Children from a Shropshire school heard about where their roast dinner comes from – thanks to a scheme from an innovative county farmer.
Derek Harper of J.B.Harper & Son asked children from Millbrook School, Leegomery, Telford, where they think the meat for a roast dinner comes from as well as teaching the children some countryside skills.
They went on a winter nature walk identifying trees, hedgerows and wildlife, whilst picking greenery to make a table decoration with the Countryside Trust, as well as pressing apples to make mulled apple juice. Mr Harper also made butter with the children in the converted cowshed using the old butter churns and dairy equipment.
Mr Harper said: “We ask the children about the food they eat, and in particular we talk about the meat that makes up a roast dinner, such as beef, chicken, pork and turkey.
“Some of them will say their beef comes from Sainsbury’s or Tescos. I will ask where beef comes from and sadly some of them will not even know it’s from a cow. We have to go back to the basics.”
In addition to running the farm and a holiday business, an environmental stewardship package allows Mr Harper to invite schools onto his farm for his ‘From Farm to Fork’ talk. This introduces the children to the beef cattle, gives them an insight into farming and allows them to follow the process through to using the farm’s beef to make burgers with the chef on the farm.
He said: “Madeleys put me in touch with all the right information and grants. We originally looked at wildflower meadows and hedgerows but I wanted to explore education access.
“We have great facilities here that I wanted to share with people that do not have the chance to visit the countryside. We got a school grant from Natural England and that means it’s free for any school that wants to visit us.”
From 2014 to 2015, Mr Harper had nearly 40 classes visit his farm from inner city areas in Walsall, Wolverhampton and Telford.
He said: “It is so important to teach these young people about the countryside. Some do not know where milk comes from or what meat comes from which animal. They will say chicken comes from cows and it’s very sad. The grants we have secured are helping us to teach some very basic but necessary information about the countryside.”
Mr Harper’s project is part of the Higher Level of the Environmental Stewardship Scheme (ESS), which has now been replaced with the new Countryside Stewardship Scheme for new applicants.
Paul Madeley, of Madeleys Chartered Surveyors in Much Wenlock, who helped Mr Harper with the application process, said the new scheme had a different focus.
He said: “The ESS allowed all farmers, whatever their farm size, to maintain and enhance the environment and farm within the landscape. The educational access option, such as the one Mr Harper provides on his farm, has been highly important and provided great social benefit.
“The new Countryside Stewardship Scheme (CSS) is a restructured version of the former environmental stewardship scheme and provides payments to landowners to protect and enhance the environment with Government focussed on diversity of wildlife and water quality.”
But Mr Madeley warned that unlike the former scheme, the CSS has a competitive entry process, which will see some landowners unable to get an agreement.
He said: “More than 11,000 agreements under existing schemes will expired throughout 2015 and it has been reported that between only 2,000 and 3,000 have applied to start a new agreement in 2016. Many landowners felt put off the new scheme due to the complexity of the application and the rigid way in which the scheme will be managed.”
Mr Madeley called for an urgent review of the scheme to help improve viability for applicants so the best environmental benefits can be achieved.
He said: “The fear is that, without a review of the new scheme, many expiring agreement holders will not apply for a CSS agreement and the environmental benefits which have been achieved over the past years will be lost. As we can see from Mr Harper’s success with inner city schools, the work is vital both for future generations and for allowing farmers to diversify their businesses.”
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