Walking through the City at lunchtime I came across a small exhibition celebrating Britain’s farmers.
This was all because the annual Evensong service arranged by the Addington Fund was taking place in St Paul’s that evening.
The Addington Fund provides homes for farming families living in England and Wales who have to leave the industry and by doing so will lose their home and also offers emergency grants in times of hardship.
The Fund was set up as the Churches’ response to Foot and Mouth Disease, when it distributed grants to over 22,000 applicants. Today, Addington continues to support viable farming families experiencing financial hardship due to circumstances affecting the business which are completely out of their control.
The Charity also run a housing scheme providing homes for families needing to exit or retire from the industry with no other option available to them and currently owns 41 houses nationally.
This is all close to my heart, because my immediate family was involved in farming for many years (and my wider family is still involved in farming). Both my mother and father grew up on farms, my father farmed the family farm earlier in his life, many of my relations are are farmers or involved in agriculture. Every time people buy cheap food from supermarkets, it grates on me, because it feels like another grain of sand running out of the hourglass that is the rural economy.
In any event, I’m not sure what the Sheep, Goats, Geese and Turkeys made of it all!
Taken with my X-pro1 and 18-55mm lens, processed from RAW in Capture One
sgoldswoblog 
You should look for sustainable local farmers to buy your food from and if you have a little bit of money, buy a bit extra and give it to a friend! If they like it they will start buying it too. It’ll help start a movement towards better farming principles!
I absolutely agree! I don’t buy as much sustainable, local food as I would like but it is important and it tastes a wee bit better too! When our son is a little bit older we plan to take him to our local farmers market so he can understand where food comes from and most importantly what good food looks like.
People should never buy the cheapest food available (the Tesco meat scandal in the uk and Ireland demonstrates that) and should always look at where it comes from. In the long run fresh raw ingredients are cheaper than packaged food.
Isn’t this by St. Paul’s. What juxtaposition.
It is by St Paul’s. I was surprised to walk into the churchyard to be confronted with sheep where the occupy protesters’ tents had been months before…