Listeners to The Archers know only too well, the Grundys failed to pay their bills and had to leave Grange Farm. Humans can manage on less, eating what they grow, buying in little beyond flour. Solar panels and wood-burning stoves reduce electricity bills to what is essential. The Community Charge marches on relentlessly. In spite of no street lights or rubbish collection, this must be paid in full.
Prison is the alternative.
It is a wonder that any remain in the industry. The thousands of workers farming loses annually are so thinly spread they do not attract the public attention of, say, a closing steel mill shedding far fewer people. Exmoor is not a particularly Catholic area. In Catholic terms it is not badly supplied with clergy. Perhaps the division between two dioceses has made rationalisation harder.