Championing rural life in Devon

 

The Duchess is paying a return visit to the Show in her role as this year’s President of the Devon County Agricultural Association, three years after enjoying a successful visit with HRH The Prince of Wales, who is also the Show’s Patron, just after their marriage.

 

Show Secretary Ollie Allen said: “We are honoured and delighted that our President has chosen to attend the Show. We are very much looking forward to introducing her to some of the many people who come together in May to give us an insight into their rural lives, whether that’s breeding livestock, lace-making or making cheese.”

 

The timing of the Duchess’s visit is particularly pertinent in this, The Year of Food and Farming, a national campaign to help children find out more about the countryside and where their food comes from through first hand experiences. The Year is championed by HRH The Prince of Wales, who is its Patron.

 

The Show plans to have new trails around the Showground for children to explore different local food stories – including meat, dairy, bread and honey – all of which will offer them plenty of fun, treats and the chance to win some great prizes.

 

Ollie Allen said the Show offered an opportunity to reconnect youngsters to the countryside, instilling in them a life-long appreciation for their food and the way it is produced: “We enthusiastically support this campaign and are looking forward to welcoming pupils who will have the opportunity to directly follow the story of field to fork, cup to cow and plough to plate and explore the importance of eating healthy food.”

 

Latest research published by the campaign shows that many children, and adults, have little or no understanding of how their food is produced. Almost half (46%) of young children have absolutely no involvement with growing food. Many children also no longer have the opportunity to learn to cook, and an increasing number who live in urban or suburban areas have very little to do with rural life. A quarter of 11–16 year-olds never visit the countryside.

 

“If we lose contact with where our food comes from or how it is prepared, it becomes harder to understand what a balanced diet is, and how it can contribute to good health. And it’s not just individual food choices that are impacted by this growing divide. If children have little knowledge of what our countryside can offer to them by way of employment, leisure and sporting activities, the rural economy will suffer. We need to act now to reconnect children with the countryside – not by preaching about better lifestyles, but by creating memorable, first-hand learning experiences that they will never forget.”

 

The Bishop of Exeter, the Rt. Rev. Michael Langrish, has long been a supporter of country life and is Chairman of the Church of England’s Rural Strategy Group and speaks regularly in the House of Lords on matters relating to farming and rural affairs. He is the President of the Devon Association of Young Farmers’ Clubs and, until recently he chaired the Devon Strategic Partnership. Since arriving in the county he has been closely associated with the Show and this year he is Deputy President of the Devon County Agricultural Association. 

 

He has earnt the respect of those who care about the countryside by helping to raise awareness of some of the issues that affect people living and working in rural areas. He was forthright in his views on the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001, confronting the Government over its neglect and cynical attitude to rural communities. At the end of last year he launched a report from the church's Ethical Investment Advisory Group which concluded that leading food retailers placed "considerable stress" on the farming community through unfair methods that consumers were largely unaware of. In the process, he helped to raise the consciences of those who live in cities and urban towns over something which might have seemed to them a remote concern.

 

“A lot of people ask me if I’ve always had a passion for agriculture. The answer is no! But I have always had a passion for people who live and work in my ministry and their concerns,” the Bishop said. 

 

“I came to Exeter at the beginning of 2000 and set myself the task of spending the first six months going out about around the county and listening to people and communities about their concerns. I saw the impact of BSE, farm gate prices in free fall, and issues were beginning to be raised about the rural community. I wanted to try and understand those issues and start speaking out about them.”

 

The foot and mouth crisis, and the subsequent recovery work, led him into a deeper engagement with the rural community and its showcase the Devon County Show.

 

He added: “I am passionate about the Show at lots of levels. It is a wonderful celebration of the county of Devon. The Show is a great shop window, and helps to visitors understand the connections between what they do and the countryside. The Show is vitally important.

 

“I’m amazed to find myself Deputy President as I’m neither a farmer nor a land owner! To be accorded the privilege feels enormous and I want to make really good use of this opportunity to promote rural and agricultural issues which are so important. I’m particularly thrilled that in this year I am also President of the Devon Association of Young Farmers’ Clubs, which is such a vibrant organisation, and the Show’s charity this year is Farms for City Children, which is about helping young people have a positive understanding of where their food comes from and what it means in terms of other people’s lives.