{"id":17410,"date":"2026-07-26T03:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T22:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=17410"},"modified":"2026-07-26T03:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T22:46:11","slug":"jeremy-clarkson-reveals-grim-diddly-squat-reality-as-he-warns-things-will-get-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=17410","title":{"rendered":"Jeremy Clarkson reveals grim Diddly Squat reality as he warns &#8216;things will get worse&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"646\" height=\"366\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SEI_304115378-cdcd-e1785002197500.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-29223079\" alt=\"Jeremy Clarkson in the paddock ahead of for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone Circuit, Towcester. Picture date: Sunday July 5, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Matthew Vincent\/PA Wire. RESTRICTIONS: Use subject to restrictions. Editorial use only, no commercial use without prior consent from rights holder.\" decoding=\"sync\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>Jeremy Clarkson has issued a dire warning (Picture: Matthew Vincent\/PA Wire)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/tag\/jeremy-clarkson\/\" data-track=\"inline-tag-auto-link_article\">Jeremy Clarkson<\/a> has delivered a grim assessment of British farming, admitting he deliberately left hundreds of acres at Diddly Squat untouched this year because growing crops would have guaranteed him a financial loss.<\/p>\n<p>The former <a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/tag\/top-gear\/\" data-track=\"inline-tag-auto-link_article\">Top Gear<\/a> presenter, who has spent the past seven years running his Oxfordshire farm and documenting the highs and lows in <a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/tag\/clarksons-farm\/\" data-track=\"inline-tag-auto-link_article\">Clarkson\u2019s Farm<\/a>, said making money from growing food has become \u2018quite simply impossible\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Writing in his column for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/news\/39860837\/burnham-environment-minister-jeremy-clarkson\/\">The Sun<\/a>, the 66-year-old warned that the situation is only likely to deteriorate.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Action is needed now because farmers have reached the point where it is quite simply impossible to make money from growing food,\u2019 he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018This year, I have 200 acres on my farm where we grew nothing at all. We knew that if we planted it with wheat or barley, we would definitely make a loss.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Clarkson believes the outlook will become even bleaker next year, claiming the introduction of a Net Zero carbon tax on fertiliser will pile further pressure on an industry already struggling to stay afloat.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"646\" height=\"431\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SEI_304300361-7f4d.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-29223076\" alt=\"Mandatory Credit: Photo by Jakub Porzycki\/NurPhoto\/Shutterstock (16978069gi) Jeremy Clarkson ahead of the Formula 1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone Circuit in Northampton, Great Britain on July 5, 2026. F1 British Grand Prix 2026, Northampton, United Kingdom - 05 Jul 2026\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>He warned that today\u2019s countryside could look dramatically different within a generation. (Picture: Jakub Porzycki\/NurPhoto\/Shutterstock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He suggested farmers may soon have little choice but to abandon traditional food production in favour of more profitable alternatives.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than growing crops to eat, Clarkson said landowners could find themselves renting fields to huge agricultural firms growing plants to power anaerobic digesters. Alternatively, he joked that farmers may as well install solar farms or build data centres instead.<\/p>\n<p>In a characteristically wry flourish, he added another option would be to \u2018sell the whole farm to a Chinese company who\u2019d build a multistorey high-intensity piggery on it\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the sarcasm, Clarkson insisted he was making a serious point.<\/p>\n<p>He argued that just as people living in 1926 would never have believed Britain\u2019s factories would largely disappear by 2026, today\u2019s countryside could look dramatically different within a generation.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"646\" height=\"430\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SEI_294017875-bcd8.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-29223091\" alt=\"Kaleb Cooper, Jeremy Clarkson, Lisa Hogan\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>He said he is \u2018genuinely scared\u2019 about this year\u2019s harvest (Picture: Ellis O\u2019Brien\/Prime Video)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u2018It\u2019s the same story for farmers across the whole country, so you can kiss goodbye to our green and pleasant land,\u2019 he warned.<\/p>\n<p>Clarkson made the comments while discussing the prospect of Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham replacing Sir <a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/tag\/sir-keir-starmer\/\" data-track=\"inline-tag-auto-link_article\">Keir Starmer<\/a> as Prime Minister, admitting he did not hold \u2018much hope\u2019 that a change in leadership would improve the outlook for Britain\u2019s farmers.<\/p>\n<p>The warning comes just a week after Clarkson admitted he was \u2018genuinely scared\u2019 about this year\u2019s harvest for an entirely different reason.<\/p>\n<p>Having previously battled rain-soaked fields and delayed harvests, he revealed this year his crops had become dangerously dry, creating a serious fire risk.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Since I started farming seven years ago, the harvest has always been a nail-biting affair because you have to stop when the grain is too wet,\u2019 he wrote.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"374\" height=\"635\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SEI_202225383-df8c.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=374\" class=\"article-image wp-image-29223094\" alt=\"Grabs 3176571 Clarkson's Farm crew gather at Diddly Squat to launch series three\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>He\u2019s been running his farm for 7 years (Picture: Amazon Prime)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u2018This year, though, I have a new problem. The grain is too dry. It\u2019s Thursday as I write this and I should be out there in the tractor, but I\u2019m stuck. And genuinely scared.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Clarkson warned that a single discarded cigarette or spark from faulty machinery could destroy months of work within minutes.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018All it would take is a discarded cigarette end, or the spark from a piece of faulty equipment and in a matter of moments, my whole crop would be turned into ash,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018A year\u2019s work, literally, up in smoke.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Since swapping fast cars for tractors, Clarkson has unexpectedly become one of Britain\u2019s most prominent voices on farming, with Clarkson\u2019s Farm shining a spotlight on everything from unpredictable weather and soaring costs to planning battles and the increasingly difficult economics of making agriculture pay.<\/p>\n<section id=\"share-buttons-bottom\" class=\"share-buttons share-buttons-bottom\"><a class=\"metro-button share-bar-comments\" data-vars-position=\"bottom\" href=\"#metro-comments-container\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Comment now<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-comment\" href=\"#social-comment\"\/><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-comments__label\">Comments<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" class=\"metro-button share-bar-preferred-source\" data-vars-position=\"bottom\" href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/metro.co.uk\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-preferred-source\" href=\"#social-preferred-source\"\/><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-preferred-source__label\">Add as preferred source<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/a><\/section>\n<div class=\"newsletter-end-card accent--tv\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-end-card__inner\">\n<h4>TV Newsletter<\/h4>\n<p>Sign up and tell us which TV shows you love to watch to get personalised updates every morning.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jeremy Clarkson has issued a dire warning (Picture: Matthew Vincent\/PA Wire) Jeremy Clarkson has delivered a grim assessment of British farming, admitting he deliberately left hundreds of acres at Diddly Squat untouched this year because growing crops would have guaranteed him a financial loss. The former Top Gear presenter, who has spent the past seven&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SEI_304115378-cdcd-e1785002197500_1785002218.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200&h=630&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}