Agri Aware enjoyed a very productive, enjoyable and successful five days at Bord Bia’s Bloom in the Phoenix Park which took place from Thursday, June 1 to Monday, June 5.
The Agri Aware team were back in the ‘Big Red Shed’ which acted as the centrepiece to an action-packed Farmyard.
Beef and dairy cattle, along with sheep were present in the Farmyard and were heavily involved in activities and demonstrations over the course of Bloom. Such demonstrations included milking and shearing which attracted huge crowds each day.
Over 1,100 schoolchildren from the Incredible Edibles programme visited Bloom. They enjoyed a day out on the Thursday and Friday as they toured the Agri Aware Farmyard.
As part of the tour, the children and their teachers got to meet and chat with the Agri Aware team who told them all about where food comes from.
There were also spinning and weaving demonstrations as the children enjoyed some hands-on learning about agriculture and even had the opportunity to engage in educational farming-themed games.
Moreover, more exciting news in the form of further support of the Incredible Edibles programme was announced at Bloom by Minister for Public Health and Well Being, Hildegarde Naughton which will help to greatly increase the uptake in numbers across schools as well as increasing the quality of the delivery of the programme.
Day one of Bloom coincided with World Milk Day which Agri Aware celebrated alongside Ministers Charlie McConalogue and Martin Heydon, to recognise the contribution Irish dairy farmers contribute through producing a natural and sustainable product that is world renown.
We also had many special guests join us over the course of Bloom who relayed the message of the importance of the agri-food industry to the general public in attendance at Bloom through Agri Aware’s range of activities on each of the days.
These special guests included dairy farmer Katie Gleeson from Co. Tipperary, sheep farmer and shearing contractor Karol Devaney from Co. Sligo and Agri Aware board member and Professor of Dairy Production at University College Dublin, Karina Pierce.
As well as meeting many Incredible Edibles students it was great to catch up with the many attendees at Bloom who visited us and our patrons over what was a glorious few days in the sunshine.