Listen: Academic talks generational renewal and the Clarkson effect on Irish radio

Jeremy Clarkson’s on the UK’s views of farming – and other ways to bring young people into the sector – have been discussed on national Irish radio by a Harper Adams academic.

Dr Fiona Williams from the University’s Business School is in Ireland this week to talk at the Agricultural Science Association’s annual conference, where she will be part of a panel discussing generational renewal.

During her panel appearance, Dr Williams will draw upon research she has been part of – including both a recently published report for dairy co-operative Arla and a forthcoming paper she has written with colleagues from the Centre for Social Science at the University.

In the run-up to the conference, she was also invited onto RTE’s Today with David McCullagh programme alongside fellow panellist Professor Brian Loeonard.

Speaking about the impact Jeremy Clarkson has had, she noted his unwillingness to sugar-coat some of his experiences has made him ‘popular’’ with the farming community.

She said: “He effectively says it as it is, and I think he has perhaps improved public understanding of some of the farm economics, income issues, regulation, the impact of the weather and so on.

“I think that’s gone down quite well amongst the farming community for that reason, because he doesn’t sanitise it. You get what you see a little bit, and people in the sector relate to that, but equally, he shows the breadth and the diversity of agriculture as well.”

However, she added, the true attraction for the next generation to his show was the moments where he opened their eyes to the new possibilities agriculture is beginning to offer: “The latest bit of tech, or the scope for diversification - I think it is those latter elements that, perhaps, are a bit more appealing to young people.”

Building on this popularity, Dr Williams believes, will require a much more hands-on approach – to allow young people to see such changes for themselves first-hand.

She added: “Certainly, there is a lot of work that has been going on – we did some work with Arla, the dairy co-op, quite recently, and one of the recommendations that came out of that is that there is a need to get into schools much more and allow young people the opportunity to directly engage with agriculture.

“Not necessarily just through their screens – getting them out onto farms at every opportunity so that they can see at first hand what’s involved, and to try and get away from this traditional mindset of what farming is about – because it is much broader than that!”

Listen again to the full piece here.