A rural focus group at Hadlow College is bringing together representatives from different rural groups and organisations to debate a variety of topics relating to climate change, burgeoning world population, land usage and food security.

Farming and food production must top the world agenda if we are to have any chance of feeding a population predicted to reach in excess of nine billion by 2050. The requirement for more homes, schools, hospitals and the associated infrastructure will place additional pressure on land usage.

Strategies to protect the environment and conserve water will be essential and the management of fossil fuel resources and development of sustainable energy is essential. Co-ordinated efforts involving all the countries of the world and every member of society will be fundamental to success.

The focus group aims to increase public awareness of the challenges humankind is facing. Journalists from the national and regional media have interviewed the group, as a result of which a regional country-related magazine is running a regular column and various other national and local magazines and papers are publishing updates and reports.

Believing that spreading the word and rural unity are destined to become increasingly vital factors in meeting the challenges, members are hoping that the Hadlow focus group will be used as the blueprint that encourages the setting up of similar groups all over the UK.

Set up eight months ago with just three member bodies, membership of the group now embraces 14 rural-related bodies including Hadlow College, NFU, WFU, Kent Wildlife Trust, CPRE (Protect Kent), LEAF, East Malling Research, Kent County Agriculture Society, Kent Smallholders and Why Farming Matters (Kent). Other rural bodies that might be interested in joining the group should get in touch.

The subject under discussion when FPJ editor Michael Barker visited was “Climate change and the many associated issues”. Charles Tassell, county chairman of Kent NFU, said that the phrase “global warming” was always a bad idea. The more appropriate phrase - “climate change” - does at least prepare us for the possibilities of vastly different weather conditions.

But the thing which is affecting us most at the moment can better be summed up by the phrase “climate shift”. In the South East, we’ve always had weather a bit more like northern France than northern England and this is set to continue.

The biggest problem of all surely relates to the fact that the challenges we face are so often viewed in isolation. The focus group aims to discuss and find solutions.