I was asked recently by a friend why I am so engaged with Ukraine on LinkedIn. There is a short answer, I went there before the invasion a couple of times and saw the scale and beauty of the country and its resilience and I was emotionally pulled into helping refugees as best I could this year which opened my eyes to the genocide planned by Putin. But there is a longer answer about the phases of my life and how they map to global events. Global events impact our private lives in unpredictable ways.
The reason that the invasion of Ukraine and the dramatic failure of the Russian empire to impose its will on a nascent free country tends to the narrative version of history and the role of individuals. How can one not view Zelensky and his brilliant one liners “I don’t need a ride, I need ammunition”, “we will build a future without heating but definitely without you (Russia)” as the epitome of cometh the hour cometh the man. He obviously has a highly competent team of generals and ministers and the slowly accelerating supply of modern weapons. It may lead to the collapse of the Russian imperial project that has dominated Eurasia for at least 300 years. Zelensky is on his way into history like Charles Martel who defeated a Muslim invasion of France in 732 or Churchill in 1940.
The last time I felt as energised positively by world events was in 1989 when like a set of skittles the countries of Eastern Europe were bowled out of the Soviet system. It coincided with my wife and I buying a ruined pig farm in Somerset and building a mobile home there. Week after week another country declared itself free and began requesting the withdrawal of the Soviet army garrisons sent to keep them in line. Some changes were violent (Romania) but most were more like an election result in a democracy. Of course, the huge work needed to sort out the mess left by communist mis- management was hidden and is still incomplete.
The new novel Lessons by Ian McEwen captures the elevated hopes that the fall of the Berlin Wall triggered for the hero Roland as he happened to be in Berlin trying to find his lost wife.
“The grim settlement of the Second World War was ended. A peaceful Germany would be united. The Russian Empire was dissolving without bloodshed. A new Europe must emerge. Russia would follow Hungary, Poland and the rest to become a democracy. It might even lead the way. It was not so fantastical to imagine driving one day from Calais to the Bering Straits and never showing a passport. The Cold War’s nuclear menace was over. The great disarmament could begin. History books would close with this, a jubilant mass of decent people celebrating a turning point for European civilisation. The new century would be fundamentally different, fundamentally better, wiser. …….Russia, a liberal democracy, unfolding like a flower in spring. Nuclear weapons negotiated downwards to extinction. Then mega-tides of spare cash and good intentions flowing like fresh water, cleansing the dirt of every social problem. The general well-being refreshed, schools, hospitals, cities renewed. Tyrannies dissolving across the South American continent, the Amazon rainforests rescued and treasured – let poverty be razed instead of trees. For millions, time for music, dancing, art and celebration. Mrs Thatcher had demonstrated it at the UN – the political right had finally understood climate change and believed in action while there was time.”
In 1990 I had the privilege of attending the AgEng 1990 Conference in Berlin which by brilliant coincidental planning occurred during the week when Germany was politically reunited. It was easy to feel that huge surge of optimism. As we welcomed the dawn of the new Germany and Europe by walking up the Unter de Linden after each session we discussed how the 4th Agricultural revolution would be based on sensors, data and computers. We were testing our first milking robot at Silsoe at the time. That set the background for the next phase of my career in research and commercialisation of animal health sensing. That period ended in 2021 when I sold eCow’s IP to measure pH in bovine rumens having sold Milkalyser in 2020 with its automated LFA tester for progesterone.
Over the next 8 years as our children passed through sixth form to University we built a viable dairy goat farm, finding and breeding the herd, laying concrete yards, building airy housing solving problems in animal disease, marketing and fire fighting. We scavenged milking machine parts and built up an efficient milking parlour on a shoe string budget. All this for me was at weekends and in the long vacations of the research council that employed me to develop the UK’s first robotic milking system. By 1996 we had shown the commercial viability of our goat farm such that we were able to get permission and build a fine energy efficient four bedroomed house that we moved into on Christmas Day 1997.
Some of that optimism was justified and clearly some was very misplaced, Russia started but then failed to democratise and the political right tried to deny climate change. I think we need a new change in world history for the better after the disasters of Brexit, Covid and the war in Ukraine. Maybe the over privileged Boomers will give way to the next generations and see their house prices and pensions collapse to give youngsters a chance.
So 2022 and the Ukraine war also link to a sea change in my career as well as showing how resilient democracy is and how essential it is work to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
I am now working on a project to develop peri-urban horticulture trying to reduce food miles for vegetables, improving freshness and regenerating soil with robotic peasants. More will be revealed next year.