PRELIMINARY figures from a yet-to-be released island habitat survey appear to suggest that between 2,000 and 3,000 vergees of farmland have been lost from food production in the last 10 years.

That equates to 800-1,200 acres or rather less than the same number of football pitches or 30 times the size of La Grande Mare golf course. In other words, in Guernsey terms, it’s a lot of land.

While there might be a debate at the moment about where that area is going – horse grazing and extended gardens are said to be the biggest culprits – a more telling question is why it is being lost.

Milk producers and vegetable growers will presumably release fields only when their use becomes uneconomic, perhaps because there is insufficient market price for the produce or because the rents demanded become prohibitive, possibly because horse owners are able to pay more for grazing than farmers are for tillage.

Whatever the reason, if these figures are correct then they indicate a real issue for this island. Even on the lowest figure, the equivalent to two La Grande Mare golf courses are being lost to agriculture every year.

That clearly is unsustainable, especially since there is growing pressure on redundant vineries – technically green field sites – to be returned to productive use, which is developer-speak for homes and industrial units.

While islanders might not mind a field of horses, the more that occurs the more this island’s dependence on imports, supply chains, oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions becomes absolute.

Worse, of course, is the incorporation of fields into private gardens, for that becomes land that is truly lost.

The other concern is the creeping urbanisation such development encourages, along with the destruction of habitat, and further develops the mindset that a field is there to be ‘used’ other than for agriculture.

While the planning process might slow this drift, it cannot affect the constant pressure to move from agrarian land use to leisure which is essentially fuelled by the chequebook.

If Guernsey wants to retain its remaining open fields it will have to reward its equally endangered farmers as custodians of that countryside.