How chicken, egg producers can win public trust

A transparency initiative on U.K. chicken and egg farms may offer valuable lessons for educating consumers.

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Nick Bragg (center) distributed flyers and worked with local retailers and other groups, including the Young Farmers Club, to boost the number of visitors to the farm. | Courtesy LEAF
Nick Bragg (center) distributed flyers and worked with local retailers and other groups, including the Young Farmers Club, to boost the number of visitors to the farm. | Courtesy LEAF

It can be hard to understand what you can’t see, and this applies as much to poultry meat and egg production as anything else. An initiative in the U.K., however, now in its 13th year of bringing farmers and the public together, has resulted in more than 2 million curious consumers going on-farm since its inception.

The scheme allows visitors see firsthand how modern farms operate and may offer a model for other producers wanting to overturn myths about food production and gain the public’s trust.

Open Farm Sunday

Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF), through its Open Farm Sunday initiative, has been working with agricultural producers across sectors to help them open their gates to the public for more than a decade now. Its primary aim is to promote sustainable agriculture, food and farming, with the open days just part of its remit.

Where the poultry and egg sectors are concerned, participating producers in Open Farm Sunday range from large-scale broiler producers to turkey and egg and small specialty farms. No matter what size participating producers may be, they all have a common aim on these open days: showing the realities of modern farming.

For example, broiler suppliers to 2 Sisters Food Group, one of the U.K.’s biggest food companies, have been participating in Open Farm Sunday for several years.

One of this year’s participants, Foxholes Farm, opened its gates, giving the public a tour of its poultry sheds via a specially erected viewing platform.

Visitors were able to see thousands of broilers close at hand and learn about welfare standards and how carefully birds are monitored and cared for.

Andrew Gibson, agriculture manger for 2 Sisters said: “This farm is a great showcase to see how a poultry farm works. We’re also vey conscious of biosecurity, which is why we need a special viewing platform to allow people to see the inside of the sheds.

“We’re really grateful to our farmer, Guy Davies, who masterminded the installation of the viewing platform and does a fantastic job in helping to promote the poultry industry.”

But LEAF and Open Farm Sunday offers much more than simply bringing the public onto farms.

Publicity materials are produced and various activities are organized for visitors, ranging from the purely fun to the scientific. One mixed farm offered a meat-cutting demonstration and then put the cuts on the barbecue for consumption.

And, of course, in addition to facilitating direct contact between farmers and the public, the initiative also generates a good deal of positive press coverage.

Broad engagement

Another broiler producer is Frogmary Green Farm, a mixed farm which produces 700,000 broilers per year and started participating in Open Farm Sunday  in 2012.

The owners have involved various organizations and bodies to help with the open day, including local parents, retailers and farm suppliers.

Owner Nick Bragg said: “A lot of people in the village had no idea what lay beyond our farm gate and a few thought they would see birds in cages in our chicken sheds – they were really surprised and pleased to see the high standards of production on a modern farm.”

He said a common reaction among visitors is surprise at how light, airy and spacious the houses are, due to the windows and natural light.

While there is a cost involved in organizing an open day, and a lot of planning, Bragg notes that a lot of people were willing to help out, and that LEAF and sponsors supplied free resources that people could take away, so visitors had ongoing reminders and references to the event.

Bragg, who this year handed out more than 4,000 flyers prior to the open day, added: “We’ve been passionate for many years about opening our gates. The connection from farm to plate has been lost over the generations, but if we can show what actually happens, that’s helping.”

Does it work?

Attendance figures would suggest that a good number of people are being reached, but do the events actually build trust in visitors and support for farming?

Four months after each year’s farm visits, LEAF sends a survey to those visitors willing to be contacted.

According to Annabel Shackleton, LEAF’s Open Farm Sunday manager, 84 percent of respondents last year replied that it had changed the way that they think about farming, while 89 percent said they felt more connected to food. Open Farm Sunday would appear to be successfully confronting some of the key issues of increasing importance for food producers across sectors.

Since starting in 2006, LEAF has seen more than 2.2 million visitors go on-farm. 2018’s Open Farm Sunday saw a record 293,650 visitors, with a 50-50 rural-to-urban split. Seventy-three of 362 farms taking part listed one of their main enterprises as poultry production.

Internet generation

Alongside Open Farm Sunday, LEAF also runs Open Farm School Days.

This program supports hundreds of farms across the U.K. to host school visits throughout June, allowing children to see how food is produced.

With younger generations accessing most of their information via the internet, they may be viewed as a group of consumers -- or future consumers -- that are particularly at risk of believing the urban myths that tend to circulate on social media.

Addressing a growing problem

With more and more people divorced from agricultural production, it is no surprise that consumers have less of an accurate view of how their food is produced. This rural-to-urban migration will continue and, with it, how food is produced has the potential to become even more of a mystery.

Approximately 1 percent of the population in the U.K. has any direct connection to food production, while research in the U.S. has found that only one-third of consumers think the agricultural community is transparent, while 65 percent of consumers believe that it is important to know how food is produced.

Consumers know less about food production but, at the same time, they want more information. Engaging directly with consumers, before someone else does, can help to fill that void, building trust, and turning skeptics into believers.

All players in food production can play a role in helping to educate consumers, and LEAF’s sponsors range from large food companies and retailers to government bodies and agricultural suppliers. The initiative has extended further than simply farm to fork, with at least one university opening up its farm to the public.

Poultry Viewing Gallery 2

Viewing galleries help to alleviate biosecurity concerns while allowing visitors to see how birds are reared. | Courtesy LEAF

 

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