‘LEAF’ is a registered charity in England which promotes public understanding of farming through all-year-round visits to demonstration farms and ‘Open Farm Sunday’; plus competitions, surveys etc; and promotion of ‘environmentally responsible farming’ via technical field days for farmers, with approved produce sporting the Leaf logo.
On LEAF’S ‘ Open Farm Sunday’ website the latest press release details the results of a survey of food production knowledge amongst young adults. The results are so bad I can’t help wondering if some answers were given in jest. Surely more than half of England’s 16-23 year olds know butter is made from cow’s milk – especially if they’re choosing the source from a range of photos which includes cows? And surely no-one, let alone 7%, really believes milk comes from wheat? And a third of 16-23 year olds really do know that bacon is connected to pigs and eggs come from chooks, surely? Surely 10% don’t really believe that eggs come from wheat or maize?
It would be interesting to directly compare the results of an identical survey of food production knowledge here in Australia. Perhaps the results would be just as bad or even worse, given our unusually high level of urbanisation and high level of migration in recent years from countries which tend to view farming as lowly ranking peasant work. What is by far the most concerning about the British survey is that most of the 2,000 people surveyed think their knowledge of farming and farm production is good, when in actual fact their knowledge is abysmal. This is the really worrying issue because it’s only those who realise a gap in their knowledge who are ever likely to fix it. Whereas those who believe they know it all have closed minds and are generally doomed for a life of ignorance, without some dramatic event (such as a food shortage) forcing a rethink of priorities. Unfortunately I’ve encountered quite a bit of the attitude ‘farming and farmers aren’t important to me so I’m not going to waste time thinking about agriculture’ here in Australia.
Older generations in England went through severe food shortages during the world wars, or they were raised by people who lived through these food shortages. So these generations all have a very healthy respect for food production and farmers. I guess we’re now seeing a generation in Britain who are quite removed from that first hand experience of food rationing, as are the majority of Australians.
Channel 10’s ‘The Project’ is running a survey on ‘Where do eggs come from‘, with the options being: chickens, wheat, the fridge. I must admit to an almost irresistible urge to click on ‘the fridge’ – it’s almost too tempting, although out my office window I can actually see our chooks (and the turkey) poking around in the bushes, right now. Strictly speaking I reckon eggs come from chooks (adults) not chickens (youngsters), anyway…
Tags: Conservation and the environment, Image of the bush, Australian agriculture