Arena

Writtle University College Issue Five

An introduction from Dr Stephen Waite — Vice-Chancellor

I take great pride in welcoming you to the new-look, latest edition of Arena. This year has proven to be a milestone year for Writtle as we have achieved University College status and launched our new Writtle University College brand. Although our name has changed, the quality and innovation certainly hasn’t. Arena continues to showcase the dynamic careers of our alumni, the tremendous achievements of our students, as well as the innovative teaching delivered by our staff. This edition of Arena focuses on the huge diversity of employment opportunities available to our graduates, as well as the international impact they and our staff have made. From designing golf courses in South Africa to equine physiotherapy in Dubai, from entrepreneurial floristry shops in South Korea to agricultural consultation in Uzbekistan, from conservation research in Mongolia to working with the USA Olympic team in Brazil. As a University College with nearly 125 years of experience, Writtle continues to produce high-calibre graduates who are educated and supported by industry-relevant and experienced academic staff. This partnership works tre- mendously well and enables our students to flourish whilst studying with us. We are a specialist and ambitious institution, and this is mirrored by our staff and students. At a time where our subject areas have never been more important, Arena will provide you with a refreshing outlook on the scope of work available. I hope you enjoy reading and are left feeling inspired.

1 CONTENTS

04–05 Bringing Little Writtle & Pink Power to life 62–65 Tackling the issue of biodiversity loss and change 06–11 The rise and rise of cycling 66–67 Crafting landscapes 12–23 Designing for sustainability 68–69 Protecting the Little Terns 24–25 Creating a blog that blooms around the world 70–75 Ask the experts: What makes Veterinary 26–27 Working with Team USA Physiotherapy so popular? 28–33 Talking Postharvest Technology 76–83 Teaching future gardeners and food wastage 84–87 The future of farming 34–37 The story behind the first degree awarded by Writtle 88–89 Designing for Busted, Beyoncé & Bruce Springsteen 38–45 Conquering YouTube 90–99 Changing an industry 46–48 Creating international floral designs 100–101 Bringing living bars to the UK’s 49 Turning a passion into start-up success biggest festivals 50–51 Reinvigorating a rural economy 102–103 A farewell from Alan Titchmarsh 52–61 Shaping land-based education

2 3 AS THE FIRST COMMERCIALISED PLANT TO WHAT ROLE DID STUDENTS PLAY BE BRED HERE AT WRITTLE, HOW DID LITTLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS? Bringing Little Writtle WRITTLE START LIFE? Aside from the students who took part

Illustration Little Writtle had its beginnings as a

Kate Cronin Kate in the plant breeding classes, two alumni teaching demonstration for horticulture played a major role in getting the plants & Pink Power to Life students taking plant breeding classes. commercialised. It started when one of them, Sexual reproduction in plants generates who manages a garden centre, attended an genetic variation, so if two plants are crossed Open Day. I showed him our plants and he told then all of the resulting seedlings will develop me that he no longer sold Osteospermums. He into plants that are different. It’s the same explained that hardy Osteospermums tended reason why we all look different. to grow too large for small gardens and did not I chose Hardy Osteospermum for the flower for very long each year. This made me demonstration as I like these showy, summer think that one of the very compact plants we flowering plants. Osteospermums rarely set had bred (Little Writtle) might be of interest seed naturally as the flowers are self-sterile. to the nursery stock industry. However, I had two different varieties in my We had plant trials with one major garden growing next to each other — these company for nearly two years. They were still varieties had formed some seeds, which were deliberating when another of my old students then germinated in the plant breeding classes. contacted me to say his company wanted The students and I particularly liked some to promote Little Writtle and go straight to A NEW FLOWER LITTLE WRITTLE’ WOULD A COLOUR. ‘WHITE BE NICE. of the new plants we had produced and these the marketing stage. This offer was too good

were maintained by taking cuttings from the to refuse as it meant we had produced our OUR AIM IS TO RAISE ANOTHER DWARF FORM BUT WITH plants. Two of these plants were named Little first new plant. Production of Little Writtle is Writtle and Pink Power. now being undertaken by Hargreaves Plants in Cambridgeshire, who then supply garden WHAT’S THE REACTION BEEN LIKE TO LITTLE centre chains and mail order companies. WRITTLE FROM A MARKET PERSPECTIVE? Both Little Writtle and Pink Power were Little Writtle has generated a lot of interest included when we started trials with

from the industry. There are currently further “ Hargreaves Plants, but Little Writtle was their

trials with two major garden centre chains “ favoured plant and was promoted by the and 2017 should see the major launch of Little company. However, plant and seed company Writtle. In January 2016, Hargreaves Plants Unwins preferred Pink Power and now have

A Q&A with John Cullum exhibited Little Writtle on their stand at IPM this variety for sale on their website, so it was Essen in Germany, which is the largest plant nice to get this second variety into fair in Europe. One sizeable order was placed production too. by a French company. We’re currently applying for Community Plant Breeders’ Rights, which WITH LITTLE WRITTLE AND PINK POWER will give us legal protection for Little Writtle BOTH SUCCESSFULLY COMMERCIALISED, within Europe. If we are successful, WHAT’S NEXT? horticultural companies will only be able to For many years, horticulture students propagate Little Writtle with a licence from us. have germinated more Osteospermum seeds to look for other promising new plants. Several hundreds of plants later, we have not been able to produce another plant to rival Little Writtle Writtle’s first commercialised plants, Little Writtle and or Pink Power. We will continue to germinate more Pink Power, may have been bred on campus, but their Osteospermum seeds using Little Writtle as the mother plant and other varieties as the pollen story began in Horticulture Lecturer John Cullum’s source. Our aim is to raise another dwarf form but with a new flower colour. A ‘White Little garden. He explains how a teaching demonstration Writtle’ would be nice. in a plant breeding class, along with help from two alumni, brought them to life, to market and to Europe’s largest plant fair. UK & Germany

04 05 The Rise and Rise of Cycling UK A Q&A with Mark Walker

When Mark Walker isn’t busy managing the FdSc Cycling Performance course, he’s training the riders to win accolades including the world hour record and women’s masters track titles. He charts the astronomical rise in popularity of cycling and explains how his coaching helps to influence the highly successful course at Writtle.

06 07

IT’S ALL THOSE MOMENTS“ WHERE YOU SEE HOW STUDENTS ON THE COURSE HAVE LEARNT SOMETHING

NEW AND HOW THEY’VE DEVELOPED AS PEOPLE. THEY ENCOURAGE ME“ TO COME INTO WORK EVERY DAY.

