Grumbles at Plumpton launch
I attended the launch of the South East region's Year of Food and Farming website by Jim Brathwaite, the chair of SEEDA (the RDA for the South East) on Friday at Plumpton College. Can I thank the team for organising such a great event - I was really impressed with the level of commitment and thought that had gone into creating what I am confident will become a really valuable communication tool for food and farming with consumers, schools, children and parents in the region. You can visit it at www.yoffse.org.uk or follow the link from the megamap on the national site at www.yearoffoodandfarming.org.uk. There was a great gathering of agriculturalists and educationalists present to get a test drive of the site, so I was dismayed by comments from a number of farmers in the room that any effort to host school visits should be met with financial compensation for the time spent and facilities added. I'm afraid I simply don't buy that; first, if you are thinking of hosting school visits then you should know the cost implications beforehand and either accept these with a happy heart or seek to establish paid for visits as part of your farm's enterprise mix. Second though, and ultimately more importantly, is that whilst we are calling for school farm visits for the immediate benefit of children, there is serious longer term benefit of these same visits to farmers. These children are our consumers of the future and getting them onto farms is part of developing their 'agricultural literacy' - an understanding of where food comes from, which ultimately leads to them valuing food more as part of their lifestyle. As farmers we have to see the long term return on investment in the relationship we have with our next generation of customers - it's crucial to our survival.