The Economist says, climb a rural hill in Britain this summer, and the view will be subtly different. Some of the fields will be a duller shade of green than they were last year. Stand quietly, and you might spot more large mammals moving through the landscape. Other changes are invisible, being underground or underwater. A year after covid-19 struck Britain, it is affecting the countryside in all sorts of strange ways.
On-and-off lockdowns mean that Britons are eating less than they used to in sandwich shops, restaurants, pubs and canteens, and more at home. When they do that, they consume more of some things and less of others, even if the number of calories they take in stays about the same. That, in turn, affects what farmers grow, and the countryside.
