DairyCo

The Year of Food and Farming is launched

Published 1 June 07

On Wednesday September 12th 2007, HRH The Prince of Wales became the first farmer to open his gates to support the Year of Food and Farming. 

As Patron for the campaign, he hosted a visit for more than 50 children, introducing them to the daily business of Duchy Home Farm.

A generation of concrete children
To reinforce the importance of such visits, findings from a new research study, overseen by psychologist Dr Aric Sigman, were released. 

New data indicated that a generation of "concrete children" has become cut off from the countryside, with clear risks to both their health and wider prospects. According to the findings:

• One in five pupils never visit the countryside - indicating that more than a million children across the country have absolutely no contact with the land. 
• A further 17% have only been to the countryside "once or twice", meaning a third of children have little, if any, experience of the rural world.
• Two thirds of children with regular rural interaction say it matters where their meals comes from, versus just 40% of children who admit they never visit the countryside
• These "concrete children" are also less willing to help with meal preparation at home, and are twice as likely to admit they don't know where everyday fruit and vegetables are grown.   

The benefits of 'green time'
Encouragingly, Dr Sigman's review also shows the benefits of "green time" - simply being in the countryside, school garden or a leafy environment - are significant:

• Children with views of and contact with nature score higher on tests of concentration and self-discipline.
• Exposure to natural environments improves children's cognitive development by improving their awareness, reasoning and observational skills
• Results for schools with outdoor education programmes show improved performance on standardised measures of academic achievement in reading, writing, maths, science and social studies. Classroom behaviour also showed improvements.

Get Involved
With all the gains to be had from reconnecting children to the countryside, the Year is now urging farmers, food producers and schools to register on its Megamap - www.yearoffoodandfarming.org.uk - to give pupils hands-on, memorable learning experiences that they'll never forget.