Edinburgh to Cheriton Bishop

In the last week there has been two meetings, in two countries with two totally different sets of views on farming and land use.
The 2010 Nuffield Farming Conference held in Edinburgh at a nice hotel, where the great and good of agriculture listened to the 2009 scholars presentations of their findings. Mostly these were very interesting, some were outstanding presentations by inspiring individuals. There was some controversy, mostly from the south west which seems to embrace alternative ideas, and plenty of discussion. I felt a little disappointed with the food chain talks, where we have heard it before about getting closer to the consumer and telling the story. My feeling are the supermarkets are even telling producers stories now, so what is next? The inspiring stuff is on the green energy, peak oil and alternative crops like algae and grain maize. These were scholars that had looked outside the box and were acting on what they saw with conviction, exciting times! Reports on the talks are available from the Nuffield website or if they not there get hold of Mr Stones, they are worth reading.
Of course I was there not just to enjoy but to find out what will be required of me next year and I'm certainly have some work to do.
Cheriton Bishop village hall with no heating and 16 people was the venue of the second meeting to watch the screening of Winstanley a 1975 film about the digger movement in 1649. Winstanley was a dreamer that tried to make his vision a reality by growing crops and living on St Georges hill which was common land. It was a vision that came from poverty and great injustices. the generally theme is that all land should be free and should be there for all to share. After a lot of hardship and pretty bad behaviour of both the local landowners and local peasants they were finally dispersed. Although they had a rough time with crops being damaged, they nearly starved as their crops were not sufficient alone and they did not want to trade to make sure they had enough food for the winter.
The discussion afterwards was a mixed group, not many humble peasants but plenty of anti farmer feeling. Ideas discussed was how the single farm payment has made land too expensive and farmers to rich, how anyone should be allowed to build on land if they were low impact living, how you could live on very few acres, that we are born with the skills to farm or if not we should be teaching sustainable living. I did try and put in a good word for council farms especially Devon, but I felt a little outnumbered. To close the evening we sang The World Turned Upside Down my favourite verse being:

We come in Peace, they said, to dig and sow
We come to work the lands in common and make the waste ground grow
This earth divided we will make whole
So it may be a common treasury for all

Strong stuff, but if peak oil chaos that is predicted does occur, are we going to be in such times that radical solutions will be required?
Part from my Sister in law (and Jakki won't mind me saying that!) must people have an interest and affinity with the land and nature. They are finding out where there food is from and many dream of moving to the country and having animals. Most see capital and availability of land as the biggest barrier. Many lack courage to live in a yurt, but here in the South West we have many rich peasants buying up the small farms to live their dream.
Farming has two options; to see this as a threat, or as an opportunity to harness those dreamers and help them to farm.
Maybe in the next year I can come up with a talk that keeps up the South West's alternative reputation.
16 + the amiss 7 + Michael Blanche NfSch = nearly a revolution. Any one like to join (no need to be a peasant)

Girl Power

The other week I spent an interesting day at The Royal Agricultural College Speaking to the Widening Participation officer. When I first found there was such a post I found it quite funny having gone to college at a time when the Royal maintained an exclusive status by having fees that were way above other colleges and was definitely not known for being inclusive.
Emma Thomas is an interesting person that is very much motivated by the benefits that education bring to young people. Her post is funded from several streams and is part of Aim Higher which is about making everyone aware of the benefits higher education can bring, whatever their background. This means that she is not just promoting Agricultural education. Most colleges and universities have such a person and bring all ages of school children onto campus to encourage them to aspire to Higher Education.
So why go to the Royal? I first contacted Emma because she runs the Young City Farmers Programme an idea inspired by The Black Farmer (Wilfred Emanual Jones) to get inner city kids out to experience the countryside and then help them equip themselves with the skills to go into land based industries. The programme is in it's 4th year and is funded from several land based charitable trusts and the results are now being seen. Previous student have gone on to various courses including NDA's in horticulture, apprenticeships and full time jobs. A really well thought out programme that certainly inspired youngsters to make agriculture their choice of career. The only draw back was it was only 12 students a year participating and the resources going into were quite considerable. Although Emma was pleased how the program had developed she felt that maybe it was not utilising resources efficiently and reaching out to enough students.
Emma was helped out by 2 very able girls that were Student Ambassadors. This looked like a job I could have done with at college with pay rates well over the minimum wage. Talking to these girls was where the day got very interesting. One was from a farm and was studying a degree in food chain, the other was from non farming background and in second year of a BSC in Agriculture. They had a fantastic commitment to promoting the food industry and bubbled over with enthusiasm. They obviously had the right communication skills to encourage school children to have a go at higher Education. I learnt loads from them, mainly about being old and cynical but also pearls of wisdom like 'of course we expect to be more professional than our parents generation' 'it is difficult to get experience on a farm but i always read the farmers weekly' 'i completed a tractor driving course but not yet learnt to reverse a trailer' ' on course of 40 Ag students only 4 are girls.' It was a bit mind blowing and i am still having a job working some of it out.
So far i am thinking that

1. Although i started on my pre college year 25 years ago, it is still nearly impossible to get a job on a farm without some experience
2. I thought we had done the feminist bit and proved that girls were as good as the boys, but I just must not notice anymore. (did you know that only 10% of farmworkers are female)
3. It's about time farmers woke up and took both girls and boys more seriously before all this youthful enthusiasm goes somewhere else.
4. Why on earth is Agriculture the one course at RAC that doesn't require any practical experience?

Nevil says that i should have gone and visited a proper Agriculture College (old habits die hard) and maybe I will and maybe the demographics will be different, I hope so.
The following week I got even more confused when the Farmer Weekly had some forum on 'What should a Farmers Daughter do?' Sometimes I am at a loss how to understand an industry that seems to find what your father works at more important than your skills (how many job interviews ask that?) and seems content to dismiss 50% of the workforce because of their Sex.
As a mother of 2 Daughters and 3 Sons I know which ones are the most focused and ambitious and the most useful on the farm. OK so not really scientific survey but that's Nuffield.
Phew,Rant Over so you can relax now!


My Pre-College farm, Newhouse Farm where the Hook family were good enough to teach me to drive a tractor. I did work for £35 per week for 3 months and was very proud when they decided I was good enough to be paid a proper wage.