How Open Farm Sunday worked for us | LEAF’s EBrief 24th April 2013

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LEAF’s EBrief 24th April 2013 FARMERS CONSUMERS FOOD CHAIN
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Caroline Drummond

Valuing nature network

I was in Germany recently, talking at the BASF Roundtable

on Sustainable Agriculture in Dessau. There was much discussion about the critical balance between food production and biodiversity and all the public goods offered by farming. There is much interest across Europe in this whole area and the recently formed Valuing Nature Network is drawing together some really interesting thinking in how we can measure the natural environment’s influence on human wellbeing. It is clear that incorporating the natural environment and the services it provides within conventional, economic decision making is one of the major challenges facing both the UK and the global community. LEAF and the services it delivers will be critical to these discussions.

Caroline Drummond

LEAF Chief Executive

@LEAFChief on twitter

How Open Farm Sunday Worked For Us

Nick and Claire Bragg farm 500 acres at Frogmary Green Farm, growing potatoes for supermarkets, maize and grass for fodder, but their main ‘crop’ is chickens! They held their first Open Farm Sunday event last year.

So, why did they host an Open Farm Sunday event?

“If you’re passionate about farming, there can be few things more rewarding than bringing visitors onto the farm and showing them where their food comes from. Farmers are very good at producing food, but terrible at promoting the good job they do. We’ve hosted quite a few school visits, but really wanted to get the 20 to 30 year old parents onto the farm. So we decided to host our first Open Farm Sunday event.”

Nick and Claire Bragg

When did they start planning?

“We started thinking about our event six months beforehand and had a small group of 5-6 people to help with planning. We went along to one of LEAF’s Open Farm Sunday workshops, which was great for health and safety and publicity tips.”

How did it go?

“A lot of people in the village had no idea what lay beyond our farm gate and a few thought they would see birds in cages in our chicken sheds – they were really surprised and pleased to see the high standards of production on a modern farm.”

You can read more from Nick and Claire in their full case study on the Open Farm Sunday website here.

Sust report

Measuring What Matters

Our report, ‘LEAF – Driving Sustainability’ contains statistics derived from our LEAF Audit users, which have never been displayed this way before. You can find out some of the background and methods behind the report in this blog on the 2degrees network.

Boards

Get on board!

We told you the warmer weather was just around the corner in the UK and here it is! Get geared up for the start of the farm visits season with our weatherproof information boards. They start at £8 per board and if you are a LEAF member, you get a 30% discount. Click here to view all our boards and to place an order.

LEAF Marque

Sustainable sourcing

Interested in sourcing food grown with care for the environment? Well you can with LEAF’s Supply Chain Directory. The directory enables you to source fully traceable, LEAF Marque certified products direct from the producer, ensuring you are getting the real thing. To find out more and access the directory, click here.

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