Food for Thought

We've just launched the Farmers Weekly Kids Connect campaign which aims to reconnect children with the countryside and explain how their food is produced.

But some joker in the office has just asked whether people will think we are campaigning to improve the social lives of baby goats...

Farmers Weekly is holding out for a hero. We have joined forces with the NFU to seek a farming champion. As part of the 2007 Farmers Weekly Awards, we are looking for someone worthy of the title NFU Farming Champion.

If you were in any doubt about the need for the Year of Food and Faming - which is all about reconnecting kids with the countryside and the food the eat - then here it is.

One of our journalists recently attended an initiative run by Bridgwater College in Somerset which involved inviting 500 schoolchildren onto its Cannington-based farm.

Here is a selection of the questions and comments they made:

"Are the cows going to be made into sausages?"
(When looking at a sheep) "Is that a cow?"
"Are there any elephants here?"
"Cor - it stinks out here."
"It scares me when the cows go moo."
"I didn't realise that not all cows are eaten."
"I've learnt that cows are milked with a pump - I thought you had to hand squeeze them and sit on a bucket."

But from the pictures we've got of the event it looks like they had a good time and must have improved their knowledge!