LEAF Open Farm Sunday strengthens public trust in British farming

18 Jul 2022

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  • 85% visitors report LOFS had increased their trust in British farming
  • 79% visitors learnt something new about British food or farming
  • 72% visitors said they felt the farming industry is adapting to help combat climate change
  • 56% of visitors report the farm visit had positively changed their opinion of food production or the farming industry
  • 49% of visitors said the visit had inspired someone in their group to consider a career in farming

 

LEAF Open Farm Sunday has long been the industry’s annual open day, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors on farm every year.   This year’s event held last month was no exception, attracting 175,000 visitors, 20% of whom had not visited a farm before and over half (52%) coming from urban areas.    

Visitor feedback shows the true impact of LEAF Open Farm Sunday, with 72% of visitors reporting feeling positive about what the industry is doing to help combat the climate change crisis. In addition around half (49%) visitors said the visit had inspired someone in their group to consider a career in farming.

LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming) who have been managing Open Farm Sunday since it began in 2006, supported over 250 farmers to open their gates from Jersey through to the Shetland Isles for this year’s annual event, raising awareness about food and farming and offering fun, interactive and informative days on farm for families from all walks of life.

The messages shared by farmers resonated with visitors this year, with 95% rating events as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’, 79% said they learned something new about British food or farming, and a further 85% reported that visiting a farm on LEAF Open Farm Sunday had increased their trust in British farming.

Annabel Shackleton, LEAF Open Farm Sunday Manager said:

“We are thrilled with the hugely positive impact that we have had this year.  Farmers are being hit hard by labour shortages and soaring costs, and the fact they have still jumped at the chance to showcase British farming is testament to their commitment and passion when it comes to sharing their story. We’ve once again demonstrated the pow­er of LEAF Open Farm Sun­day in con­nect­ing peo­ple – from both urban and rural areas – to where their food comes from, how it is pro­duced and the farm­ers who make it all hap­pen.

It has been won­der­ful to read com­ments from vis­i­tors who care deeply about how their food is pro­duced and are inter­est­ed in wider issues around sus­tain­abil­i­ty, cli­mate change and ani­mal welfare. We’re delighted to hear the take home messages this year have been particularly strong surrounding careers and climate change.  LEAF Open Farm Sun­day provides a unique chan­nel through which we can all unite to show­case our indus­try, ignite inter­est from the pub­lic and har­ness their sup­port for our indus­try and all it deliv­ers.

Our thanks to all the fan­tas­tic farm­ers who have tak­en part, all their helpers, the thou­sands of vis­i­tors who sup­port­ed them and to our spon­sors for their finan­cial and in-kind sup­port. As we progress our plans for next year’s LEAF Open Farm Sun­day on 11th June 2023, we will con­tin­ue to adapt and respond to input from host farm­ers, spon­sors and stake­hold­ers to ensure its con­tin­ued pos­i­tive impact as Britain’s lead­ing on-farm pub­lic outreach event.”

LEAF Open Farm Sunday 2023 will take place on Sunday 11th June, registrations are already open for farmers wanting to take part: www.farmsunday.org

LEAF Open Farm Sunday long-term principal sponsors are: AHDB, Arla Foods, Asda, BASF, Co-op, Defra, Farm­ers Week­ly, Fron­tier Agri­cul­ture, John Deere, LEAF Mar­que, NFU, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Wait­rose.

LEAF Open Farm Sunday, 12th June 2022 in numbers:

  • 251 farms
  • 175,000 visitors
  • 1 in five visitors had not visited a farm before
  • 52:48 urban:rural split
  • 95% of visitors rated events as good or excellent