SINCE BRADLEY WIGGINS’ SUCCESS AT THE 2012 riding, and that can be in blazing sunshine or HOW IMPORTANT IS IT THAT YOU’RE SPENDING AS A COACH, CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT THERE ARE MANY, MANY HOURS OF JUST SITTING ON A BIKE AND RIDING, AND THAT CAN BE IN BLAZING SUNSHINE OR DRIVING TOUR DE FRANCE AND LONDON OLYMPICS, THE driving rain or who knows what else. It’s tough. TIME AT WRITTLE ON THE COURSE WHILE ALSO SOME OF YOUR PROUDEST MOMENTS? RAIN OR WHO KNOWS WHAT TOUGH. IT’S ELSE. YOU’VE REALLY TO GOT BE PREPARED TO PUT THAT TIME IN AND TRAIN HARD. UK SEEMS TO HAVE DEVELOPED A LOVE AFFAIR WORKING AS AN ELITE CYCLING COACH? DO You’ve really got to be prepared to put that Well, I’ve had some big successes and so WITH CYCLING. DO YOU SEE THIS AS THE YOU THINK HAVING THAT CONSTANT INDUSTRY there are things that I’m proud of. I’m always SPORT’S PIVOTAL MOMENT, OR IS THERE time in and train hard. LINK AND EXPERIENCE GIVES YOU AN EDGE? reluctant to say they are the defining ones, MORE TO IT THAN THAT? As I say to my riders, it’s not so much what I think it’s really important. I’ve now because I think that everything you do with I think it’s happened in phases. If you look you do in an individual session, but it’s the deliberately structured the way I work to a particular athlete is really important. There back to the 1920s and 30s and then in the 60s, consistency over the long term that really accommodate that, because there’s so much are things that made big news and then there there were huge meetings [at the Herne Hill makes the difference. You’ve got to build on I learn through coaching that I can bring are the riders I work with that have got their Velodrome, South London] with thousands of that endurance. For young people in back into my teaching and vice versa. As an own individual needs. Some of my personal people attending and riding on their bikes to particular, it’s about balancing your work and academic, you’re always trying to read the successes are things that, on the face of it, watch racing. I think cycling’s popularity has your studies. They don’t have the luxury of latest research and keep up to date with your don’t necessarily have that kudos. had peaks and troughs throughout history going to college, coming home, doing their knowledge. That’s useful in teaching, but then I worked with Alex [Dowsett]. in this country. homework and then lounging around for the I take that back into my coaching. Equally, in He got to the Commonwealth Games which I got into cycling seriously in 1983, rest of time. They have to start thinking very my coaching, there are situations where riders was absolutely fantastic and, of course, we and because nobody else really did it, I was early on, ‘I’ve got homework to do so I’ll need approach me with very particular problems, beat the hour record. That was a huge thing regarded as a bit peculiar at school. It was to get up early in the morning and either train needs or questions, and then I have to solve and I know I’ll never forget that. On the other “ very much a minority sport and it really or study, then go to college and study as hard those problems. That might be by reading “

“ hand, I’ve got cyclists who have come into the “ remained that way until, I suppose, the 2008 as I can while I’m there and then come home research and adapting the ideas to work in sport as complete novices and I’ve seen them Beijing Olympics. There was a big increase in and fit in my training sessions around that.’ their training. Then, inevitably, I’m then back progress hugely in the time I’ve worked popularity round about that time. Then I think That’s difficult. in the classroom saying, ‘This is how I do this.’ with them. it really exploded with the success of the 2012 Sometimes there are problems in coaching I’ve worked with a cyclist who had been London Olympics and Bradley Wiggins’ Tour IT’S BEEN TWO YEARS SINCE YOU LAUNCHED where there aren’t obvious solutions and

THROUGHOUT HISTORY IN THIS COUNTRY. COUNTRY. THIS IN HISTORY THROUGHOUT THE CYCLING PERFORMANCE COURSE AT badly trained when working with another de France win in that year. it’s great to engage with the students, and WRITTLE. WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR HIGHLIGHTS coach and was suffering from overtraining Also, I think bikes have become a status OR MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE discuss, what the best approach is. syndrome. I took this rider on and worked symbol for some people. They have become COURSE SO FAR? What’s really important is the applied I THINK CYCLING’S POPULARITY HAS HAD PEAKS AND TROUGHS TROUGHS AND PEAKS HAD HAS POPULARITY CYCLING’S THINK I very, very patiently for a long time, very expensive and high tech with lots of I think the reason I enjoy teaching nature of what you’re doing. You can read restructuring their training and teaching carbon fibre. To some extent you could and coaching is because I like helping things in textbooks that describe an approach them new approaches. They’re still recovering, associate that with Formula One. I think that’s other people and seeing them progress and you should take with an athlete. When you and it took them a couple of years to get back captured the imagination of a lot of people. develop. It’s all those moments where you start to design that training or use that strategy, to winning races. That’s something I’m very see how students on the course have learnt you find that it’s a lot simpler on paper than it WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GO FROM BEING something new and how they’ve developed proud of. SOMEONE WITH AN INTEREST IN CYCLING is to actually employ. Learning from applied TO BEING A PROFESSIONAL CYCLIST? as people. There have been lots of moments work is important. Hopefully I bring that I suppose it’s a cliché, but you have to have where outside speakers have come in and back into the classroom. that passion and that determination to put in spoken to the students, and they’re completely the training to be successful. The riders I work absorbed in what they have to say and they’re with are really motivated to do the training learning new stuff and hanging on their every and, as the coach, I try to make it as interesting word. Or there are tutorials where students and varied as possible. That’s where some of come to see me and seek my advice over my success lies. Inevitably there is monotony the training programs they’re designing for in cycle training. Elite riders are spending themselves or advice on developing their 25 hours every week in training, and some career as a cyclist. It’s all those moments that riders even go to 30 or 40 hours. There are are really important. They encourage me to many, many hours of just sitting on a bike and come into work every day.

08 09 WHERE DO YOU SEE CYCLING GOING AS A SPORT IN THE FUTURE? WILL IT CONTINUE TO GROW IN POPULARITY LIKE IT’S DONE FOR THE LAST FOUR OR FIVE YEARS? I don’t know. I think it has grown a lot and I think what interests me is the sustainability of it. I would like to think that a lot of people

coming into the sport are going to stay, and AND TRANSPORT, THEN I THINK IT WILL BECOME A REALLY SUSTAINABLE SPORT. they’re going to encourage their children to take up cycling as well. What’s been really I THINK IF WE SEE GROWTH IN CYCLING FOR LEISURE, RECREATION exciting is the growth in cycling development. Sports development offices across the country didn’t have specialist cycling development offices and now they do. I think there’s a really good ecological and environmental aspect to cycling, too. The bicycle is a clean form of transport. Cycling to work or school is not only good “ for your health, it’s good for the environment “ as well. I think if we see growth in cycling for leisure, recreation and transport, then I think it will become a really sustainable sport. There are only so many carbon fibre bikes and so much top-end racing equipment that you can sell. I think there will be more growth in the UK. How much more it could grow I don’t know, but I’d like to see people using their bikes a lot more in everyday life.

