For green minded young people, food and farming provides the perfect scenario to enter Defra's new 'Climate Change Champions' competition, which is a search for nine outstanding young people (11-18) who can represent their region and England as a whole on climate change. To enter, young people have to demonstrate how they can encourage others to reduce their carbon footprint. One way to do this is to buy locally produced food and avoid out-of-season produce that has been flown in, thus reducing food air miles. The closing date is Monday 3 December so find out how to enter at www.climatechallenge.gov.uk.

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The Year of Food and Farming’s partner organisations include a range of bodies representing the breadth of careers opportunities across food and farming. If you want to encourage your students to explore the world of work, the Careers Resource Bank is a great place to start.

Perhaps your students would be interested in joining the half a million volunteers involved on a farm or garden run by the Federation of City Farms & Community Gardens. The organization has a growing School Farms Network which you can read about on their Space.

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The Year of Food and Farming is joining forces with some of England’s top celebrity chefs, to encourage children to get involved with festive food this Christmas.

Historically, preparation for Christmas dinner begins on the last Sunday before Advent, called ‘Stir up Sunday’.  This is the day that Christmas puddings are traditionally made, with everyone in the household mixing the pudding and making a wish. However, new research from the Year shows that almost half of today’s youngsters never get involved with making the Christmas dinner, and six in ten have no experience of stirring up a Christmas pudding.

As part of our efforts to rebuild the nation’s food culture, the Year of Food and Farming has enlisted the support of high profile chefs like Raymond Blanc and Phil Vickery, who have donated their favourite pudding recipes.  It’s hoped their support will prompt schools and families to take up their spoons, giving pupils a flavour of a time-honoured Christmas tradition.

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Balanced diet provides key to health

The Food Standards Agency has reiterated the importance of a healthy balanced diet, following the publication of the World Cancer Research Fund report which once again provided evidence of a link between diet and cancer. The Agency’s ‘eatwell plate’ vividly illustrates what a balanced diet should look like. Its advice is to enjoy all foods but to eat more fruit, vegetables and starchy foods and reduce our intake of foods that are high in fat and sugar.
Source: FSA website, 2/11/07

Learn how the Food Standards Agency is encouraging schools to adopt a 'whole school' approach to diet and nutrition and to ensure young people better understand the relationship between diet and health on the Agency’s Year of Food and Farming Space.

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Pig sick!

The future of pig farming in the UK is under threat, according to the National Pig Association (NPA). The NPA claims that up to 95% of its members are considering leaving the industry as they currently lose £26 on every pig produced. In the past year feed prices have doubled, putting pig farmers under extreme pressure as feed accounts for almost half the cost of rearing a pig. The export ban following the foot and mouth outbreak and recent reports linking processed meats like bacon to cancer have further deepened the industry’s woes. Pig farmers are now calling for a price increase of between 7p and 17p on the pack price of typical pork or pork products to help keep them in business.
Sources: Pigs are Worth It/NPA website; BBC Countryfile, 4/11/07

The British Pig Executive is one of the Year of Food and Farming’s partners. Learn more about the challenges facing pig farmers on their website.

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