The official launch of the Year of Food and Farming will take place on September 12, at Home Farm, Tetbury in Gloucestershire, when HRH The Prince of Wales, patron for the year, will meet schoolchildren during a farm visit. This will mark just the start of a full academic year of planned activities, which aim to give young people in England hands-on learning experience based around three core areas: farm visits, growing experiences and preparing and cooking food.
The Year of Food and Farming was first proposed by the charity FACE and is supported by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Department for Education and Skills, the Royal Agricultural Society for England (RASE), and the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), amongst others.
The Year of Food and Farming will work to reconnect children with the countryside - not by preaching about better lifestyles, but by creating memorable, first-hand learning experiences that they will never forget. Anthony Gibson, director of communications for the NFU, says: “We want to make it very clear that this is not propaganda for the countryside. The event is about helping schoolchildren develop through the medium of farming and the countryside. It isn’t a media exercise to shove farming down the throats of schoolchildren.”
The NFU has already had an active part of the Year of Food and Farming by producing, alongside FACE, 10,000 primary and 5,000 secondary school packs for teachers. The packs are thought to be the most significant development in teaching materials on farming for many years, and include booklets containing a series of activities for children at key stages 2 and 3 on a wide range of farming topics.
“A total of 50,000 farmers are members of the NFU,” says Gibson. “Therefore, we are in a better place than any organisation to encourage farmers to get involved and run visits. We’ll be helping to organise and promote the launch on both a regional and national level and supporting the farming community all the way through.”
The initiative aims for both primary and secondary schoolchildren to find out how food is grown and produced, explore the importance of food, make informed choices about healthy eating and experience what the countryside can offer, as well as learn more about environmental issues. The long-term goals are for every school pupil to have undertaken a growing activity, have had first-hand experience of food being grown by visiting a farm or other countryside location, and also the opportunity to prepare at least one food dish during his or her primary school years. The initiative aims to give every secondary school pupil the opportunity to take part in an activity within the countryside and to undertake relevant work-related activities during his or her time at school.
Even in its pre-launch stage, the Year of Food and Farming has attracted significant attention. The initiative has received support from an assortment of food-related sectors, such as food production, preparation and retail, and hopes that these pledges will build upon the links which already exist between teachers and the food chain, so that every child will have access to the events and resources by the end of the year. “It’s exciting to see our plans come to fruition, as we work to transform the way food and farming is viewed in and out of the classroom,” says Tony Cooke, programme director of the Year of Food and Farming. “We’re not starting from scratch - there are hundreds of initiatives out there with a long history of success, but we’re redoubling our efforts to create new partnerships, events and resources.”
Graham Ward of the Stockbridge Technology Centre (STC) has been running farm group visits to the centre for schoolchildren for four years and has an extensive Year of Food and Farming programme ahead of him. “The scheme is essential to reconnect with our customers - the parents - and our future customers with farming,” says Ward. “Our programme will involve big harvest events, where we will plant a range of vegetable and salad crops, and parties of 60 children will visit in the morning and afternoon to harvest them. A cooking and healthy eating session will also be incorporated.”
But Ward still detects opposition from some fresh produce growers. “The willingness of growers to get involved will be the limitation, not the willingness of the schools to visit,” he says. “The industry needs to join in. The government is pouring millions into promoting fresh fruit and veg. This is our opportunity to reinforce the buy local and British messages.”
Although not every producer will be able to open its doors to the public, the initiative expects everyone involved in the industry to play a role: from hosting classroom activities to providing pupils with recipe kits and ingredients. Once the year officially launches, the www.yearoffoodandfarming.org.uk website will display every volunteer’s materials or events on an interactive map, meaning that teachers will be able to track down local initiatives.
“If everyone in the food chain gets behind this campaign, teachers will have thousands of ways to give young people direct experience of how their food is produced,” says Sir Don Curry, chair of the Sustainable Farming and Food Implementation Group. “The Year of Food and Farming campaign will literally be stamped on the landscape, with our online map signposting just how much support is available to schools... This next academic year is the industry’s real opportunity to engage a whole new generation with its work, products and people.”
THE MISSING LINK
David Cooper, director of organic horticulture and education for Bridge Farm Links Ltd, runs a training programme for young adults aged 11-16 years old at the company’s three-acre farm in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. Having worked with FACE for two years, Cooper is happy to support the Year of Food and Farming and hopes to welcome a primary or secondary school visit to the farm once a week throughout the coming academic year.
Bridge Farm was originally Cooper’s family business, but was sold 11 years ago. Three years ago he got the chance to rent part of the farmland and set up the not-for-profit company, Bridge Farm Links.
The company provides a comprehensive range of courses and workshops for schools and organisations, as well as growing a selection of vegetables for a local organic box scheme, farmers’ markets and local farm shops.
“We got involved with the Year of Food and Farming through FACE, as we had already taken part in its Countryside Educational Visits Accreditation Scheme,” says Cooper, pictured. “The scheme was really the offset of what the initiative will now offer and aimed to provide accredited farms for schools to visit. Since then we have had two to three school visits a year, as well as running an educational facility for schoolchildren who are at risk of being excluded.”
Cooper maintains that trainees at the facility experience the full package from seed to plate. He has also found that 50 per cent of the trainees that attend have gone on to grow their own vegetables at home.
Bridge Farm Links will have an individual web page on the Year of Food and Farming website and will be able to advertise when it is available for schools to visit. “We hope to promote the year as much as possible,” says Cooper. “I think the Year of Food and Farming programme is bound to be beneficial to the industry, especially for fresh produce growers like us.
“Children need to know where their food comes from. We went to an educational event before we established the educational facility at the farm. We set out a labelled vegetable display and some of the schoolchildren who attended didn’t even know how to eat a carrot. If this initiative is going to improve this situation, then it has got to be a good thing.”
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