Interested in studying Cycling Performance at Writtle? Visit writtle.ac.uk/arena_cycling

10 11 Henebry GOLF

Designing for Sustainability with David McLay Kidd DMK

UK & USA

12 13 Fancourt Hotel & Country Club Estates Inspired by his father’s work as a greenkeeper and graduating with a HND in Amenity Horticulture, David McLay Kidd has gone on to design some of the world’s most famous golf courses. He explains how he works with sustainability and ecological benefit in mind and shares his secrets for success.

14 15 WHAT WERE YOUR EARLIEST EXPERIENCES OF At the time, when you did the HND at I took it with me to the point that, on the Contrary to the belief of the golf world that GOLF? WHEN DID IT CLICK FOR YOU THAT YOU Writtle, you also had to take a middle year out projects I’ve worked on, I’ve gone even further. this would completely fail, quite the opposite WANTED TO BASE YOUR CAREER AROUND IT? of college. That was appealing because I knew I’ve taken brownfield sites and recreated what happened. We tapped into a consciousness in COURSESGOLF WERE FALLING ACROSS NATURAL TERRAIN WITH THE LANDSCAPE ALTERED AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE My father was a greenkeeper in Scotland. that experience was invaluable and still do. nature would’ve done, had she been left alone American golfers that they were desperate for. He was very influential in the creation of

That was important to me. to do it. That’s very much my calling card. WANTHE DIDN’T THINGS LIKE TO A LOOK JAPANESE GARDEN. HE WANTED IT LIKE TO THESE LOOK the professional organisation of which most If man wasn’t here, what would nature have AS SOMEONE WHO HAS A LOT OF SELF-BELIEF greenkeepers across Britain and Europe are HOW BIG AN INFLUENCE IS YOUR DAD AND done? If nature had done it, how would man AND A STRONG PHILOSOPHY, HOW DID YOU members — the British and International Golf DEAL WITH THAT INITIAL NEGATIVE REACTION HOW HE VIEWED COURSE MANAGEMENT have then amended it to make a golf course? Greenkeepers’ Association. My father was one WITH REGARDS TO SUSTAINABILITY AND FROM THE GOLFING WORLD? I’m always looking to see what nature would of the founders way back in the 70s. He was ECOLOGICAL BENEFIT ON WHAT YOU I was in my mid to late 20s. When you are DO TODAY? have done first. very active in taking what was a semi- in your mid to late 20s, you are bulletproof. Huge. Back in the 80s, when I was working Unstoppable! You ooze with confidence from professional pursuit and turning it into YOU CREATED THE ICONIC BANDON DUNES on golf courses for my dad, he was recycling every pore. I had no shadow of a doubt that a professional pursuit. COURSE IN OREGON, USA. WOULD YOU SAY all of the material that he was removing from As I grew older, I was working on the THAT WAS ONE OF THOSE DEFINING this would be successful and that this would the golf course and reusing it. At the time, golf courses that my father was in charge of. MOMENTS IN YOUR CAREER? actually be hugely successful. Was I right to this was all considered amateurish. He had various staff and assistants who had That was definitely the door opener. I spent be so confident? Probably not, but youth is It wasn’t considered to be cutting edge. There higher qualifications than me. They had much of my 20s travelling the world, looking confidence. I believed in myself. I believed in

“ was no mention of sustainability back then. “ degrees, HNDs and all of these other at projects and working on the periphery of a the owner I was working for. “ I think my father’s real motivation was that, in “ qualifications, and it started to expose me to lot of projects. In the mid-90s I was given the None of us expected Bandon Dunes to go the process of recycling and reusing compost, what was possible. That lead me to exploring opportunity to build a project on the Oregon on to attain the level of success that it did. It is he was getting a full spread of macro and the HND in Horticulture at Writtle. coast on a beautiful piece of land, but it was beyond successful. Here in the States, many micro nutrients. He was getting a lot of very remote. It would be like building it on non-golfers know Bandon Dunes and every WHAT DREW YOU TO WRITTLE TO EXPAND beneficial microbes. All of these things that he the west coast of Scotland. golfer knows it. In the US, Bandon Dunes is as ON THOSE EARLY EXPERIENCES ON THE couldn’t get with inorganics, he was getting by In America the golfers were yearning famous as Pebble Beach or St. Andrews. It is GOLF COURSE AND GAIN THAT HIGHER creating his own organics. He used inorganics for something different. They had been fed definitely my biggest success. QUALIFICATION? less and he used water less. I’m not sure his perfection for so long along with conditions Well, it was pretty much the highest motivation was to get a green award. Over GEORGE SHIELDS WAS AN ICON IN THE GOLF AGRONOMIC WORLD. WORLD. GOLF AGRONOMIC THE IN ICON AN WAS SHIELDS GEORGE that were near flawless: perfect green grass DO YOU THINK BANDON DUNES SET THE vocational qualification that was directly time, it transpired that his methods, which with perfect edges to bunkers, perfect flower STANDARD FOR THE COURSES YOU’VE CREATED related to golf course design, construction SINCE THEN? DO YOU EVER WONDER IF YOU’LL were really steeped in history, were methods beds and perfect pathways. Perfection was and maintenance. At the time, there were ACHIEVE THAT SAME LEVEL OF ACCLAIM OR HE WAS REGARDED AS THE TOP EXPERT AT THE TIME. I WANTED TO HAVE HIS TUTELAGE. HIS HAVE TO WANTED I TIME. THE AT EXPERT TOP THE AS REGARDED WAS HE that were tried and true. All of that rubbed passé. It just wasn’t appealing anymore. Golfers SUCCESS? COURSE AND GAIN THAT HIGHER

two main colleges that were doing HNDs with off on me: a young, impressionable love history, so they were reading about all QUALIFICATION? a golf leaning. Writtle had George Shields as the Writtle student. these old courses in the US and the UK. That’s I don’t think that I will ever achieve that head of horticulture back in the 80s. George His general leaning was towards keeping not what they were being fed. They were level of success again. That level of success Shields was also the consultant to the PGA things as uncontrived and natural as possible. being fed this diet of perfection. comes once in a dozen lifetimes. I’m constantly European tour. He didn’t want things to look like a Japanese When I created Bandon Dunes, I went back trying to achieve the same level of critical So really, two things swung it for me. Firstly, garden. He wanted it to look like these golf to my roots. I built what I knew, which was a acclaim. I always hope that the critics who I was young and impressionable and wanted courses were falling across natural terrain with very rugged, very natural golf course across review my work and the golfers who get to play to get as far away from home as possible, so the landscape altered as little as possible, so the sand dunes with natural grasses that want on it give me the same feedback as they have Writtle’s location was appealing. Secondly and the golfer could enjoy a few hours rambling to grow in that location. Nothing is perfect — done for Bandon Dunes. Bandon Dunes has most importantly, George Shields was an icon in the countryside and use chasing a golf ball the golf course is kind of brown in the summer, an amazing level of fame. It is absolutely huge. in the golf agronomic world. He was regarded as his excuse. Creating very contrived golf the greens aren’t particularly fast, the bunker 130,000 people play it. It is immense. as the top expert at the time. I wanted to have courses was definitely not something to be edges are all crumbled, and there are no cart his tutelage. I wanted him to be my mentor aimed for. Again, that rubbed off and I paths so people have no option but to walk. and I wanted him on my resume. Those inherited that completely. were probably my main influences.

