ABSTRACT
Upland and mountain areas operate on the fringes of viable agricultural production. Through their physical constraints of soil, climate and topography these environments limit English farmers to livestock production with typical profit margins of around £5000 per annum, well below the national United Kingdom (UK) average (Chadwick, 2003). Compounding these low economic returns are problems of succession amongst the farming families and an increasing mismatch between production and the post-productivist vision for British agriculture (MAFF, 2000).
