This week is Nation­al Sto­ry­telling Week and farm­ers have some of the best and most impor­tant sto­ries to tell of all.

Farm­ers would have been among the world’s first sto­ry tellers, gath­er­ing around fires as they cared for their live­stock, telling tales of gen­er­a­tions past and how the world began. Chores such as plant­i­ng or har­vest­ing would have been made eas­i­er by chat­ting and telling jokes. 

Today, when many farm­ers work in iso­la­tion, get­ting togeth­er with oth­ers is a pre­cious time when ideas and expe­ri­ences can be shared. At LEAF we find that fel­low­ship of farm­ers is the key ingre­di­ent to the suc­cess of our farm demon­stra­tion net­work. There are now near­ly 40 work­ing farms where farm­ers gath­er and share what they have learnt. 

But a suc­cess­ful farm­ing indus­try is one that shares its sto­ries and inter­acts with the wider world and there is a thirst to know more about farm­ing among the pub­lic. That is why over 250,000 peo­ple flock to hun­dreds of farms on LEAF Open Farm Sun­day every year. So, on the 7^th June vis­i­tors up and down the coun­try will be enthralled by the sto­ries farm­ers have to tell and the pas­sion with which they tell them. For our 15^th anniver­sary year, we are encour­ag­ing and sup­port­ing more farm­ers to open their farms, to reach out to peo­ple about what they do and why farm­ing mat­ters. Sto­ries help draw us togeth­er, they can be trans­for­ma­tive and a pow­er­ful entry point to under­stand­ing the world of farming. 

Sto­ry­telling is key to how school­child­ren learn and social media has intro­duced a whole new dimen­sion to an ancient art, allow­ing class­es to inter­act remote­ly with ​‘teach­ers’ through Skype and Face­book live. This explains the suc­cess of Farmer Time, which sees farm­ers reg­u­lar­ly shar­ing their sto­ries with hun­dreds of schools across Britain. Else­where, LEAF Edu­ca­tion inte­grates the mar­vels of farm­ing and food pro­duc­tion in the curriculum. 

Some of the best sto­ries are nev­er told because of the lack of an audi­ence or the con­fi­dence to tell them. That is why it is such a plea­sure to see famers who have used LEAF’s Speak Out Toolk­it open up and see peo­ple respond to their stories. 

Farming’s sto­ry of pro­duc­ing whole­some food, while enhanc­ing the envi­ron­ment is one that finds a ready and will­ing audi­ence. We all have our own unique farm­ing sto­ries to tell – make 2020 the year that you take part in LEAF Open Farm Sun­day and share your farm­ing stories. 

Car­o­line Drummond

LEAF Chief Executive