16 17 IF YOU LOOKED AT “GOLF COURSE DESIGN AS MOVEMENT THROUGH HISTORY - THE WAY

THAT THEY DO WITH ARCHITECTURE OR GARDEN

DESIGN - THERE’S NO DOUBT IN MY MIND THAT BANDON DUNES IS A SEMINAL“ MOMENT IN GOLF COURSE DEVELOPMENT. $2 MILLION A YEAR TO MAINTAIN OR $20 MILLION TO BUILD. BANDON ALL OF THOSE DUNES BOXES. CHECKED MAINTENANCE COSTS HAD TO BE REDUCED. NO ONE CAN AFFORD A COURSE GOLF THAT IS “ “

Bandon Dunes

18 19

YOU JUST KEEP PUSHING“ FORWARD AS IF IT’S ALWAYS GOING TO BE SUCCESSFUL.“ IF YOU HAVE THE RIGHT STUFF, IT ALWAYS WILL BE.

BEYOND OPINION OR CRITICISM, WHAT ARE HAVING WORKED ON COURSES ALL OVER HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THE DAY-TO-DAY YOU SPENT SOME TIME WORKING FOR VARIOUS

THE WIDER CHALLENGES WHEN IT COMES TO THE WORLD, DO YOU FIND THAT DIFFERING OF MANAGING MULTIPLE PROJECTS AND OTHER BUSINESSES IN GOLF DESIGN BEFORE THE TRUTH IS THAT SUCCESS WILL ALWAYS FIND YOU, EVEN THOUGH YOU SIT EVERY DAY THINKING, GOING ‘OH, WELL IT’S NOW DESIGNING COURSES WITH SUSTAINABILITY CULTURES ARE AN INFLUENCE ON HOW YOU TEAMS ACROSS DIFFERENT SITES AND, YOU DECIDED TO START YOUR OWN. IS THIS AND ECOLOGICAL BENEFIT IN MIND? DESIGN? IS THAT SOMETHING YOU INDEED, DIFFERENT CONTINENTS? SOMETHING YOU’D RECOMMEND TO SOMEONE BUT IT MIGHT FAIL TOMORROW,’ GOING OR WELL ‘IT’S THIS MONTH BUT WHO KNOWS WHAT NEXT MONTH BRINGS.’ Here in the US, especially on the West KEEP IN MIND? I hire the best and the brightest. It’s a simple LOOKING TO FOLLOW IN YOUR FOOTSTEPS? Coast, we’ve had a drought for the last four I guess there are a couple of different ways recipe. Any successful person does it. Hire Yes. I would tell them to go work their years, so water is definitely a giant issue. to look at that. Golf is not hugely impacted people that you see becoming better than you way through the business — go work for an Finding ways to limit water use will probably by culture, religion, race or things like that. are. Hire people that want your job so they’re operator, go work for a builder, go work for an be one of the biggest threats to golf in the However, I have done projects where the smart enough to figure stuff out. I’m 48 now architect. Build up a background of experience coming years, along with declining play. Then owners have asked me to liaise with their and I have a number of guys in their 30s all through the business. There are too many there is the general perception that golf is bad Feng Shui consultant to make sure that the working for me. My job is to give them the people who jump out of college and want to for the environment, so getting the planning golf course is accommodating their beliefs, benefit of my experience and to ensure that be a golf course architect, but they’ve never permits can be challenging. for example. they understand my manifesto and philosophy. worked on a golf course. They’ve never worked My reputation helps. It’s certainly a lot More commonly, I have to consider the I’m looking out for them. I’m making sure with a construction crew. They’ve never easier when I can go talk to councillors in the abilities of the local workers. If you are working that they see the threats that could be coming worked at a golf club. You need to spend the UK, show them pictures of something like somewhere where labour is unskilled and up and that they are maximising the first few years gaining all of that background Bandon Dunes and say, ‘This is my manifesto inexpensive but equipment is very expensive, opportunities that present themselves. and understanding. for what I want to create. I’m not looking to you want to create a golf course which is easy From there, it requires a little bit of “ create something overly manicured. I want it to maintain with lots of labour and doesn’t BANDON DUNES WAS CLEARLY A SEMINAL patience. The truth is that success will always “ to look natural. I want nature to play a huge require lots of equipment. It makes a big MOMENT IN YOUR CAREER, BUT ARE THERE find you, even though you sit every day difference to bear things like this in mind… ANY OTHER HIGHLIGHTS FOR YOU THAT thinking, ‘Oh, it’s going well now but it might role in this.’ REALLY STAND OUT? Can you hold on for two seconds? I’m at the fail tomorrow,’ or ‘It’s going well this month but Quite often, I’ll now have an ecologist as For sure. I spent two years bidding for the local airport about to get my aircraft out who knows what next month brings.’ Success part of my design team. In a perfect world, Castle course at St. Andrews [Links, The Home of the hangar. leads to more, which leads to more, which I’d like to have an ecologist and a geologist on of Golf]. On the final interview, when I was leads to more. There’s no point worrying about site, telling me what this land would’ve looked awarded the project, I got to drive back to my like before, for instance, farming started there. IS THAT YOUR PREFERRED METHOD that. You should base your plan on continued OF GETTING AROUND? parents house in the middle of Scotland and From an ecological point of view, I want to success, not second guessing yourself and It is. Last week, I circled the US. I did 5,500 tell my father that I’d won it. You can imagine; know what habitats we have and what we need worrying that it might not be successful. You miles in the plane as I went from project to he spent his life in and around golf and now his to protect, as well as what habitats we don’t just keep pushing forward as if it’s always going project. This week, the aircraft needs a son was going to design one of the golf courses have that would have been here in different to be successful. If you have the right stuff, it quick service and then I’m off to Chicago on at St. Andrews. That was, without a doubt, circumstances. How can we recreate them? always will be. Wednesday, which is about 1500 miles away. the proudest moment for me and my father. If I can weave all of that into my golf design, Something that will live with us forever. the environment is winning.

