“There is huge dis­rup­tion in our pol­i­tics, in our cli­mate and in the mar­ket­place, and our chang­ing rela­tion­ship with the EU means any fund­ing needs to be strong­ly defined and cer­tain­ly demon­strat­ed as val­ue for mon­ey. Farm­ing is such an impor­tant indus­try – it holds the solu­tion to improved health and diets, our gut health and our well­be­ing; cli­mate change mit­i­ga­tion, and the ser­vices we pro­vide beyond food pro­duc­tiv­i­ty: water, soil and air qual­i­ty, and of course nature and bio­di­ver­si­ty. We are at a piv­otal point and we real­ly need to make sure we, as farm­ers, are demon­strat­ing what we do.”

Defra Sec­re­tary of State, Michael Gove, who reg­u­lar­ly ref­er­ences LEAF Open Farm Sun­day in his speech­es, has pro­posed fund­ing for farm­ers who open up the coun­try­side to the pub­lic. Ms Drum­mond, who works with farm­ers across the globe, knows this is not always practical:

“Free­dom to roam is okay but a farm is a work­ing envi­ron­ment, so man­aged access to the coun­try­side is so, so impor­tant. Hav­ing a tan­gi­ble direct way, for one day a year, is a real­ly key aspect of con­nect­ing peo­ple to the coun­try­side. Host­ing LEAF Open Farm Sun­day you have plen­ty of sup­port and resources from LEAF, as well as our spon­sors. It can be tai­lor-made to suit your sit­u­a­tion, as well as the peo­ple you want to con­nect with.”

More than 12,000 peo­ple across the indus­try are involved every year in deliv­er­ing farming’s annu­al open day. For the last three years LEAF Open Farm Sun­day has attract­ed over a quar­ter of a mil­lion vis­i­tors each year. Eighty-nine per­cent of vis­i­tors in 2018 said that they now had a more pos­i­tive atti­tude to farm­ing. Vis­i­tors have includ­ed for­mer Radio 2 pre­sen­ter Chris Evans and HRH The Count­ess of Wessex.

Ms Drum­mond also dis­cussed how bring­ing the pub­lic on-farm is a pow­er­ful oppor­tu­ni­ty to demon­strate the pub­lic goods that farm­ers deliv­er which is essen­tial to gain sup­port from the pub­lic going for­ward for a sus­tain­able farm­ing industry. 

“About 88% of the UK is urban so they are becom­ing more and more dis­tant from how we grow our food, the sea­sons and nature. We for­get the valu­able day-to-day activ­i­ties and the excite­ment that we take for grant­ed but farm­ing is the ulti­mate 5‑D cin­e­ma – it touch­es every sense and the more sens­es you touch the more you embed a mem­o­ry. That cre­ates an under­stand­ing, a bet­ter love. The recent sur­vey shows the pow­er of those farm­ers who are doing such a fan­tas­tic job and are con­nect­ing the sto­ry of farm­ing with people’s every­day lives. Often you can for­get how it fits into your life as an indi­vid­ual. The more peo­ple we get out on a farm before the age of 11, the more you have sown a seed that is about an appre­ci­a­tion and love for nature and for farming.”

Time, effort and health and safe­ty are bar­ri­ers often cit­ed by farm­ers for not host­ing their own LEAF Open Farm Sun­day event. Many farm­ers are also con­cerned that they do not have enough to show the pub­lic. Ms Drum­mond coun­ters this by rec­om­mend­ing that farm­ers start small and that there is plen­ty of sup­port avail­able from LEAF, indus­try con­tacts and farm­ers who have host­ed before:

“As an organ­i­sa­tion we help and sup­port farm­ers in mak­ing sure that they have an event that they feel hap­py about deliv­er­ing and one they can man­age, and that it’s a great expe­ri­ence — fun, enjoy­able and edu­ca­tion­al – for those attend­ing. Peo­ple just love the expe­ri­ence of going out on farm. If you plan well, it doesn’t have to be too com­pli­cat­ed. Through our tick­et­ing ser­vice you can eas­i­ly man­age vis­i­tor num­bers.”

Ms Drum­mond added that show­ing the range of skills and tech­nol­o­gy involved in farm­ing is equal­ly valu­able in chang­ing the public’s per­cep­tion of farm­ing and for encour­ag­ing young peo­ple into the industry.

LEAF Open Farm Sun­day is on Sun­day 9^th June 2019. For farm­ers inter­est­ed in tak­ing part, down­load the Infor­ma­tion Pack from the web­site www​.farm​sun​day​.org. The web­site also has case stud­ies and tips for host­ing a suc­cess­ful open farm day. Reg­is­ter your event online at www​.farm​sun​day​.org to access the free sup­port and resources from LEAF.

Lis­ten to the pod­cast on Rock and Roll Farm­ing from Wednes­day 16^th Jan­u­ary 2019.

Click here to read the full press release.