FARMING and FOOD

Picture of mixed farm in the Lake District: Underhelm Farm. Picture by Mister P.

Agriculture has made the British landscape the way it is today. Farmers for generations have decided on how to delimit their boundaries and what crops or animals to farm on their land. Yellow oilseed rape has appeared, hedges have been grubbed up. Chemicals have been embraced and then partially discarded in favour of the organic alternative (which still uses approved chemicals..) If we are what we eat, then people need to be clearer about what goes into their mouths. When we go into the rural areas of the country we need to remember that it is the hard work of farmers that create the landscape and maintain it. Many of the aspects of the Country Code and other informal 'codes of conduct' are designed at limiting the negative impacts of tourism in these areas.

LESSON PLANS are now HERE.

GENERAL UK FARMING LINKS

Go HERE for my page on the GM issue.

How about the idea of FOOD MILES.

Check out the new agency website for all things countryside: NATURAL ENGLAND

• For a large part of 2001, a key issue was the Foot & Mouth outbreak, which had repercussions outside of farming, particularly for rural tourism. For the latest information on the situation and archived materials, try the DEFRA site, or the WELSH equivalent: the CCW. They may well have information on the way that farms are rebuilding following the outbreak. As with the renaming of other Government departments, the renaming and redirection of some sites can take a little while, so there may still be some MAFF labelled stuff out there gathering cobwebs. The CCW site is more for the younger age group.
• There are several very useful Virtual farm visits on the National Farmer's Union site, the NFU. You can use these as case studies or wander around by clicking on photos and arrows. It's a fairly straight forward task to put together a worksheet (differentiated perhaps) to guide a group through an area of the site. They have a range of different farm types to investigate. This area has recently been updated, and is now even better. Their recent campaign, called Holiday Watch has involved handing out postcards to people going on holiday to ask about the checks that were carried out on their return at customs for them bringing in contaminated meat products. Recommended.
• Parts of the NFU site's content have recently been redesigned and re-designated as FACE ONLINE. This has useful resources for the younger age groups, including downloadable fact-sheets and the like. There are the various case studies which used to be on the NFU site above, and also some new materials. There is also a useful section FROM FARM TO FRIDGE which allows you to follow the cycle of something like dairy farming from the cow being milked to a range of dairy products made from the milk. The site also features an excellent set of photos in the MULTIMEDIA section which includes pictures of all the main crops and livestock and processes which take place on farms. This would be ideal for producing illustrated worksheets, and they are free for educational use.  Recommended.
• Try a new site to me UK AGRICULTURE which has some excellent materials, including a History of farming and the landscape. There is lots of other information here too. Recommended.
• What effect has the change to different farming methods had on wildlife ? There's an excellent article on this at FARM DIRECT. Worth going to the home page of this site too as there are further excellent illustrated article such as 'Grass - the invisible crop' - there are even some jokes (mostly bad ones) such as:

Q. Which side of a chicken has the most feathers?
A. The outside.

What is the difference between a letterbox and a bull's bottom?
    I don't know
I'll find someone else to post this letter then...

• Farm welfare is covered by the COMPASSION IN WORLD FARMING group. They have some excellent fact-sheets and reports. One has to be aware though that they have a particular agenda - albeit a wholly worthy one. The reports, such as 'Factory Farming and the Myth of Cheap Food' are available as downloadable PDF files. This could form the basis for some 'AS' level work, and could also act as the start for some PSE work with older pupils. The site has the news that the COMPASSIONATE SUPERMARKET award for 2003 was won by WAITROSE. The Observer Food Magazine had an excellent recent article (January 2004) on the part that supermarkets play in dictating which crops are grown, and how much money the suppliers get paid. Another new addition is links to 2 campaigns on external sites.

LIVE FAST DIE YOUNG

No, not motorcyclists, but broiler chickens. Read all about them here.

RED TRACTOR TRUTH

Some alternative viewpoints on the little red tractor logo which means BRITISH FARM STANDARD (and appears on vegetable packaging in my local supermarket..) What does this mean ?

Recommended.

