Old ‘unimproved’ meadowland is increasingly scarce in Britain’s intensively farmed land. Dr Jennifer Rees, an Open University tutor married to a farmer who breeds pedigree cattle on 100 acres in the Wye Valley, recently won the Sunday Times Kenneth Allsop Memorial Essay Competition with an essay that pinpoints the value of a ‘great natural re-usable resource that can be replenished year after year at minimal cost’.