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When facing a challenge, it’s helpful to look back and review what happened at the start. The ability to change our actions and strategies at the source has a compounding effect on how to navigate a way out. One such challenge for the agricultural sector is the idea that supermarkets produce the food we eat.
Many consumers are unaware of the true origins of their food, leading to misconceptions such as carrots growing pre-washed and packaged in plastic bags. The source of our food is not something everyone will consider when picking brightly coloured, attractive packages from the supermarket shelves. It is crucial that as an industry we strengthen the connection between producers and the public to foster a better understanding of food production.
Where better to start than with the next generation?
Each spring, the Glendale Agricultural Society host a Children’s Countryside Day, an annual event that sees some 1,600 children from 32 schools descend on a grass field in north Northumberland to learn about food, farming and the environment.
Having volunteered to steward at the past five events, I am always amazed by the enthusiasm, interest, and joy of the children. As a nose-to-tail convoy of buses arrives at 10am, flocks of children rush towards the tents and exhibits, eager to participate in the activities, shows, demonstrations and displays set up for the day.
Children excel at learning by using their senses. Touching a spikey straw bale, hearing traditional music or smelling the sheep and goats. Watching a carcass being cut up and tasting freshly cooked produce within just a few metres is an experience few children will not forget. Literally, education from farm to fork.
Underlying the day is the support this shows for British farming and the countryside, building the concepts of food production, environmental management and sustainability that we do so well. Telling the story of the work that goes into growing wheat for bread, conserving vulnerable species and understanding our river catchments for flood management.
Building connections between rural and wider communities
It’s been well documented that rural employment opportunities are unfilled, and the detrimental effect labour constraints are having on businesses. The draw of a stable 9-5 job. But what if days like this can spark a career in farming and the rural sector for those without an existing connection to the countryside, and the benefits to the wider community that could bring? Perhaps more children in local schools, greater healthcare facilities and more people to use the bus service? The line of children I saw, staring wide eyed at the combine header, fired up with flashing lights shows this is entirely possible. Early engagement is so important and offering the opportunity to those who would not normally have access to these experiences is key to generating that.
Many schools drive for over an hour to attend. One teacher told me that 50% of the children at their semi-urban school will not leave the town, citing socio-economic reasons such as lack of means to own a private vehicle and poor availability of public transport. A shameful figure. If we can’t build this connection to the countryside in rural Northumberland, where can we do it?
By 2.30pm all the buses are gone, and the tidy up begins. This a true community effort from local businesses and volunteers that planned and put together exhibits, transported their animals, hosed down muddy equipment and loaded it into their pickups, kept the handwashing stations filled, set up and took down the tents, completed the risk assessments, and generally gave up their time. This concept works, evidenced by the hundreds of happy, tired children clutching their drawstring bags full of leaflets, hand-made wildflower seed packets, badges and stickers ready to show those at home what they learned.
Why we need to connect with the next generation on Farming and Sustainability
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The Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) programme has been extended.
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