The post World War II phase of rapidly increasing British agricultural productivity, based upon the substitution of capital for labour, and upon cheap fossil fuels and heavy chemical dressing, is coming to an end. The cost of inputs and the diminishing returns that result from these policies, as well as problems of soil exhaustion and water pollution, signal a change of pattern in British farming. This pattern, it is argued, could produce a variety of benefits, which might include higher productivity per hectare (though not necessarily per worker) greater national and regional self‐sufficiency in food, with consequent benefits to the British balance of payments, a net absorption rather than extrusion of labour, and even an improved dietary balance for the nation.