HRH The Princess Royal spoke passionately about the role education can play in securing future global food supplies during a visit to Harper Adams University College last week.
The Princess was at the Shropshire campus to officially open the new West Midlands Regional Food Academy, following a short debate on food security.
Beginning an unprompted and unexpected speech before the unveiling of the plaque, Princess Anne shared an anecdote about children believing that fish originate from supermarket shelves.
“This is quite a serious education issue," she said. "It’s a worry in itself. But connecting all the pieces, that’s a really big subject, and of course not everybody can see the whole process. How on earth can the customer understand the whole of that process when they don’t see themselves as even a very small part of it?
“There is the expectation that you will get what you want to eat seven days a week, 365 days a year, whether it is in season or not. That’s a tough order, and again something education could address.”
The Princess also gave encouragement to people considering starting a career in the food sector, which is facing a skills shortage.
“For those who want to come into food production - food is still something we cannot live without," she said. "We spend a lot of time, money and effort on a lot of things we can probably live without. But what we cannot live without is the food cycle. I think we have to remind ourselves that this is a critical part of our existence.”
The food security debate was chaired by Sir Roy McNulty, chairman of regional development agency Advantage West Midlands, which awarded Harper Adams the contract to develop and run the £2.5 million food academy.
After the event, Sir Roy said: “I believe the new academy will be an excellent asset for the region, making a real difference to the economy of the West Midlands, as well as drawing national and international attention to the key role that the West Midlands plays in the production and processing of food in the UK.”
Harper Adams principal Dr David Llewellyn said: “I think it has been a tremendous day for the university college, because not only did have we had the chance to bring food businesses, other supporters of the food industry and Harper Adams staff together, but also the Princess Royal is tremendously supportive of the concept of the food academy, and she spoke very warmly of what it will be doing to help support the food industry and to tackle skills shortages in the sector.”
The WMRFA is situated in an old mill building at the centre of the Harper Adams campus. The mill has been renovated and converted to house a range of food technology facilities, including a product development kitchen, processing hall, cheese room, taste panel room, focus group room, instrumental analysis room, seminar room and a central teaching theatre, which will seat 100 students and allow hands-on demonstrations for training courses, school visits and public events.
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