The Year of Food and Farming (YoFF) aimed to bring together schools in England and the farming community in order to reconnect children with the food they eat and the countryside. The government initiative, which ran for 12 months from September 2007, had heavyweight backing behind it in the form of Farming and Countryside Education (FACE), DEFRA and the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), and set out to provide young people aged from seven to 17 years old with hands-on learning experiences based around three core areas; growing experiences, cooking or preparing food, and farm visits.
That was a massive feat as, at the beginning of the initiative, half of the schoolchildren between the ages of seven and 11 in England and Wales had no involvement with growing their own food. As knowledge of the countryside diminished, the government feared for the future of farming in Britain, both as a producer of food and an attractive career option for future generations.
So how successful was this mission? If you look at the figures, there has been a definite improvement in the attitudes of schoolchildren and their knowledge this academic year.
YoFF, with financial support from EBLEX, commissioned a survey of 1,619 schoolchildren aged from seven to 16 to explore their perceptions of food, farming and countryside issues to establish any changes that may have taken place over the course of the year.
The study found that, overall, learning about food and its production is of great interest and relevance to children of primary school age. Of those children questioned, most know a great deal about where certain types of food come from, and how they can maintain a healthy diet.
The report says: “Although their involvement in food relates primarily to the way in which it affects them personally, some children are beginning to consider the significance of these issues at a wider level, taking into account the contribution that farming makes on a national scale.”
However, the survey found that once children reach secondary school age, interest in food production becomes less evident and some can be reluctant to put their knowledge into action, despite having greater independence and the practical skills required to help make a difference. Those who do remain interested at this age show the same type of enthusiasm as younger children, but they become fewer in number as they grow older, particularly outside rural areas.
Two key areas that children are increasingly interested in are technological advancements in farming and animal welfare, which are offering a potential route through which to secure their long-term attention.
For younger children in urban communities, involvement has also increased significantly during the past year, with more than half now claiming to have some experience of growing food - up 18 per cent on 2007. But involvement in growing food at school remains low in these urban areas.
The number of urban children claiming to visit the countryside with their family remains low. This highlights, the study reports, the importance of the role that schools have in introducing and maintaining children’s relationship with farming and the countryside.
Around three in four children and young people have visited the countryside in the last year; a significant increase from the previous year.
Gainsborough-based vegetable grower Bridge Farm Links Limited has been involved in YoFF throughout the year and has welcomed school visits, given talks to schoolchildren and has held a practical workshop at a local school on how to plant hedgerows and fences.
But David Cooper, director of organic horticulture and education of Bridge Farm Links, believes that the initiative was not as far-reaching as it could have been. “It was easy to join, and a good idea in principle, but more funding should have been put into schools to help them get to the farms,” he says. “We did have a number of school visits, but it was not as a direct result of the campaign. The accompanying literature was very good, but I felt there was not enough awareness in schools. Maybe it would have been better for each school to ‘adopt a farm’.”
However, according to the Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE), more than 3,000 schools directly registered with YoFF, but many more - often registered directly with partner organisations - are also giving their pupils first-hand experiences.
RASE estimates that school scheme registrations are up from 7,500 in 2007 to 19,000-plus now, and the number of children involved is up from 260,000 in 2007 to around 660,000.
YoFF has also benefited the farming community, including fresh produce growers. “More than 2,700 food organisations were involved with the initiative over the year,” says Bill Graham of FACE, which worked with and supported the various regional co-ordinators of YoFF. “We found that growers were not confident enough to organise farm visits, so we established a training course that has been very successful and has so far trained 1,000 farmers to take on educational visits.
“Seeing young people witness the way food is grown, encouraging them to grow their own fruit and vegetables and then cooking the produce has really joined up the whole initiative for us.”
At the FACE Food and Farming Regional Conference in September, organisations came together to discuss the lessons that have been learnt since the initiative began. The main point that came out of the conference, according to Graham, was the overwhelming willingness from all to get involved with the activities. “We concluded that the initiative was very effective,” he says. “The key is reconnection. If we are to have informed consumers, we need to engage with young people. Overall, a high standard of knowledge about healthy eating has been shown and there has been a change in young people’s attitudes.”
The initiative certainly got the ball rolling when it came to education in the countryside, with teachers going onto farms and discovering the curriculum links available and, on the other side of the fence, farmers, who might have thought about opening their farms to visitors in the past, were given the help, support and resources to do so.
YoFF has certainly made an impact on both schoolchildren and the industry, but many believe that has not been enough and are calling out for further action.
