Celebrating our Open Farms and World Milk Day

I don’t often suggest things for readers to do in this blog, but am making an exception this week. What will you be doing on 5 June, if you’re based in the UK? My suggestion is that you seek out and visit your local farm. Around 60 Arla farmers alone are opening up their sites throughout the UK, and there are five farms within the M25 alone, which is the greater London area where I live. Our local farm is actually a charity, the Woodlands Farm Trust, which already does a stellar job of introducing children and townies to livestock with their regular events. Please go to www.farmsunday.org and go visit a farm.

Support your local businessperson and the rural economy with a farm visit. Our farms should be shown love and support – without them, the countryside would be a much poorer place. To quote the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, “The more ‘rural’ an area is, the higher the number of registered businesses per head of population.” Now, the turnover may be lower, but a farm is not just about the farm itself. The farming landscape creates jobs as well in areas as diverse as machinery repair and sanitary supplies.

Don’t forget to mark 1 June down too. On a more global scale, it’s World Milk Day. For the last 15 years, countries around the world have celebrated all that is wonderful about dairy, from consumption to production and processing. It provides an opportunity for countries to showcase the positives about dairy – its massive contribution to local, rural economies around the world, and celebrating what we like about this nutritious, global food. Denmark, Costa Rica and Jamaica are just a few of the countries that are joining in. Whatever your country is doing, get involved, and don’t forget to drink your milk. Check out http://www.fao.org/economic/est/est-commodities/dairy/school-milk/15th-world-milk-day/en/.