For a lot of children, food starts on a supermarket shelf. Milk is in a bottle, cheese is in a packet and cereal is in a box.
But food is not made on a shelf. It starts with soil, grass, seeds, rain, animals, people, time and care.
Helping children understand that connection is something I think farming has a huge role to play in.
Turning an old farm building into a classroom
At Home Farm, we have welcomed school visits for years, but being a working dairy farm, the weather and facilities could make it difficult.
Last year, that changed.
With 50 per cent funding from the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme and the remaining funding generously provided by our landlords, the Eyre family, we transformed an old farm building into a classroom which can be used all year round.
Since then, more than 400 children have come through the farm, from reception through to year six, and their knowledge of farming varies enormously.
What I love most is the questions.
There are plenty of misconceptions, but that is exactly why getting children onto farms matters.
One school said pupils were particularly interested in the milking parlour and equipment because many thought most cows were still milked by hand.
Sometimes the feedback is wonderfully simple.
"This was the best trip ever," said one year six pupil from Avishayes Primary School.
A farm can be one of the best classrooms
For me, a farm is one of the best classrooms there is.
Children can see cows turning grass into milk, worms working in the soil and crops growing in fields.
Suddenly, soil, nature, food and farming are not separate subjects. They are all connected.
We are part of the Sustainable Food Trust's Beacon Farms Network, working alongside The Harmony Project. It has helped give our visits structure and connect what children experience on the farm with what they are learning at school.
The Beacon Farms Network works with farms across the UK which are already providing educational visits or want to develop them. Home Farm, run by Sophie and Tom Gregory on the Sadborow Estate, is one of the participating farms.
Taking farming into schools
But we cannot get every child physically onto a farm, which is why initiatives taking farming into schools matter just as much.
One I am particularly excited about is PLATES, a campaign by Soil Ed which aims to create a national week in schools where children learn about food and farming.
The ambition is simple but important: give food, farming, sustainability, skills and future careers a proper place within education.
Farmers Guardian is partnered with SoilEd, the national campaign founded by farmer and former teacher Olivia Shave to improve children's understanding of food, farming and sustainability
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PLATES was launched in 2026 as a practical extension of the wider SoilEd campaign. It plans to hold its first national PLATES Week in schools in 2027, using curriculum-linked activities to connect children and teachers with farmers, food businesses and the wider industry.
Helping children discover agricultural careers
Because this is about careers too.
LEAF Education research found 66 per cent of young people would be keen to enter the agri-food industry, yet only 4 per cent had received information about how to do so.
We cannot expect the next generation to consider farming if they never see it.
After one of our visits, a school told us several children left determined that they wanted to work outdoors, on a farm or with animals. These children are our future consumers, but they could also be our future farmers, vets, agronomists, engineers, scientists and food producers.
Opening the farm gate will not solve everything. Neither will one week in school.
But both can plant a seed. And sometimes that is exactly where things start.
