The Farmers Weekly & US Embassy

Today’s first stop was at the Farmers Weekly, the largest agricultural publication in the United Kingdom. The Farmer’s Weekly publishes magazines and is expanding what they’re doing in agriculture. They currently publish the Farmers Weekly with a circulation of 54,000 people and is their biggest publication. They also have Poultry World that circulates 33,000 and Future Farming with 20,000. Karl Schneider, Editorial Developmental Director, gave us some more insight to the publications goals. The publication is trying to move farmers to a data driven base in order to track things such as cattle movement, animal records, and field record to improve agriculture. The Farmers Weekly even owns a farm software business because of this.

A view of the Farmers Weekly’s office.

 

Karl also explained to us what the Farmers Weekly is doing to promote agriculture. The Farmer’s Weekly uses social media to do this and has 400,000 users on their website. This is the biggest agricultural website in the United Kingdom. He also explained when dealing with agricultural issues pertaining to livestock that “it’s really important to be honest with the consumers. The supermarkets like to paint a picture, and that picture isn’t necessarily what’s best welfare for the animal.”

An informational slide shared with us by Karl.

The next stop of the day was by far the favorite, the United States Embassy. There, we met with Steve Knight, Agricultural Specialist in the USDA’s London Office. Steve explained to us that he is British but works for the USDA.

Outside the U.S. Embassy a Bald Eagle and American Flag Fly.

Steve explained the 2 year Brexit process to us. He also explained that the U.K. will have to adopt all of the EU regulations as their own when they exit the EU. They will then have to slowly change them to what they want. He had hopes that Brexit would have a positive impact on United States agriculture. Steve also explained to us that he believes the public’s misconceptions of agriculture is something that the public shouldn’t be worrying about. He believes that agriculture is being done in the best and safest possible way it can be while being sustainable. Steve was very passionate about agriculture and connecting the United States agriculture with that of the United Kingdoms. He even said that his favorite part of his job was getting to go to the farm yard, and getting to talk to the producers. He said it really reminds him of why he is doing the job he does.

All 50 state flags flew outside of the Embassy, centered is Ohio’s flag.

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