Simpler organic system makes more time for on-farm education

Helping children and teachers from inner-city schools to visit working farms is the key role of the Country Trust, enabling the children to have fun learning about how their food is produced and a little about rural life. Neil Ryder meets the trust's new assistant director, David Thompson.

David Thompson is a passionate man. His enthusiasm for farming has in turn paved the way towards creating his second passion – a charitable trust organising farm visits for inner city school children.

To some extent, his passion for farming was a foregone conclusion as his family have been tenants at Broxfield Farm near Alnwick, Northumberland since 1820.

After leaving school, he studied agriculture and marketing at Newcastle University before joining the family business, now farming in partnership with his father, James, and mother, Adelaide. The farm is part of the Northumberland Estate.

It was his father-in-law, Oxley Patterson, who introduced him to the Country Trust. That was just over eight years ago and led to David becoming a voluntary regional manager for the trust and last year, his appointment as its assistant director.

Now he combines farming with his Country Trust work, co-ordinating farm visits for schools by bringing together host farms, trust guides, teachers, schools and, of course, the children themselves.

He also feels that it is time for the Suffolk-based trust to take on a higher profile and to become more active in recruiting host farmers and guides.