Lord Mayor?s Show to feature UK sugar beet industry
The historic Lord Mayor’s Show that takes place in London on Saturday November 12th at 11.00am ’ 2.30pm will, for the first time see a sugar beet harvester specially ’signed’ to show the viewing public some of the positive aspect of the industry including number of growers, where sugar comes from and the ’home-grown’ nature of the industry.
This year is the 684th Lord Mayor’s Show and is expected to attract an audience of more than half a million people on the day, lining the pavements on the three mile long procession starting from and ending at Mansion House via the streets of the City of London, as well as millions more watching on television - the BBC has a live broadcast - throughout the world.
The Worshipful Company of Farmers has taken part in the parade for the last six years with the aim of promoting a better understanding of the economic importance of UK farming in the life of the nation and the close association of farming with the City of London.
This year the massive Agrifac 6-row sugar beet harvester ’ kindly loaned by Suffolk
Farmer Peter Butler ’ becomes one of a long line of quality agricultural machinery
Called on by the Worship Company of Farmers to support the event over the years,
including a combine, forage harvester, potato harvester, pea viner, 10-furrow plough
and large tractor. Master of the Company Peter Faulkner declared ’The Worshipful
Company of Farmers would like to most sincerely thank the sugar beet harvester’s
owner Peter Butler, British Sugar and the NFU for their support in providing us with
such an impressive display to showcase farming at this year’s Lord Mayors Show’.
The harvester will actually be ’in-work’ on Wednesday 9th November lifting sugar beet for owner Peter Butler in Suffolk. It will then be cleaned and prepared for the show and en-route it will stop at British Sugar’s Bury St Edmunds factory on Friday 11th. At the factory, Press will be invited to attend a ’send-off’ photo call where liverymen from The Worshipful Company of Farmers together with senior members of British Sugar and NFU will be present.
At the parade on the 12th, the Master of the Worshipful Company of Farmers Peter Faulkner, the senior warden John Reynolds and junior warden Hazel , Baroness Byford - who is herself a sugar beet grower - and liveryman Lindsay Hargreaves, dressed in the attire of a 19th century farm worker will march in front of the impressive Agrifac 6-row sugar beet harvester on its journey from Mansion House, past St Paul’s Cathedral to the Royal Courts of Justice and .back to Mansion House via Victoria Embankment. ’Promoting agriculture and the importance of farming is a key objective of the Worshipful Company of Farmers,’ says the Master of the organisation Peter Faulkner,
’ Too many people are ignorant of where their food comes from, how it is produced and even what it contains. The UK sugar beet industry deserves wider appreciation as a part of the professional, innovative, thriving, dedicated and sustainable UK agricultural industry. We are proud to take a lead in trying to educate and communicate this to the general public’.
