NFU Cymru proudly represented Welsh farming at a special educational event held at Bluestone in Pembrokeshire ahead of Wales Climate Week, which runs from 3rd to 7th November.

The Welsh Government-led event saw around 60 Pembrokeshire school pupils attend to participate in a series of workshops to learn more about food, farming and the environment.

NFU Cymru were joined by fellow contributors Food Sense Wales, Size of Wales, Bluestone and Green Up Farm to deliver the hands-on learning sessions for local schoolchildren.

The 30-minute workshops were held in the Cloud Theatre in the resort’s Serendome area. NFU Cymru took centre stage at the event with a striking display of life-size model farm animals and hay bales for the children to sit during their activities. The NFU Cymru workshop concentrated on a Top Trumps-style game designed by the NFU’s in-house team of former teachers, NFU Education. The game required pupils to learn about a given food item from a fact file of information and then to consider, as groups, the many factors that could influence that foodstuff’s carbon footprint, as well as the nutritional benefits it offered. The schoolchildren then compared the merits of each item against the produce their friends had learned about. The sessions saw pupils learning about Welsh staples such as PGI Welsh Lamb and PGI Welsh Beef, as well as food from much further afield including California almonds, avocados and Argentinian beef.

In particular, the NFU Cymru team was keen to stress that many of the products reared in Wales, such as red meat and dairy, were produced in harmony with Wales’ climate and landscape. The water used in producing red meat, for example, largely comes from natural rainfall, whereas other global meat producers are much more reliant on extensive irrigations systems to produce similar products.

The key takeaway message for all of the children was that balance was extremely important to their diets, while they also went away with a deeper understanding of the impact of food miles and production methods of some of the food they eat.

The event also received a special visit from the Deputy First Minister, Huw Irranca-Davies, who participated in some of the morning’s activities and spoke with pupils about what they had learned.