‘I Love Manx’ campaign takes its message to schools

The Food & Farming in Schools campaign is designed to give teachers the resources they need to bring food and farming issues alive in their schools.

The resources pages on the campaign’s website offer lesson plans, worksheets and a teachers’ fact sheet. Other pages are dedicated to encouraging farm visits, and visits to Island food processors. There’s even an on-line tour of a day in the life of a dairy cow at Ballamodha Moar Farm.

The campaign is a joint initiative involving the Departments of Education and Agriculture and the Manx National Farmer’s Union.

Mr Gawne said, “We’ve created this campaign in response to demand from teachers resulting from the I Love Manx campaign. Food and farming are essential parts of the Isle of Man’s economy and they are adapting rapidly to thrive in the face of increasing global competition. I’m very pleased to think teachers will be better able to share the value of farming with their pupils and students.”

Former Agriculture Minister, Mr Henderson and the NFU’s Mr Quayle fervently hope that food and farming issues will be integrated into the school curriculum and that the importance of agriculture to the Isle of Man is more widely understood and appreciated.

Coming on the back of further bad news for the farming industry in the adjacent Island, this campaign has to be seen as a boost for a vital local industry.