20 21 Laucala Island Golf Course

Interested in studying Horticulture at Writtle? Visit writtle.ac.uk/arena_horticulture

22 23 Creating a blog that blooms With over 22,000 likes and reblogs, around the world Jill’s plant of the day from 10th May 2014 is the most popular, with a few others close behind. When Dr Jill Raggett, Reader in Gardens and Designed Landscapes, posted a picture of a Cotinus coggygria on her blog in September 2013, she had no idea that it would end up being followed by over 7,000 people worldwide. “In this local garden at Wickham She shares some of her secrets and experiences of posting a Plant of the Day every day. “I cannot really believe it, but I have over 2,500 Bishops in Essex the lily of the valley, interactions on the blog and 360 new followers every month,” says Jill. “No-one is more surprised than me!” Jill’s blog — Plant of the Day — features a new post with Convallaria majalis proves it has a different plant every day, along with commentary about its cultivation, use, history or design. Consistency is key, and Jill believes her commitment to daily posts a rhizomatous stem as it follows is a big part of her success. “This can be a challenge, especially when you travel to remote areas,” she admits. “My husband is used to the cry, ‘I must find an internet the gaps in the paving! The plant cafe for Plant of the Day!’” Picking a favourite plant of the day is hard when there are so many to choose from, so Jill has a few: Galanthus will grow in semi or full shade and (snowdrops), plants that flower for a short time (cherry blossom, irises and peonies) and plants for winter bark. “There is normally Bark Week every winter!” appreciates a moist root run. After Jill’s regular blogging (over 1000 plants of the day have been posted since 2012) has earned her an international audience who regularly interact with her flowering there are red berries. So and re-post their favourite plants. “I have followers in the USA — especially California — but also in Europe, Russia, Argentina, Malaysia, Japan, Korea and on islands in the sorry the blog does not do scent as Pacific,” she explains. Despite its international audience, Plant of the Day was actually designed to be an aid for an audience much this was amazing and must waft closer to home: students at Writtle. “My blog is seasonally relevant for Writtle students and that is very important to me. They can use the Archive section as an aide into the house. I really visited to see memoire to help prompt them for their planting schemes,” she explains. “Plant knowledge takes time to acquire and I hope this blog helps our students to the famous 250 foot long wisteria remember to look at the world around them and how it changes with the seasons.” more of that tomorrow…”

Worldwide

Visit Jill’s blog at jillraggett.tumblr.com

24 25 Working with Team USA Illustration Michael Driver Michael

UK, USA, Russia and Brazil

Like many Writtle Lecturers, strength and conditioning specialist Ryan Lateward has industry experience to back up what he teaches on campus. But not everyone gets to experience sporting competition on the highest level. Since studying for his BSc (Hons) in Sport and Exercise Performance at Writtle, Ryan made it his mission to be a part of the 2012 Olympics in London. It was during his MSc in Strength and Conditioning at the University of East London (UEL) that he got that opportunity: working as an intern at SportsDock, which was a purpose-built facility for Team USA to train in for the duration of the games. “It was the Beijing Olympics that sparked my enthusiasm for elite level sport. After watching the games at home on my television, I knew I had to be a part of London 2012 in some way,” explains Ryan. “This was my reason for applying to study at Writtle.” During Ryan’s time as a student at Writtle, he developed his passion for strength and conditioning and gained the skills and knowledge needed to study for his master’s in London. “At the time of applying, I learnt that UEL would be used as a training and operations base for the United States Olympic Committee,” Ryan says. “I realised that if I was going to be able to fulfil my ambition to work at London 2012, this had to be how it would happen!” Ryan secured an intern position at Sportsdock with Team USA and got to experience, first-hand, the training and preparations athletes undertake before they compete at Olympic level. “I was able to witness and assist with all the things that happen behind the scenes: setting up training venues, the final preparations athletes go through, as well as the work of the physiotherapists, nutritionists and strength and conditioning coaches,” Ryan explains. “It was a position of privilege being part of a team like that. I genuinely felt part of Team USA’s success in London.” Since then, Ryan has gone on to work with Team USA at the Sochi Winter Games in 2014 and, most recently, the games in Rio. Back at Writtle, he’s applying those experiences to his teaching. “I learnt a lot whilst I was working with the team. I was able to see the training science, recovery and programming I had learnt about in action!” he says. “I am now able to speak to students about these experiences in a practical and applied manner.” Staying focussed on your ambitions is Ryan’s advice for anyone wanting to follow a similar path. “Start volunteering with local teams, develop your coaching and time spent around athletes of all abilities and become an expert in your sport. Stay focussed on your ambitions and do whatever it takes to get there. The path is not always obvious so explore multiple avenues. Concentrate on being the best you can be in your studies.”

Writtle Lecturer Ryan Lateward has worked alongside Team USA during their preparations for the Olympics in London, and Rio De Janeiro. He explains how he achieved his dream and

what goes on before competition. Interested in studying Sport at Writtle? Visit writtle.ac.uk/arena_sport

26 27 Talking Postharvest Technology and Food Worldwide Wastage with Dr Chris Bishop A Q&A with Dr Chris Bishop

While celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver are bringing the issue of food wastage to the public, Dr Chris Bishop, Reader in Postharvest Technology and Head of the Postharvest Technology Unit at Writtle, explains how new technologies and simple changes can make all the difference to this growing issue.

28 29 YOU RECENTLY RETURNED FROM A TRIP TO RUSSIA. CAN YOU EXPLAIN A LITTLE ABOUT Trying to persuade people that they should actually be using insulated shopping bags WHAT YOU WERE DOING OUT THERE? in the UK to take their product home from the supermarket is another thing. Insulated I advise on their potatoes and carrots; mainly on their storage, but also on some shopping bags are an obvious thing that we should be using in this country and I know of the handling issues. very few people who do.

THESE MOST RECENT VISITS ARE IN ADDITION TO MANY PREVIOUS TRIPS THERE. HOW HAS THAT ALWAYS EASY. THAT CHALLENGE JUST IS OFTEN THE SAME IF ONE’S IN RURAL KENYA OR PAKISTAN.

