Food for thought

Matt Limb OBE celebrates Open Farm Sunday and considers the importance of teaching the younger generation about food and its production.

A few years ago, on a sunny summer afternoon, I drove past a farm which had several signs up publicising its involvement in the ‘Open Farm Sunday’ event. My immediate thought was, what a waste of time. I’m sure most farmers have better things to do on a Sunday afternoon at this time of year. But I pondered this for a while as I continued to drive, remembering a well-published survey which claimed that more than a third of 16-23 year-olds did not know that bacon comes from pigs, while 40 percent failed to associate milk with dairy cows.

Interestingly, at the same time, a high proportion of this same age group confidently claimed to be ‘knowledgeable’ about the basics of food production. I’m guessing this was a ‘from the supermarket’ knowledgeable, with little understanding of the wider and deeper food supply chain.

Suddenly Open Farm Sunday had a meaning and purpose, but I still struggle with other facts from the survey, which also reported that almost a third of UK primary pupils think cheese is made from plants and a quarter think fish fingers come from chicken or pigs. This year Open Farm Sunday, which is managed by the national charity LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming), celebrated its 18th anniversary. It is now regarded as one of our farming industry’s biggest achievements. Since the first event in 2006, more than 1,600 farmers have hosted by opening their gates and welcoming almost three million people onto their farms for one Sunday each year, with each event uniquely based around the farm’s own individual story.

Looking forward, Open Farm Sunday continues to focus on encouraging more farmers to open their gates, tell their own unique stories and put farming centre stage, for just one day. But the magic really happens when visitors talk with farmers and see farming firsthand. Such conversations can have a lasting, positive impact, helping people to understand and more importantly value the work farmers do, the food they eat and to make more informed choices about their food. For some, it could also inspire them to consider a career in farming.

As someone who was brought up on a farm and spent that formative period of my life in the rural farming community, I find it simply unbelievable that there is such little understanding among the younger generation about the food chain and food production – especially when we are at last seeing food security becoming an issue on the government radar.

Trying to understand where we have gone wrong, I further thought over this; a decline in butcher’s shops on the high street and the massive reduction in cattle markets across the country has alienated so many young eyes from the public visibility of the food supply chain. At the same time, the growth of the supermarket has ‘hidden’ so much of what we could see years ago, like the butcher working and butchering an animal carcass, cutting meat on his block in a high street shop for all to view from the counter, or even watch through the window.

We could add to this the lack of fresh air that a typical member of today’s younger generation gets, so often sitting in a bedroom alone spending time on the latest electronic device, rather than getting their hands dirty and taking in some exercise in the fresh air of the countryside.

While the decline of cattle markets and butcher’s shops might partly account for such a lack of knowledge about our farms animals, there is sadly an equal ignorance regarding fruit and vegetables – the most incredible being that many believe strawberries actually grow inside the fridge; others think they grow on trees and more children associate Kale with a boy’s name, rather than a plant or vegetable.

To follow this, when asked to guess how long it takes to grow the simplest of all root vegetables, the humble carrot, replies varied from just one day to a full ten years. Then, over a quarter of the children surveyed had no idea that carrots grow underground, with as many as ten percent believing they were harvested from a bush.

This really does reveal an awful truth about our younger generation. What does this say about the ever-growing consumption of readily available junk food and the consequences of obesity and other health complications that come with it? Are we really doing future generations any favours by ‘hiding’ the truth about our nation’s food production? Or is this yet more of the pink-fluffy brigade with political correctness that has gone totally mad? Whatever the reason, it is yet more compelling evidence that as a nation we are becoming more and more disconnected from our natural world and raising a population that has a lack of knowledge about where our food comes from.

Still driving home, I became a convert. If Open Farm Sunday is the only way to get the next generation into a pair of wellies and get them dirty, while listening to the sound of cows, pigs and sheep plus other farm animals (and more importantly understanding why they are bred and where they sit in the food chain), it must be a good thing. But why is it not done as part of every child’s education? Surely to understand what we eat and why must be one of the most important things for human life to survive on the planet?

Over the years I have seen continual criticism of the shooting community and the hard work done by stalkers who help control an out-of-control deer population across the country. Not only are they helping to manage an ever-growing herd that is damaging the farmers’ valuable crops, but they also help generate one of the healthiest of meats, venison. To this we can add pest control of the everyday wood pigeon, which can cause as much as ten million pounds of crop damage every month across the country. In their own right they play a part in food security, which is suddenly on everyone’s mind.

But, how good would it be if the equivalent of Open Farm Sunday could be launched to show the work of the unsung heroes who daily help our farmers with pest control and help in management and conservation across the rural landscape.

So, what can we do to help reverse this epic shortfall in our children’s learning and understanding? I am not entirely sure but I would encourage each and every one of you to engage with any of the younger generation who shows even the slightest interest in shooting or fishing.

So many country skills and pastimes in their own small way are part of the food supply chain, some would say we are the original hunter-gatherers where taking something for the pot is a regular occurrence. What would be better for the youth of today than to take part in an afternoon’s activity in the countryside that allowed them to go home happy with the spoils of their sport, and an understanding of where that food came from?

We can only hope as we look to the future that our young prodigies take a visit to next year’s Open Farm Sunday, find an activity that gets them away from the latest electronic device and gives them some understanding about our countryside and food chain. Then maybe in a future survey they would not believe that a chicken can only be cooked on a barbecue and sirloin steak comes from pigs – plus their health may also benefit from their newfound knowledge.

Learn more about Open Farm Sunday at: www.farmsunday.org

Photographs: Matt Limb OBE

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