The breadth of indus­try sup­port is reflect­ed in this year’s LEAF Open Farm Sun­day spon­sors, announced this week: Arla Foods, Asda, BASF plc, Co-op, Defra, Fron­tier Agri­cul­ture, John Deere, LEAF Mar­que, Marks & Spencer, The Nation­al Farm­ers’ Union, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Wait­rose and the Agri­cul­ture and Hor­ti­cul­ture Devel­op­ment Board, plus media part­ner, Farm­ers Weekly. 

Car­o­line Drum­mond, Chief Exec­u­tive of LEAF (Link­ing Envi­ron­ment And Farm­ing), the organ­is­ers of LEAF Open Farm Sun­day, explained the sig­nif­i­cance of this sup­port: ​“The need to con­nect peo­ple with farm­ing and what it deliv­ers has nev­er been more impor­tant. LEAF Open Farm Sun­day pro­vides the per­fect plat­form to show­case the whole farm­ing indus­try and the val­ues, qual­i­ty and high stan­dards deliv­ered by farm­ers and grow­ers. By unit­ing our world-lead­ing food and farm­ing sec­tor through LEAF Open Farm Sun­day, we are enabling over a quar­ter of a mil­lion peo­ple to expe­ri­ence farm­ing first hand, get their ques­tions answered and build trust and under­stand­ing in farm­ing and all it deliv­ers. This col­lab­o­ra­tion is key. A huge thank you from LEAF to all our spon­sors for back­ing LEAF Open Farm Sun­day 2018 and to all our host farm­ers and their helpers for putting on engag­ing events which are hav­ing such a pos­i­tive impact.” 

Sec­re­tary of State Michael Gove said: ​“Open Farm Sun­day is a fan­tas­tic ini­tia­tive to con­nect us all to the coun­try­side and help us under­stand what’s involved in farm­ing and food pro­duc­tion. I am delight­ed to see so many organ­i­sa­tions sup­port­ing the impor­tant work of LEAF. 

“The role that farm­ers play in enabling access and enjoy­ment of our beau­ti­ful coun­try­side is, in my view, an impor­tant pub­lic good that we should all val­ue. I am look­ing for­ward to vis­it­ing one of the hun­dreds of farms which will be open to the pub­lic on 10 June.” 

The theme for 2018 is ​‘The Great British Farm Day’ and to sup­port farm­ers who are open­ing, LEAF has a wide range of free resources to help farm­ers plan their event and to use on the day, includ­ing a hand­book, posters, engag­ing activ­i­ties and lots of case stud­ies with top tips avail­able online at www​.farm​sun​day​.org. Plus the team of Region­al Co-ordi­na­tors is on hand to answer ques­tions and offer advice . 

Jere­my Pad­field, LEAF Open Farm Sun­day Region­al Co-ordi­na­tor for the South West urges more farm­ers and relat­ed busi­ness­es to take part: ​“Farm­ing needs the sup­port of the pub­lic more than ever and as an indus­try we need to share our sto­ry. We have to be trans­par­ent and open about what we do and engage in a dia­logue with con­sumers, to edu­cate, gain their trust and to answer their ques­tions in an hon­est, open man­ner. The more farm­ers that open for LEAF Open Farm Sun­day, the greater the impact the day will have. Per­son­al­ly, it is huge­ly reward­ing to be able to speak direct­ly with the pub­lic and talk about our work which we are so proud of.” 

To view the full press release click here.