Reading about the subsidies that exist to keep this
lifestyle going made me think about how things have changed for farmers where I grew up. Small farmers had to sell up or buy extra land - if they could afford it - and the trend continues now. And farming where I grew up is in some respects less seasonal than it was, with demand for farm produce coming all year around having forced farmers to adapt their practices. And yet in this book I read about someone that is getting to keep to the seasons, and to not worry that the lifestyle is not financially viable because the outsiders he has scoffed at are paying to support it, and I wonder that the book came to be written as it is. I'm not suggesting that the lifestyle should not be supported (although I'd argue that traditions are considerably more fluid than the author - with his mobile phone, quad-bike, antibiotics etc. - would have us believe), but I think some acknowledgement should have been made regarding what is really happening there.