Beacon Farms: Inspiration through practice on farms  

We are delighted to share an update from our Beacon Farms Network, which brings together sustainable farms acting as educational platforms to inform and inspire people about the story behind their food. Our CEO, Patrick Holden, explains the origins of the network and why on-farm ‘seeing is believing’ experiences can be so transformative.

In July 2024, the Sustainable Food Trust hosted an event at Bwlchwernen Fawr marking the launch of a network of Beacon Farms.

The aim of the Beacon Farms initiative is to harness the collective power of farms which combine sustainable farming practice, facilities to host visitors and storytelling skills to enable more people to understand the story behind their food.

The July farm event attracted around 180 participants, including representation from more than 20 farms, mainly from the UK, but also from Ireland and other countries further afield.

The idea of establishing a network of Beacon Farms had been incubating for some time. In 1999, when I was at the Soil Association, we put in a proposal called Millennium Farms to the Millennium Commission, a lottery-sponsored body offering substantial grants for projects that would have a significant and lasting impact after the year 2000.

Our idea was to launch a national network of farms acting as educational stages, offering visitors a chance to learn more about organic food production, using the existing network of certified organic holdings. Our bid was for around £10 million, but it was eclipsed by a bolder and more visionary proposition conceived and subsequently delivered by my now good friend, Sir Tim Smit, for the creation of the Eden Project – which secured £37.5 million.

Patrick Holden delivers a talk at our Beacon Farms launch event in July 2024

Although the Beacon Farms idea then went into hibernation, it wasn’t abandoned, not least because of my conviction that my ‘seeing is believing’ experience when I was just five years old (which inspired me to go into farming), could be replicated on a much wider scale.

Back then, my mother, encouraged by a local retired clergyman, took me into a cow shed on a small dairy farm near Epping Upland in Essex and planted a seed which has remained with me ever since. I remember loving the atmosphere and the smell of the cow byre and thinking – I’d like to milk cows!

Interestingly, there is another impression that has remained with me since that day. The clergyman, a retired bishop, invited us to tea, and asked me to say grace. This was not a request to which I was able to respond, since this was not a tradition in our family. My parents, despite or perhaps because of their Anglican upbringings had reacted against this particular aspect of their childhood parenting influences, but the sense of embarrassment I felt is still with me to this day!

I mention this only because the fact that the inspiration from the farm visit was juxtaposed by another very different and lasting impression (of shame), emphasises the point that early impressions of very different natures can often stay with you throughout life.

My dairy experience was later reinforced by other farm visits, influences which collectively planted a seed that eventually germinated and fused with others, so much so that by the age of 22, I’d moved to our farm in West Wales and was milking a herd of Ayrshire cows!

Our soft launch of the Beacon Farms Network has so far received an amazingly positive response, with a growing number of farms having signed up from across the UK and Ireland. Our entry criteria for Beacon Farms is that they will combine the following three features:

• Practising or moving towards biologically-based, sustainable farming
• An interest in informing and hopefully inspiring visitors about the story behind their food
• Facilities for hosting visits and events

The range of opportunities for farms to host visits is very extensive, as we have experienced on our own farm over the last couple of years.

Becky Holden leads a farm walk at our Beacon Farms launch event

I have had in the back of my mind for some time the idea that we could play our part in improving public understanding of how food is produced in a sustainable way. I am also concerned by the reality that most people, even those in rural areas but especially those living in cities, have very few opportunities to visit a farm, yet they are intimately connected with their food three times a day. If you go into a supermarket with the aim of finding out where your food was produced, its degree of sustainability or localness, you will likely leave disappointed. To counter this growing gulf in understanding, it’s clear that there is an opportunity to host many different farm gatherings.

On our farm we have hosted 40 visits over the last two years, ranging from schools, including pupils and teachers from primary, secondary and tertiary education; health professionals (a one-day gathering of NHS procurement executives); cookery training; weekend events including the Wales Permaculture Association and the Specialist Cheesemakers Association; several team days including the Welsh Government’s Health and Well-being of Future Generations team and the Agricultural Policy team; Young Farmers clubs; and farmer discussion groups.

Cumulatively, we have learnt a lot about what works and what doesn’t work when hosting visits, all of which we would love to share with members of the Beacon Farms Network, many of whom also have their own valuable experiences to share.

Regarding facilities, ours includes a converted threshing barn, with a church like atmosphere – albeit without a history of worship, although you might say that the seasonal threshing of oats over more than a century has left an atmosphere which is not unrelated to prayer!

We’ve put in underfloor heating, a wood burning stove, an adjacent eating area, a large kitchen with a beautiful ash table made from wood from the farm, an annex, plus toilet and shower facilities which collectively can easily cater for large gatherings.

“… most people, even those in rural areas but especially those living in cities, have very few opportunities to visit a farm, yet they are intimately connected with their food three times a day. If you go into a supermarket with the aim of finding out where your food was produced, its degree of sustainability or localness, you will likely leave disappointed. To counter this growing gulf in understanding, it’s clear that there is an opportunity to host many different farm gatherings.”

This meeting stage has now been augmented by sleeping accommodation comprising what will soon be nine bedrooms, two in nearby eco-cabins with catering facilities and bedrooms above the threshing barn kitchen area and the adjacent stable house, simple but all lined with ash and larch panelling, mostly sourced from our farm and planked up on our sawmill.

What is amazing to experience is the profound effect that visiting a working farm has on individuals. In our case, visitors are able to witness the processes of milking, cheesemaking and, this year, carrot growing, as well as the general daily and seasonal activities that characterise all farms everywhere.

Taken together, this facility, in our case largely financed by my dad’s legacy, plus additional borrowing, has created a wonderful stage for a whole range of meetings.

There are of course many other farm education networks out there, some promoting conventional farming practice, but all trying their best to improve people’s understanding of the story behind their food. We do not want to compete with any of the other initiatives in this field but rather complement them by sharing insights and resources.

Our aim is for the network to be mycelial and built on trust and transparency, to eventually stimulate a larger movement enabling hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of people to have a direct experience of food and farming, which hopefully will influence them for the rest of their lives.

As part of the newly launched Beacon Farms Network, the Sustainable Food Trust is also working in partnership with The Harmony Project, an educational initiative which supports farms in hosting school visits for young people aged between 5 and 14 years old. Through this partnership, we will develop and share a range of curriculum-linked resources and templates to help participating farms communicate their stories, whilst also supporting them to connect with local schools. 

If you are interested in finding out more about the SFT’s Beacon Farms Network, please get in touch with our Head of Projects, Bonnie Welch, via email: bonnie@sustainablefoodtrust.org.