East Devon, a very agricultural area
Next stop on the whirlwind tour was Bicton College of Agriculture near Budleigh Salterton. This time I was on my own so had to talk about my business, Organic Futures and the Soil Association. It’s difficult to find three matching hats to wear!
The college is set in a beautiful 500 acre parkland landscape, with some beautiful Red Ruby cattle grazing right in front of the college buildings, overlooking the 5 acre lake. What an inspiring view to see whilst learning - I feel this is really important. The whole area clearly has agriculture deeply ingrained in the communities.
The talk was to about 35 students and staff, from agriculture, horticulture and countryside management. The talk was well received and stimulated some discussion later on. One of the lecturers later commented how he had done a work placement on an organic farm in Somerset back in the late 80’s. He had no doubt this had influenced his views on organic (positively I might add!) and that the opposite was true of those who hadn’t visited or worked on organic farms.
This further strengthens the notion that “seeing is believing” and how critical it is that people’s views should be based on truth rather than perception and/or fiction. The implications of positively influencing thousands of college students is tremendous, but will require a big change in culture.