• There are farm links over the FARMGATE, but you'll need to go through the pain of registering first, like many sites nowadays. Once in though it's a useful resource and you can always give a different name and details to your actual ones.
• Farms are increasingly having to diversify to stay in business. For a farm in the Lake District that has done this, you could try ROOKIN HOUSE farm. There are lots of other Farm holiday destinations that you could also search for. Farm holidays are part of the new Eco-tourism 'movement'. 'Take nothing but pictures etc...'
• You can also download a series of (text-based) fact-sheets on farming from FOOD and FARMING site. These are rather good - there's a 5 page document on sheep farming for example. These can be used to put together simpler fact sheets or writing frames for literacy activities.
• For a bit of fun, head over to STORE WARS. This is a 'Star Wars' pastiche produced by the Organic Food Association to encourage people to think about eating organic. You can download the movie (8Mb) and poster / images. Good fun! Nice for a higher level STARTER (or PLENARY 'reward')
• Looking for pictures of crops ?  A recent survey (earlier in 2002) was critical of pupils' ability to recognise basic foods - increasingly people don't know where their food comes from. A large number of children couldn't even recognise broccoli. I suppose if it doesn't come out of a microwave they're stumped. I cook all my meals using fresh organic ingredients* Starter: put up some pictures of veg and see how many of them they recongnise...
• A useful EDP site: about the future for farming in Norfolk. This would be useful for teachers outside of Norfolk, but for those who are in the county it's a very useful visit.
• A useful article on FOOD MILES here. See the LESSON PLANS for more on this idea of looking at food imports. It's clear that we no longer want to be restricted by seasonality. I can remember that when I was a teenager I worked in a greengrocers in the village where I lived and if we didn't have any of a particular item we used to say "sorry, it's not in stock...". That no longer really counts. Which plants are currently in season in the UK ? Go HERE to find out. Food miles are therefore contributing to CLIMATE CHANGE. Using Google Earth's measuring tool, you can now see how many food miles there are in foods.
• I recently came across the BBC's FOOD PAGE. This obviously is geared towards supporting some of the programmes relating to food i.e. the 50% that isn't some sort of makeover programme. This has an area they call PLANET FOOD, and it has a very useful area which looks at the environmental and other impacts of food production by focussing on a range of foodstuffs. These include foods such as prawns, ice cream, mushrooms and turkey. Recommended.
• There are some useful details on FARM VISITS at FARMS FOR SCHOOLS

• Go to the site of the COUNTRYSIDE FOUNDATION: an educational charity that aims to 'Bring the Countryside into the Classroom'.

• A recent find was NATTER JACK. This is a Norfolk based site which has been put together by Phil Gulliver. It includes a range of materials for different age groups. There are some POWERPOINTS showing various breeds of pigs, sheep, cows etc. and some images. There are also pictures and farm sounds to download, such as a squealing pig and a hen laying an egg. Also included is the MUDDY BOOTS site for younger pupils.

• The SOIL ASSOCIATION have a FARM TRAILS website which gives you the chance to wander around a range of farms. There are 16 FARMS on the site in different parts of the country. They all offer information which would be useful to base case studies on. There is also a link to a site where you can purchase a video on a year in the life of Penrhiw Farm, which is featured on several textbook series. The video looks at a year's activity on this Organic farm.

• Looking at SUSTAINABILITY in farming ?

Check out the RUSHALL FARM website. This gives an example of sustainability.

I would also recommend butchers which offer you the provenance of the food that you are eating, with all meat being traced back to particular cows.

There are some other SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES at the EAST ANGLIA FOOD LINK site.

Another food product with a history is RHUBARB.

I recently came across a good article in the Feb 2001 issue of 'Country Life' which was about the Rhubarb triangle near Wakefield. I've known about this for many years, and the Rhubarb festival is an annual event - in fact I went to one in the 1980s, and it's well worth taking a tour of the forcing sheds.

Here is a Rhubarb FAQ gleaned from the article:

• The 'Rhubarb Triangle' is located in the old West Riding of Yorkshire (don't get me started on Wapentakes...) - 'The Wap' in Sheffield was a bad memory from my teens...

• The 3 apices of the triangle are Leeds, Bradford and Wakey (Wakefield to you..), where 90% of UK's forced crop is grown...

• There are a handful of rhubarb growers, such as Oldroyd'

• The process of rhubarb used to involve dressing an area of land with shoddy (waste from the textile industry), and rhubarb buds are planted in close proximity in forcing sheds. Harvesting starts in late December / early January and harvest continues until March.

• Rhubarb needs rich soil, plenty of manure and sharp drainage.

• A rhubarb plant can live for 20 years.

Why not go to the SHEEP GAME and test your skills.

• Contacted  by Devin from FARMING TALK.

  Discussion forum for farming, ranching and all other aspects of agriculture. Forums on crops, livestock, animals, finance, and much more. Get help, learn new techniques and share ideas.

FARMING IN LEDC's

The use of child labour in the production of cocoa has been in the news lately.

• Global Eye have a feature on  COCOA PRODUCTION in Cameroon and the Cote, D'Ivoire.

