Recently I visited Llywd Ffranc farm near Abergavenny in South Wales with about 20 children from a local primary school. It’s not a large farm, with a few sheep, a big area of woodland and about 10 or so Tamworth pigs.
It was a great chance for the children to learn about their food and where it comes from, about the woodland and keeping warm in the winter and about the pigs. They loved learning about and seeing the pigs and were more than a little suprised to come across one of the sows, which was about 3 times the size of them, just wondering around in the many acres of woodland while we were walking. Even though it was about 2 degress, all the pigs were outdoors and all were very healthy and very inquisitive. The sow we met especially, was certain we had food and joined our long line of children and adults as we walked up the wooded hillside until realizing she was out of luck on this occasion. It was a great day and nice to see a farm open up to a group of 7 and 8 year olds to help them learn about farming and explore.
Educating chidren or anyone about food and farming is so important and it can only be benificial to see more of this kind of teaching. But it shouldn’t just focus about livestock, Kids should learn about all the things they eat what they eat, or more appropriately what they refuse to eat. As Jamie Oliver proposed in a recent talk what needs to change in our food should come through our education system, teaching children about food and how to cook. Teaching the kids of today is an vital step in changing the food system of tomorrow for the better.
Aside from this what I learnt from the day was that the pigs seemed to have a pretty nice life and the kids enjoyed it too.
A short version of Pig Business intended for use in classrooms, along with an educational pack, has been made available to schools. If you are interested in helping us by holding a screening in your local school, or want the film to be shown in class, do let your children’s teachers know. If you have any other suggestions or questions please get in touch with us on info@pigbusiness.co.uk
