Ian McEwan blames arable farmers for destruction of countryside The Booker prize winner, who swapped his London house in Fitzrovia for the countryside of Gloucestershire last year, says he feels the countryside is being dominated and destroyed by arable farmers growing one type of crop in fields that are getting larger, destroying the diversity of the landscape. The issue is much debated among farmers, with fields concentrating on huge crops of wheat or oil seed rape criticised for destroying the appearance of the countryside as well as the fertility of soils. This is not the first time the avid walker has been outspoken about the environment. His satiricial novel Solar explored the politics of global warming - which he believed to be a man-made problem. And when it was criticised by readers in the US, the writer said he felt this was partly due to apathy among the American public about climate change. He has also previously described his experience of foraging for porcini mushrooms - which he researched for his book Sweet Tooth. He warned that British people who want to get in on the new delicacy need to be picking porcini mushrooms quickly because of the influx of Polish people who he believed to be "much more expert" about picking the increasingly popular funghi. Talking about his latest move to the countryside, McEwan told the Daily Telegraph: "The Cotswolds are now dotted with 200-acre monoculture fields, run by contract farmers who want giant fields so they can turn around their combines." McEwan is not the first author to comment on the state of the disappearing countryside. Andrew Motion, former poet laureate and now president of the Council for Protection of Rural England, has warned about the destructive effect oversimplifying planning applications could have on Britain's countryside. He has also warned that as climate change becomes more of a priority, energy bills would need to rise to reduce the aesthetic impact of green energy on the countryside. With solar panels and wind turbines being used to produce renewable energy Mr Motion said that the extra cost of burying cables underground and housing wind turbines off shore would be worth the money to protect the appearance of the British landscape.