IT’S NOT SOMETHING THAT THERE’S GENERALLY A LOT OF AWARENESS ABOUT, IS THERE? TRYING TO GET PEOPLE TO REALISE THAT THERE ARE OTHER WAYS OF DOING THINGS ISN’T

RELATIONSHIP DEVELOPED OVER TIME? HAVE YOU LEARNT ANYTHING OUT THERE THAT YOU’VE No. I’ve used them for years and my wife has as well. Apart from one or two other BEEN ABLE TO APPLY ELSEWHERE? people in the postharvest unit here and a few other people I’ve met elsewhere, it’s fairly I’ve done about 20 visits all in all, I guess. It’s obviously been very useful from the point rare in this country. Products left in the back of your car on a sunny day can get up to of view of the teaching. I’ve been able to give a number of examples and case studies, and fairly high temperatures. talk about actual issues that are going on there right now. They’re experiencing very different weather conditions to here and it’s been useful to explore some of the issues that come with A LOT OF THE BLAME FOR FOOD WASTAGE SEEMS TO FALL SQUARELY ON SUPERMARKETS that. It’s provided a lot of general and specific case study-type examples for the students. AND RETAILERS. IS THERE SOMETHING WE AS CONSUMERS CAN BE DOING AFTER MAKING OUR PURCHASES? HOW DO DIFFERENT COUNTRIES APPROACH THE DIFFERENT ISSUES THAT YOU WORK ON? THERE There is produce that is wasted after it’s been bought, either because it’s just kept out ARE THE OBVIOUS ENVIRONMENTAL AND CLIMATE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COUNTRIES, BUT ARE for too long or it gets hot in the back of your car. If you put all the hot products into the THERE ANY CULTURAL DIFFERENCES? fridge at the same time it takes a long time to come down in temperature, by which time Yes, there can be. One of the other main countries I work in is Pakistan, and I do quite a lot “ the spoilage organisms get to work. For a lot of people, if their potatoes begin to sprout, “

“ in Egypt and various European countries as well. Clearly one of the issues is how much of the “ they will throw them away. It’s commonly heard that you can’t eat a sprouted potato, process is automated and how much you’re trying to automate. Obviously in some countries, which is wrong, but that is certainly the sort of thing that happens. labour is relatively cheap in respect to the cost of the product. In other countries, like the UK, it’s very high. So that’s one consideration. WHAT ABOUT BEFORE THE FOOD EVEN GETS TO A SUPERMARKET OR A RETAILER? When one of the important markets is exporting or processing for somewhere like PepsiCo, IS THERE MORE THAT WE COULD BE DOING THERE? their requirements are going to be fairly similar throughout the world. There can also be cultural I think it is varied. I think quite a lot of product either gets thrown away or is differences at times, with regards to both the quality and the knowledge of the staff. downgraded down the line because it’s not the right shape or it’s got some blemishes on it or something like that. Sometimes it’s referred to as ‘wonky veg’. A lot of people HAS THERE BEEN ANYTHING THAT’S PARTICULARLY TAKEN YOU BY SURPRISE OVER THE YEARS? say, ‘Oh it’s dreadful that the supermarkets screen that stuff out,’ but people, in general, When I first went out to Pakistan, I hadn’t really expected that they would be processing 500 will instinctively go for the best looking product in the supermarket. tonnes of potatoes each day to turn them into potato crisps. I didn’t really think of Pakistan as

I’M ALSO SOMETIMES SURPRISED BY HOW IF I GO SOMEWHERE, EVEN IF I HAVEN’T BEEN HAVEN’T I IF EVEN GO SOMEWHERE, I IF HOW ALSO BY I’M SOMETIMES SURPRISED being a country where potato crisps are important. That sort of thing catches me by surprise. ARE THERE ANY EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES THAT CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Sometimes you can be going through an area where you think everything looks very run TO FOOD WASTAGE? THERE FOR 16 YEARS OR SOMETHING, THEY SEEM TO BE ABLE TO REMEMBER ME ALMOST INSTANTLY! ALMOST ME REMEMBER TO ABLE BE TO SEEM THEY SOMETHING, OR YEARS 16 FOR THERE down and pretty battered, then you go through a door and all of a sudden you’re in a room Yes, there are one or two technologies that are coming through. An example, and by or in a store that parallels anything you could find in Europe or United States. Sometimes no means the only one, is that we have been working with an ethylene absorber or, more the outside doesn’t give away what’s on the inside. precisely, an ethylene scavenger. This removes ethylene from around the product which, I’m also sometimes surprised by how if I go somewhere, even if I haven’t been there in many cases, slows down its ripening and inhibits disease processes as well. We’ve done for 16 years or something, they seem to be able to remember me almost instantly! a lot of trial work and this is gradually coming into the supermarkets. This is the sort of thing that can certainly make a difference. THE ISSUE OF FOOD WASTAGE HAS BECOME A BIT OF A HOT TOPIC RECENTLY. HOW DOES YOUR WORK LINK IN WITH THAT? WHAT STOPS TECHNOLOGY LIKE THIS BEING ADOPTED QUICKLY? IS IT BECAUSE OF ITS When produce storage or handling is done badly, a certain amount of the product just can’t NASCENCY OR A COST FACTOR, FOR EXAMPLE? be used. Whether we’re talking about ten percent or 30 percent depends on the product and I think people are reluctant to make changes even if they say they’re not. I think with the situation. One of the big challenges is looking at a situation and saying, ‘Okay. Your losses, some of these things, technology needs some time to not just show that it actually works, at present, are 20 percent. They need not be as high as that.’ The response is, ‘Well what do but that it beds in well with the actual processes. If technology works but involves another you mean? They’ve always been 20 percent.’ Trying to get people to realise that there are other step in the process, people are reluctant because of the requirement to manage that and ways of doing things isn’t always easy. That challenge is often just the same if one’s in rural because of the space it takes up. There are various technologies, some of which made a Kenya or Pakistan. dramatic difference over the last few years and some of which are just coming in, like the ethylene scavengers.

30 31 WHAT ARE THE BIG CHALLENGES THAT THE AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD INDUSTRIES ARE GOING TO HAVE TO TACKLE IN THE NEXT FIVE

OR TEN YEARS? I think we’re going to see more in the way of automation and more in the way of sensing various parameters, whether that’s temperature, gas concentrations, damage levels…all these sorts of things. I think it’s going to be about integrating those sensors and monitoring systems into a realistic management system. I know of people who have got quite sophisticated management systems, but when I ask them how they’re using them, it transpires they’re only using 30% of the potential of the system.