• More at the CHOCOLATE INFORMATION CENTRE too.

• Try the Tea Council's TEA TRAIL site.

Coffee Facts (Courtesy of 'Teachers' magazine)

It takes 4000 beans to make one 450g jar of coffee.

Coffee is the most popular beverage worldwide, with 400 billion cups a year being consumed. Coffee is now one of the most valuable primary commodities in the world, often second only to oil as a source of foreign exchange.

Just been reading book: "Not on the Label" which looks at the source of some of the food on your plate.

COCOA and COFFEE are key products. See the FAIRTRADE page for more, or the FOOD MILES page.

DIVERSIFICATION

Many farmers have had to look for alternative sources of income as farm incomes in some areas have declined, although there are some who remain sceptical when they see the vehicles farmers drive. The recent foot-and-mouth outbreak has prompted many to reconsider the future.

Ideas for extra income (please be aware that there are plenty of others..)

Farm Shops

Children's Farms

Speciality food production

Holiday cottages

Bed and Breakfast

Stables and Horse riding

Farm visits can provide some income. We used to visit a farm in the Lake District in the days when we still had 6th form residential visits. A picture of the farm, which I went to 3 times over the years is shown at the top of the page. During the 2001 Foot and Mouth outbreak, one farmer had a lot of time on her hands and built a website including a virtual farm tour. Why not pay a visit to the site: BEECHENHILL FARM in the Peak District National Park. Some excellent FAQ sections, and links to other farm sites. You'll need Adobe Acrobat to download some of the reports, which would also be useful for GCSE and AS students. There's also an excellent FARM JOURNAL which lists the jobs that are done at different times of the year. Highly Recommended for GCSE / AS students.

• Silviculture: the farming of trees: usually done by the FORESTRY COMMISSION. Has a developing education section (Learning section)

• Farm Holidays: this site has details on FARM HOLIDAYS IN THE PEAK DISTRICT. Try FARMSTAY UK for more details.

• COUNTRY LIFE has information on....Country Life.

• Going over to ORGANIC farming (although the increase in GM usage apparently looks set to wipe out Organic farms as they couldn't realistically claim to be free of contamination). One farm near Bruichladdich on the Isle of Islay (home of the finest malt whiskies on earth) has become the first to be approved by the RSPB for its wildlife friendly farming methods. Find out more at FARMING FOR BIRDS.

• There are plenty of ways for farms to make extra income. Some of these ideas are supplied by the COUNTRYSIDE ALLIANCE. Remember that they have their own agenda if visiting the site, but then we all have our own agenda...

• What about RURAL HOUSING ?- this site has the tagline 'Village housing for Village people' - I thought they stayed at the YMCA...

• DIVERSIFICATION is about some of the ways that farmers look for alternative or additional sources of income, one of these being the search for different types of meat to tempt us with:

e.g Alternative Livestock: Deer (Venison), Milking Sheep and Goats (or Buffalo) for alternative dairy products e.g. Cheese production, which is a growing trend, Fish - main species which are farmer are Salmon, brown and rainbow Trout, Carp and shellfish.

Alternative Crops: Spelt wheat (that's spelt W - H - E - A - T - what a 'crop' joke...) which is grown for people who have wheat allergies, evening primrose and rye

Sport and recreation: Fishing - lakes can be managed on a 'put and take' basis where anglers are allowed to catch a certain quota, Shooting - may be 'rough' shooting or Clay-pigeon shooting (which may be laser based so no clays are actually broken..), Cycling - demand for off-road cycling routes, or Off-road vehicles e.g 4x4s, Horse enterprises: stabling and riding schools

Farm retailing

Tourism

More information on the website of the CPRE: Council for the Protection of Rural England: some useful information on their campaigns on TRANQUIL AREAS, FLY TIPPING and LIGHT POLLUTION. Click the LOGO to visit the site.

MODERN FARMING TRENDS

"Farming is almost literally dying as farmers get older and their children choose not to enter the industry." (The Observer, 11/12/05)

In the early 70's, 500 000 worked in farming in the UK, in the year 2000 it was less than 250 000: just 1.8% of the UK's workforce. Almost a third of all farmers are over 65.

The average farmer gets £66 an acre today, compared with £81 a year ago, and this is predicted to drop further in 2006.

Farmers have looked to boot income by developing redundant buildings, such as barn conversions.

As evidence of how many farms are owned by companies, there was a recent article in 'The Guardian' which gave details of the amount of CAP payments that some companies made. These companies include Nestle, Cadbury's, Kraft and Tate & Lyle.

* = not actually true...

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