Successful Delivery of Sustainable Farming and Food Strategy in North West
26/07/05

Sir Don Curry, chairman of the group implementing the Government's Sustainable Farming and Food Strategy (SFFS), will be visiting Newton Rigg Conference Centre, Penrith, on Wednesday, 27 July, to find out more about sustaining the future for English farming and food in the region.

Neil Cumberlidge, co-chair of the North West Sustainable Farming and Food Management Group, will tell Sir Don that, as part of the SFFS - launched countrywide in 2002 - many projects and schemes aimed at benefiting rural businesses and communities are now underway in the North West.

Neil Cumberlidge said:

"This is an opportunity to flag up our successes and to report on any difficulties with the Strategy to Sir Don and his team. We also want to use the occasion to better link the range of SFFS activity taking place within the region and particularly that in Cumbria."

The SFFS Management Group for the North West will outline what is happening in their sector and will look at issues including environment, food, nutrition and health, animal health and welfare and education projects.

In North West, one of the projects from the Investing in the Future initiative, helping to support the SFFS, is an educational interactive CD-ROM. Called 'From Friesian to Fridge', it enables children to go on a 'virtual visit' to a working dairy farm. They can see where milk comes from, the process for turning it into other products and how it ends up in the supermarket.

The CD has been piloted in a dozen schools in the North West and will be mailed out to all 2,800 primary schools across the region free of charge. It provides the first hook in the quest to boost the image of farming within the next generation. It has been created through a partnership between Government Office North West, Myerscough College and Wigan Education and Business Partnership.

Lorna Tyson, Director of Business and Enterprise, Myerscough College, said:

"This CD provides a one-stop-shop for teachers in many areas of the curriculum. It links into the Government's Healthy Eating plan and the Government's Initiative for Work Related Learning. The CD also highlights the skill shortages in the agri/food sector. It is an excellent example of how the Strategy is being delivered in the North West."