Sally Scantlebury, co-ordinator of the East Midland’s food and farming group FEAST, believes that YoFF was a great success, but recognises that it only touched the tip of the iceberg. “YoFF objectives were very broad and many aspects were delivered. A lot of the activities took part in primary schools, but we need to now open it up to other parties.
“With the threat of food security hanging over us, we will need skills and expertise in the industry and, with a greater public understanding of production, farmers will become increasingly important and celebrated - so it is a great career to go into now. We have to get the right messages out and encourage new entrants to fill the demand for workers at all levels within the industry.”
The industry seems determined to continue the good work and not let YoFF’s good work slip, like it did after 1989’s Year of Food and Farming.
“We have built up a lot of interest in schools from growers, but we are really at the start,” says Graham. “This is where Think Food and Farming comes in. FACE found that all the organisations involved with the initiative thought it would be a shame to lose all that hard work and the relationships that had been developed over the year.”
A long-term project led by FACE, Think Food and Farming is a legacy project building on the successes of YoFF. It continues to promote healthy living by offering children and young people direct experience of the countryside, farming and food. “Think Food and Farming will continue to work with partner organisations at a national, regional and local level to provide easy access to a variety of educational activities including visits to farms,” says RASE’s Think Food and Farming programme co-ordinator Corrina Gibbs.
FACE hopes that the aims of YoFF will remain a priority for farmers and that learning about farming and the countryside will become a permanent fixture on the school curriculum. “YoFF had a great deal of funding behind it and was big and ambitious,” says Graham. “Think Food and Farming is about continuing from that foundation of hard work. This is very much the start of it, and FACE will be going back to everyone and recruiting involvement.
“Think Food and Farming will hopefully become part of everyday life for farmers. Organisations will just see it as part of what they do. But we need all schools in England to be involved - it is a huge task. We have made a good start and a lot of good will has been created. We have to build on that.”
Growers and organisations are also determined to continue the good work.
Cooper says that Bridge Farm Links will continue to offer school group visits, training and teaching, and is confident that YoFF will have a lasting effect on the fresh produce industry. “YoFF has encouraged more young people to find out about different parts of the agricultural and horticultural industries,” he says. “If more young people are introduced to different jobs within the industry then maybe more young people will want to go into the sector.”
FEAST is now working specifically on its new scheme Careers in the Countryside, which aims to increase the uptake of recruits into land-based businesses and promote the many opportunities available to young people in both agriculture and horticulture.
“During the East Midlands’ YoFF, we had a very strong management team, including members from the NFU, the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) and Natural England, as well as private and public sector businesses and organisations,” says Scantlebury. “But we are now forming a partnership to take this work forward; we have to keep up the momentum as new pupils come through every year. Food and Farming needs to be embedded into the school curriculum and on the agendas of education, health, rural and environmental boards and committees. The industry needs to open up more and communicate better, and all work together towards a sustainable future.
“YoFF was just the beginning and, as Sir Don Curry said at the end of the year: ‘We must not relax now the year is over; there is so much more left still to do’,” she adds.
COOKING UP A FEAST
I started work as FEAST co-ordinator in July 2007 and my first day was at the Royal Show, writes Sally Scantlebury of FEAST, the East Midlands’ food and farming network.
I had been asking colleagues in the food and farming world who would be bringing all the activities together and celebrating what was going on - turned out the job came to me.
I co-ordinated the activities of many delivery partners in the region, from big projects such as the Natural England Food Chain Challenge, down to a teaching assistant in a school wanting to grow something with the pupils on a tiny bit of garden.
The variety of activities has been amazing. Thanks to East Midlands Development Agency funding, we were also able to assist actual activities in the region; having money does attract people to projects and campaigns.
Some of the Year of Food and Farming (YoFF) work was very close to what FEAST does, as it works on developing better communications within the supply chain from farmer to consumer. And it was not until YoFF opened its gates to the industry that a lot of people realised FEAST existed. It was very rewarding to work with the end users or future end users and literally teach them where their food comes from and how it reaches their plates, and it also provided the opportunity for farmers and growers to get direct feedback from their customers.
Personally, as co-ordinator, YoFF was great fun, and it raised FEAST’s profile as it delivered the communications and events for the campaign in the region. But we do not just do “fun stuff with kids”; FEAST works towards a sustainable future for UK farming and food through various projects and YoFF was a vehicle for raising awareness and understanding of the industry as a whole. However, we need to think long term; the initiative cannot just be a flash in the pan.
The amount of people and organisations that came on board the YoFF project was great - those that moaned and criticised simply missed out. Many activities have been based around fresh produce, and growers and processors have really embraced the opportunity to promote their industry and get involved in community activity. They have the foresight to invest in the future by engaging the young at this stage and know that it may take years for the industry to reap the benefits - it is like preparing the ground and planting the seeds.
