Penrhos Trust. Heart-to-Heart 2007

Saturday 2^nd June 5:00pm ~ 6:00pm

Farming for a Future

Background

The Heart-to-Heart has been an annual event since 1999. Previous topics have included the reality of GM food production and the effects of a global food market. The speaker line-up always includes fantastic minds and specialists in the topic field such as Michael Meacher MP, Michael Mansfield QC, Terry Jones Monty Python and Medieval historian, Dr Michael Antoniou, Senior Lecturer in Molecular Genetics, Division of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Kings College London.

The Heart-to- Heart was primarily set up to fund raise for the Penrhos Trust, a registered charity that seeks unused farmland and buildings and supports ways to revive them with ecological and organic food businesses. The Heart-to-Heart 2007 will be held at the Hay Literary Festival on Saturday 2^nd June 5:00pm ~ 6:00. Over the ten days the Hay Festival attracts an international audience of 85,000.

The 2007 Heart to Heart - Farming for a Future

As some deep thinker once said 'The future is not ours to see'. But whatever the future holds for us we are going to need to eat and to imagine that food produced by a large scale, quasi industrial, farming process could ever be a long-term improvement over small, local farmers and food producers, in anyway at all, either for stability, economically, nutritionally, security, gastronomically or for the pure delight and fun of food, is a serious mistake.

Prescient advice comes from two of the most dedicated farmers.

Peter Melchett

Peter Melchett is Policy Director of the Soil Association, the UK organic food and farming organisation, and he leads the organisation's work on climate change, school meals, food culture and against GM food.  He runs an 890-acre organic farm in Norfolk, with pigs, beef cattle, sheep and arable crops. He is on of the Board of the EU £12m Research Project 'Quality Low Input Food', the Governmen's Organic Action Plan Group, and the BBC's Rural Affairs Committee.  He was a member of the Department of Education's School Lunches Review Panel. He was a Labour Government Minister 1974-79, at the Departments of Environment, Industry, and Northern Ireland (covering education and health).  He has been President or Chair of several conservation ngos, and was Chair and Director of Greenpeace UK from 1985 to 2000.

Julian Rose

Sir Julian Rose is a leading exponent and promoter of organic farming and the rural economy. He commenced the transformation of the Hardwick Estate in South Oxfordshire to the standards of organic farming in 1975. Following an early career in both broadcasting and the theatre he made the family estate a mould-breaking example of organic principles in practice. He instituted a system of integrated, yet independent, units based on share farm and rental agreements.

From 1984 he was on the council of the Soil Association for over 20 years. He co-founded the Association of Unpasteurised Milk Producers and Consumers, and is actively involved in the campaign to Save Real Milk. He also founded an alliance of European groups to resist the regulations from Brussels that threaten traditional raw milk products. More recently, in opposition to the globalisation of food, he developed a project known as "The Proximity Principle" in which food, fuel and fibre are all produced in the area of land closest to the point of use. In 2000, he helped to initiate this project in Faringdon, South Oxfordshire. The project, which is ongoing, includes the integration of cultural and artistic expressions. It is a precursor of the recent Soil Association conference theme.

Internationally, Julian Rose is the British director of the International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside. ICPPC, whose founder is Jadwiga Lopata, helped to establish Poland as a GMO Free Zone and is currently fighting growing efforts to force GMO on Poland.

He succeeded to the baronetcy of Rose of Hardwick House in 1966 and became a double baronet in 1979 when he also succeeded to the baronetcy of Rose of Montreal.

The Gastrodome

The Gastrodome is a unique dining adventure at the Hay Festival located within the 60ft canvas Geodome. It is a celebration of organic, local and wild food created by the Soil Sisters, Miche Fabre Lavin and Daphne Lambert.

Contact Details

Claire Delaney - Coordinator Email clairedelaney@hotmail.co.uk Tel 07989 307987

Martin Griffiths - Chairman Email martin@penrhos.co.uk Tel 01544 230720

Tickets

Tickets are £6.00. Available direct from the Trust or the Hay Festival box office

Available by

Phone: 01544 230720 with credit card details

Post: with cheque to:

The Penrhos Trust Ltd

Penrhos Court

Kington

Herefordshire

HR5 3LH

On-line secure server: www.penrhos.com

or from the Hay Box Office  0870 990 1299

£

Penrhos Trust, Penrhos Court, Kington, Herefordshire HR5 3LH

01544 230720

www.penrhostrust.org