IN TERMS OF YOUR WORK, IS THERE

“ A PARTICULAR ACHIEVEMENT THAT

“ YOU’RE MOST PROUD OF? Being one of the people involved in developing a technology that meant around 150 people had a job in a field of spring onions in Egypt working and harvesting them, before they were then shipped by sea to the UK. That was quite exhilarating, really. I THINK PEOPLE ARE RELUCTANT TO MAKE CHANGES EVEN IF THEY SAY THEY’RE NOT. I THINK WITH SOME OF THESE THINGS, THESE OF THINGS, SOME WITH THINK I THEY’RE NOT. SAY THEY IF CHANGES EVEN MAKE TO RELUCTANT ARE PEOPLE THINK I TECHNOLOGY NEEDS SOME TIME TO NOT JUST SHOW THAT IT ACTUALLY WORKS, BUT THAT IT BEDS IN WELL WITH THE ACTUAL PROCESSES. ACTUAL THE WITH WELL IN BEDS IT THAT BUT WORKS, ACTUALLY IT THAT SHOW JUST NOT TO TIME SOME NEEDS TECHNOLOGY

Interested in studying Postharvest Technology at Writtle? Visit writtle.ac.uk/arena_postharvest

32 33 As well as gaining University College status, Writtle The Story has also achieved Taught Degree Awarding Powers Behind the First –meaning it can award its own degrees. The new MSci Bioveterinary Science is the first course to Degree Awarded by Writtle take advantage of this. Course Scheme Manager Nieky van Veggel explains how it came to be.

“As an Animal Science course team, we have been playing with the thought of focussing more on animal health for a while. Last year, this thought was developed into an actual plan when I was asked to start developing a new course scheme,” explains Nieky. “I was quite happy to take on the challenge.” Bioveterinary Science is the study of animal health science, including research into the diagnosis, prevention and management of health issues in animals. It’s an attractive offer to both animal lovers and future animal scientists. “Many students come to Writtle to work with animals, and I think the fact that this course focusses on the discipline of animal health science makes it even more attractive,” says Nieky. “People have a weakness for animals, especially when they are ill or injured. Learning how to prevent animals from getting ill, making sure they have good quality of life and fully immersing yourself in understanding animal health is an exciting option.” The new integrated master’s course includes an opportunity to undertake a year’s work placement, along with two professional training courses to give students additional qualifications. “In Year 2, students have the opportunity to undertake a Royal Society of Biology (RSB) accredited Home Office PIL A and B course, which would make students eligible for a personal Home Office licence should they become employed to work with laboratory animals,” Nieky explains. “Additionally, in their fourth year, students will be offered the opportunity to undertake a project management course to help with their dissertation research project. Furthermore, students are required to keep a personal and professional development blog for the duration of the course. This would help them with applying for Registered Scientist status should they wish to do so. “Finally, Royal Society of Biology accreditation will be sought for the course once the Writtle validation is completed, and students will be RSB student members for the duration of their course. All of this is funded by Writtle, because we feel this really enhances students’ employability.” Launching a new course is a big undertaking, says Nieky, who has been the course development coordinator and lead author since March 2015. “It has definitely been a challenge. The idea that this would be a first for Writtle, and therefore an important milestone in the institution’s history, did cause quite a bit of pressure, however UK it’s a very good feeling knowing that we have produced an innovative course to mark the occasion and I am therefore very proud of the accomplishment.”

34 35 Microscopic examination of a blood smear.

Interested in studying Bioveterinary Science at Writtle? Visit writtle.ac.uk/arena_biovet

36 37 UK & United Arab Emirates A Q&A with Lauren Allport YOUTUBE CONQUERING

38 39 Equine Sports Therapy alumna Lauren Allport is responsible for two of the most popular equine YouTube channels in the world. She explains how her YouTube success led her to Dubai, where she now works with horses owned by the Royal Family.

WHEN DID YOU FIRST DEVELOP A PASSION another horsey person. I have a specific skillset FOR HORSES? and there are only a couple of other people I first started riding when I was seven or in Dubai that can do what I do. It’s quite eight and I really hated it! I didn’t want to do specialised. Without the degree I would have it again. When I was 13, I remember looking had to have been a horse trainer or something, in the Yellow Pages and seeing an advert for and there are a lot of people that do that here. horse riding. It was then that I asked my mum if I could start again. I’m not sure why I was AND HOW DID YOUR YOUTUBE CHANNELS looking in the Yellow Pages at the age of 13. COME ABOUT? WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO Once I started again, that was it. I never START THEM? stopped. I was riding for about a year and I I went cross-country riding with the first started to learn some basic skills. Meanwhile, horse that I got when I was 16. It was my first my mum and dad were saying, ‘This is just a ever time riding cross-country and my dad was hobby — this is just for fun.’ Now I have three with me. He was filming everything on a small, horses and it’s all I do. basic camera. I was never really that into it, but he just took it along to take some photos WHAT DID YOU GET OUT OF YOUR TIME and videos. AT WRITTLE? During that time, I actually happened to I learned everything I know about therapy get bucked off my horse. We jumped up a for horses from my time at Writtle. Before that bank. He got to the top of the bank and he I didn’t know anything. I just knew I wanted to did this huge buck and I went flying. My dad do something that would benefit my horses, so caught it on camera. I put it on YouTube a few I either wanted to be a physio, sports therapist months later and forgot about it. When I came or something similar. In the end, I went with back after a few more months, I had around the Equine Sports Therapy course. 1,000 views and out of nowhere I’d gained 100 The reason I ended up here [Dubai] followers. It was a pretty surprising moment! was because a guy had spotted my videos on After that, I made a lot more videos of YouTube. He called me one day when I was at things like show jumping competitions. Now work in a dressage yard in Essex and asked if I have 70,000 subscribers on one channel and I would come and work out here. I thought he 40,000 on the other. I have somewhere around was joking. I couldn’t have done that without 30 million views in total online. That’s crazy the degree. Without it, I would just have been and the whole thing happened by chance.

40 41 THE REASON I ENDED UP HERE“ [DUBAI] WAS BECAUSE A GUY HAD SPOTTED MY VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE. HE CALLED

ME ONE DAY WHEN I WAS AT WORK IN A DRESSAGE YARD

IN ESSEX AND ASKED IF I WOULD COME AND WORK OUT HERE. I THOUGHT HE WAS JOKING.“ I COULDN’T HAVE DONE THAT WITHOUT THE DEGREE.

BUT IT LED TO YOUR WORK AND WHAT YOU’RE DOING NOW, SO IN THAT SENSE IT WAS A POSITIVE TURN OF EVENTS? Oh definitely. If that guy hadn’t seen my videos then I wouldn’t be in Dubai.

DO YOU FIND IT HARD TO BALANCE THE NEED TO POST VIDEOS REGULARLY WHILE YOU DO YOUR

DAY JOB? IT SEEMS LIKE IT’S ALMOST A JOB IN ITSELF. It is. I enjoy making the videos and I have lots of nice friends that are very happy to come and video me. My best friend does most of it. I enjoy watching my riding as well because it helps me learn. I enjoy uploading videos and reading people’s comments. People are very interactive and very into it, and a lot of people say they’re inspired by it. I think they like to watch me because I’m out here doing something a bit different. It’s definitely more difficult now that I’m doing the master’s degree because I have to make the time to upload my videos. I have two channels on YouTube. The main one is bigger and it has more followers. I try to upload to that channel once or twice a month and make properly edited videos, which means that they can take a few hours to make. I like to spend some time on these and include things like music where I can, in order to make them entertaining. On the other channel, I upload raw and unedited videos from lessons for people to watch. That doesn’t take as much as time and I can “ upload there a few times a week if I want to. It’s going to be hard to balance these channels when “ I get further into the degree.

