From farm to fork - Royal Welsh Winter Fair becomes a classroom for thousands of children

Over a thousand schoolchildren and students from agricultural colleges across Wales and over the border visited the Royal Welsh Winter Fair, which took place at the showground in Llanelwedd, Builth Wells last week.

The Royal Welsh Agricultural Society promotes agricultural science, research, and education, particularly in the areas of food, farming, and the countryside, as one of its main charitable objectives. Therefore, the Society is delighted to have welcomed such a large number of children and students of all ages to learn more about agriculture during the two-day event.

The Winter Fair is unique to other Society events as it takes place during term time. Each year more schools and colleges are seeing the educational value of attending this event to learn about food production, the supply chain and agricultural organisations.

Touching on many aspects of the curriculum, a visit to the Winter Fair is a great opportunity for students to learn about agriculture in relation to business studies, cooking and nutrition, animal welfare, geography, mathematics and much more. Students are able to see first-hand the finest primary produce on display within the livestock, the end product in the butchery competitions, and the high quality produce in the food hall.

Several educational activities took place during the two-day event. On Monday morning of the Winter Fair, Cows on Tour held a seminar event at the Members Centre in collaboration with NFU Cymru (National Farmers Union). Together they welcomed over 120 children from year 10 at Gwernyfed High School and Ysgol Calon Cymru (Builth Wells High School) to learn about Welsh farming and careers in agriculture.

A panel session was chaired by NFU Cymru Deputy President Abi Reader, joined by speakers Stella Owen (NFU Cymru County Adviser), Ernie Richards (sheep farmer), Gareth Wall (Rural Professional Dept of McCartneys), Kate Adams (Senior Policy Adviser at the British Agriculture Bureau, Brussels) and Robert Davies (Assistant Honorary Director of Sheep and Lamb Carcasses at the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society). The panellists each talked about how they got into their prospective roles and began their journey in the working world of agriculture and farming.

Following the panel session, Cows on Tour and NFU Cymru organised a scavenger hunt around the showground for the children to visit trade stands such as Hybu Cig Cymru (Meat Promotions Wales), DPJ Foundation and Wales YFC.

Welsh Government Rural Affairs Minister Lesley Griffiths launched a new bilingual farm safety publicity campaign targeting primary-age school children in Wales. A short video together with two colourful workbooks aimed at children aged from four to eleven years old have been produced in collaboration by the Wales Farm Safety Partnership (WFSP) and key rural stakeholder organisations in Wales to encourage children to learn about the importance of farm safety and protect themselves from some of the most common hazards on farms.

From farm to fork, the Royal Welsh Winter Fair is an excellent way to share the positive farming story of how food is produced, and to learn more about agriculture careers and opportunities. If you are part of a school or college and would like to arrange a trip to the next Winter Fair in 2023, please get in touch at requests@rwas.co.uk.