Northumberland farmer champions 'plant your pants' education campaign

A survey conducted by ChildWise for The Country Trust found that around 40% of children don’t know that most of their food relies on soil and a third say they don’t have the opportunity to get their hands in soil.

The findings reinforce the Country Trust’s call for every child’s education to include hands-on learning about the miraculous life support system beneath their feet and the farms that produce our food.

And to help illustrate it, they are inviting people to plant a pair of cotton pants this spring and then dig them up two months later to see for themselves the life within the soil.

Tom Fairfax, a regenerative organic farmer based in Mindrum, who hosts Country Trust Farm Discovery school visits and is a Plant Your Pants soil champion, said: “Healthy soil is teeming with life, much of which can’t be seen by the naked eye, so getting our hands in the soil and seeing the way it acts on a pair of cotton pants is a brilliant way to experience its magic.

"We have ignored the soil for too long and this has had a negative impact, not only on the environment, but also the quality of the food grown in it and our health.

"We all have a role to play in improving our soil, all we have to do is open our senses to the ground around us and listen to what it has to tell us.”

Jill Attenborough, CEO of The Country Trust, says: “The results of this latest survey only serve to underline the urgent need for hands-on learning about soil and the land to be a vital part of every child’s education, from early years right through to further education.

"If we and our world are to thrive, we need our children to be given regular opportunities to get their hands dirty, in the soil. And we need to equip teachers to guide children to discover the amazing, life-giving world within it.”

Find out more and register at www.countrytrust.org.uk/plantyourpants