. With its pair of soulful Jersey cows and folds of Dorset hills beyond, it resembles an idyll of long-lost farming life.Fairlie, one of the most interesting and influential activists you may never have heard of, has had a long and varied career. But the latest chapter in the multi-storied life of one of the fathers of Britain's environmental movement sees him as a farmer. Which might sound at odds with his background, but Fairlie - true to form - is championing an alternative type of farming, in the shape of the micro-dairy. Continue reading...