More than 40 farmers, aged between 18 and 45, attended a talk and social evening where NFU Director of Communications and External Affairs James Clark was the guest speaker.
Mr Clark spoke about how the NFU鈥檚 Stop the Family Farm Tax campaign was established and brought into the media spotlight and other work being done by the NFU to promote farming issues to the public.聽
The event, held at , near Norwich, was organised by NFU Norfolk County Adviser Flora Archer and NFU Norfolk Vice Chair Will Sargent and is the first of many being planned in Norfolk to engage young farmers in the NFU鈥檚 work to champion British food and farming.聽
Mr Sargent, who farms near Long Stratton, said: 鈥淵oung people are vital to the future of our industry.聽
鈥淎s a younger farmer, starting out, you often tend to focus on the day-to-day, but if we don鈥檛 have young people coming through and engaging and working together to tackle the wider industry issues, we won鈥檛 have a farming industry.
鈥淭his is about showcasing the vital work the NFU does to bring farmers together to work for a brighter future. We had a really good evening; it was great to see so many younger farmers engaged and eager to get involved.
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鈥淲e hope this will be the first of many events like this and there is a lot of enthusiasm for it."
皇家华人is working to address challenges in attracting younger people into agriculture and horticulture, with the average age of a farmer in the UK at 59. A joint industry report published in autumn 2021 estimated there were 500,000 vacancies across the food and farming industry.
Labour availability is a significant barrier for many businesses across the sector and is restricting the opportunities for growth and often resulting in the contraction of food production.
To help tackle this, the NFU runs several projects to promote farming careers to young people, including the , where NFU farmer members visit schools across the country and the NFU Student and Young Farmer Ambassador Programme, which helps to give farmers aged 30 and under a strong voice in shaping the future of the agricultural industry.
鈥淚t was great to see so many younger farmers engaged and eager to get involved.鈥�
NFU Norfolk County Vice Chair Will Sargent
Mr Clark said: 鈥淚 had a brilliant evening talking with young NFU members in Norfolk.
鈥淲e may be facing challenges as an industry but we will be okay because there is a generation of bright, savvy, passionate, committed young farmers out there who will be the future leaders of our sector.鈥澛