Clarkson’s Farm has become a huge hit since it first debuted on screens in 2021, and part of its popularity falls with Jeremy Clarkson’s right-hand man, Kaleb Cooper.
Cooper, 26, found fame in the hit Amazon Prime series and has since built his own following, having recently published three books about farming. Speaking to GB News, farming expert and founder of AgriDex, Henry Duckworth, explained Cooper’s important influence.
Duckworth credited Cooper with making farming “glamorous”. He explained: “With Kaleb, they’ve [Clarkson’s Farm] kind of made it more glamorous.
“They’ve sort of brought in this young, bumbling blonde guy who gets everyone sort of revved up.
“So I think they’ve allocated it back to young farmers. Because I think the average age of a farmer is, like, late 50s.
“There aren’t enough young people at farming historically, and people are getting more excited about it.”
Duckworth continued: “I mean, everyone knows that there’s not much money in it and I think historically, that’s encouraged people not to be part of it.
“And I don’t think anyone saw farming is anything other than a lifestyle. But now that we’re encouraging better access between producers and end buyers.”
AgriDex’s platform leverages blockchain technology to digitise agricultural commodities, facilitating the listing and buying of various crops on its marketplace.
Speaking about his background and business, Duckworth explained: “My history was that I grew up in a multi generational farming family, mostly in Zimbabwe.
“Sadly, in Zimbabwe, we didn’t have the best leadership, and went from one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of food to being food insecure in the space of only about a year.
“And that kind of tailored my thoughts on wanting to produce something better for the management of agriculture around the world, a big rollout part of AgriDex is providing better and faster payments to farmers and better access to buyers of products from around the world.”
On the influence on Clarkson’s farming series, he added: “And I think what’s been really cool about Clarkson’s Farm and some of these other shows is when you go to a supermarket – we’re all guilty of it – if you’re not feeling very rich that week, you choose something that’s very cheap. You don’t think about it.
“But the knock-on effects are, is that you’re often getting third rate products, and you’re often getting them from far outside of where you come from.
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“And in the 2020s I think it’s also become like, ‘Well, where did this food come from, and was it brought to us in an equitable way?’
“So it’s kind of been this evolution from first, like palette to better understanding about foods to finally wanting to know the equity behind it.”
Cooper is set to return to screens with the fourth series of the farming show, which is already being filmed.