The highlights for me were in those magical moments - the awe of a class of children out looking at wheat in the field watching red kites circling above them. A teacher brought nearly to tears when a combine harvester was opened up. “That is my whole design and technology work just come to life in front of me,” she exclaimed.
And a teenager, who having seen a duck for the first time, said: “That’s duck? Like what we get from the Chinese with pancakes - I never knew it came from a real animal”.
Another highlight was at an agricultural show where a young woman who worked in a call centre, but grew vegetables on her allotment and wanted help to become a farmer, approached me.
BUYERS IN TRAINING AT NCGM
As part of the Year of Food and Farming, South London’s New Covent Garden Market (NCGM) gave children from seven local schools the chance to learn about food, farming and the countryside.
A class from each school paid a visit to a farm and the wholesale market, so they could understand how food is grown and how it finds its way to their plates at school. At the same time, the schools competed to see which could develop a sustainable garden and grow something edible by the beginning of July.
The market visit included a quiz, learning how to make smoothies or fruit kebabs and playing specially designed games around the theme of healthy eating. As part of the project, Margaret McMillan House Outdoor Education Centre and Wandsworth’s Children’s Services developed a Fruit and Vegetable Hub Challenge. This was a collaborative learning activity aimed at developing knowledge and understanding about the positive benefits of eating fruit and vegetables.
“Without a doubt, the highlight of the project for everybody involved was being able to witness firsthand the direct positive impact that our project was having on the children,” says NCGM’s Alastair Owen. “In most cases, we were exposing the kids to fruit and vegetables in ways that they had never seen before. For some, their only source of vegetables was from a can from the supermarket, so to be able to open their eyes, minds and tastebuds to a whole new dimension and way of thinking was fantastic. We were able to teach them that fruit and vegetables are not only very good for you, but they can taste great too.”
And it does not stop there for NCGM. The market is about to embark on the second year of its project. “We will be working with the seven local primary schools involved in the project last year and we will also be working with a local secondary school, as well as a special needs school,” explains Owen. “We have tweaked our project to make it as interactive as possible for the children when they are at the market and visiting the farms. We will also focus on sustainability more when it comes to [the children’s] gardens that they will be growing over the year.”
FARMS OPEN UP TO KIDS
Many farms across England opened their gates to schoolchildren on Open Farm Days throughout the year. Essex held an open day on May 1, that combined most of the farms in the area and invited schoolchildren along to investigate different zones entitled machinery, livestock, countryside and crops.
More than 3,000 children attended the event at Whittle Park, which was funded by Essex County Council and the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), and involved many farmers and businesses in the area donating their time.
The open day was so successful that there are plans in place to repeat the event again next year. “We are planning to hold the open day in June this year, as the weather could have been better at the event this year,” explains NFU member Guy Smith, whose farm was involved in the open day. “The kids had a great time, though. A local grower brought in potatoes from his farm to make chips in front of the children and all the activities were as interactive as possible.
“There is an obvious demand for it and it was good to see farmers giving their time up for free to educate future countryside users.
“I was a little disappointed that there was not enough money going into the open days, but it was a genuine joy to be part of the initiative.”
Smith hopes that the industry will continue to push food and farming education forward, even though the initiative has come to an end. “The danger is the industry may think it is now a closed book,” he says. “It is very important for the industry to realise that this needs to be an ongoing theme so we can influence our future users.
“I received requests to go into schools and talk to the children about what I do. I often go into schools and I will continue to do that.”
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has produced more of its teacher training packs entitled Why Farming Matters, after teachers called out for more.
The NFU saw a gap in the market for some good teaching material on the subject of agriculture and food production last year and put together two packs - one for primary and the other for secondary schools - with the help of teaching specialists, and 15,000 were released into schools. The material was so effective that the organisation is publishing a further 15,000 this academic year.
“We had really good feedback from teachers and are really pleased with the way it has gone,” says NFU member Guy Smith. “We have just gained the funding from sponsors to be able to produce an extra 15,000 and they will be in schools soon. The proof of the pudding is that the teachers actually want to use them.
“Although the Year of Food and Farming is over, the legacy is there and NFU will continue to raise the profile of agriculture in schools.”
This year’s teaching material will remain the same as the previous year and includes flash cards, posters and a DVD.
“A couple of years ago, the only educational materials out there for teachers were from the WWF, which painted a very poor view of agriculture, with farmers destroying the countryside,” says Smith. “As an industry, we need to make sure that teachers can source positive information about farming.”
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