WHEN YOU GOT THAT CALL AND WERE ASKED TO MOVE OUT TO DUBAI, HOW DID YOU FEEL? WHAT MADE YOU TAKE THE PLUNGE AND JUST GO? I don’t know. My family were very supportive and they said that I could take my horses, which was great. I wouldn’t have gone if I couldn’t have taken them. I definitely didn’t want to sell them. I came out for a two-week trial at a stables I was going to work for. I only ended up working for them for about a month and then I went and did my own thing. When I left them I went to show, and that’s when I met the Sheikh. The Royal family and the Sheikh are now my sponsor, which allows me to work out here. After that, I met the Sheikh’s sister. I started to look after his sister’s horses and it just spiralled I HAVE 70,000 SUBSCRIBERS ON ONE CHANNEL AND 40,000 ON THE OTHER. I HAVE SOMEWHERE SOMEWHERE HAVE OTHER. I THE ON SUBSCRIBERS CHANNEL 40,000 ONE AND ON 70,000 HAVE I from there. Once I’d worked with one horse people started to recommend me, and that’s how it

AROUND 30 MILLION VIEWS IN TOTAL ONLINE. THAT’S CRAZY AND THE WHOLE THING HAPPENED BY CHANCE. BY HAPPENED THING WHOLE CRAZY THE AND THAT’S ONLINE. TOTAL IN VIEWS MILLION 30 AROUND grew. I didn’t have business cards until about four months ago! Back then it was all down to everyone sharing my phone number. Now we’re fully booked almost every week. I can’t do anymore, which is great in a way. One of the princesses in Saudi [Arabia] actually followed me on YouTube for around seven years. When I moved out here she called me and said, ‘Will you please come and see my horses? I’ve followed you for years.’ She knew all of my first horses and it was really surreal. She knew everything about me!

42 43

ONE OF THE PRINCESSES“ IN SAUDI [ARABIA] ACTUALLY FOLLOWED ME ON YOUTUBE FOR AROUND

SEVEN YEARS. WHEN I MOVED OUT HERE SHE CALLED ME AND SAID, ‘WILL YOU PLEASE COME“ AND SEE MY HORSES? I’VE FOLLOWED YOU FOR YEARS.’

HOW DID YOU FEEL DURING YOUR FIRST FEW MONTHS WORKING OUT IN DUBAI? many good friends. My best friend from England, Katherine, lives here with me. I asked The first two months were pretty hard because I didn’t really know anyone. I had one friend her to come over here and help me with the workload. The Sheikh from the Royal Family from Ireland who also moved out here. Once I started to do more therapy and got busier with is her sponsor too. work, it got easier. I moved here in December 2014 and my horses followed the March after, so Where I was in Essex, there were too many people that did what I did and it was very difficult I spent four months without my horses. That was tough! Once the horses were here I was fine, to get clients. Don’t be afraid to go somewhere else in the world. It can be really scary but it can and the whole thing felt normal because I got to see them everyday. Before that I was only riding be really amazing. I don’t want to leave Dubai. Perhaps I’ll never want to leave here! Don’t be a friend’s horse whenever I was here, so when my horses moved over, the whole thing felt afraid to go and try something new. much easier.

HOW DOES YOUR WORK AS AN EQUINE THERAPIST IN DUBAI COMPARE TO HOW YOU MIGHT WORK BACK HOME? If I were still in the UK, I don’t think I would be as busy or have the clients with the status that I do here. I don’t think I would be working with the Queen’s horses in England! I’m also able to ride a lot more out here because we have world-class facilities at the yard. There’s an indoor arena and there are a lot of top trainers here. As a result, it’s a lot easier to progress as a rider here as well.

WHAT’S BEEN YOUR PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT TO DATE? “ Working for the Royal family, being quite close-knit with them and generally having their “ support. You need a sponsor to work here, so to have them say, ‘Yes, you can be here’ and having their name on my passport has been great.

DO YOU EVER FEEL INTIMIDATED BY THE PRESTIGE OF IT ALL, OR DOES IT JUST FEEL SECOND NATURE TO YOU NOW? When I came here, it was all a bit surreal. Even the show jumping is very different. It’s still growing here but it’s very competitive. There’s a lot of prize money and there are a lot of riders. There are shows every weekend during the season, which runs from September through to the end of April. I’m used to it now but it is very different. Sometimes it feels like you’re in a bubble over here, but I love it. I never get sick of seeing the sun and it’s very safe. There’s very little crime.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO SOMEONE STARTING AT WRITTLE RIGHT NOW WHO WANTED TO FOLLOW IN YOUR FOOTSTEPS? TAKE EVERY LITTLE STEP. SOMETHING SMALL MIGHT HAPPEN OR YOU MIGHT DO SOMETHING SMALL. SOMETHING DO MIGHT YOU OR HAPPEN MIGHT SMALL SOMETHING STEP. LITTLE EVERY TAKE Take every little step. Something small might happen or you might do something small. You YOU MIGHT MEET SOMEBODY AT A SHOW AND THAT PERSON COULD TURN OUT TO BE VERY INFLUENTIAL. VERY BE TO OUT TURN COULD PERSON THAT AND SHOW A AT SOMEBODY MEET MIGHT YOU might meet somebody at a show and that person could turn out to be very influential. Sometimes I thought I could see a door opening and that I was being taken down a particular path. Often that door closed but it led me to a better opportunity. When I was working in Essex, I was riding in a yard and not doing too much therapy. I was more of a rider back then. Obviously I love riding, but I wanted to do more and make the most of the training I had received at Writtle. Then the door to Dubai opened and it was a big step. It’s worth trying these things and seeing where they take you. When I first moved to Dubai and quit working at the other stables, there was a month where I had no clients and I didn’t know anybody. I had one friend here and I really had to lean on him, but I knew I didn’t want to go home. It wasn’t an option, even when it was really difficult. There were days where I had nothing to do and I was really bored. It felt like it wasn’t going to go anywhere. I met one rider and worked with one horse and then it just spiraled from there. These things can pick up when you least expect it. Now I know hundreds of people here and have so Interested in studying Equine at Writtle? Visit writtle.ac.uk/arena_equine

44 45 Creating international Illustration Kate Cronin Kate floral designs with Worldwide Younghyun Kim

BEFORE YOU GOT INTO FLORISTRY, WERE THERE ANY PARTICULAR SKILLS YOU USED TO BE AN OFFICE WORKER. WHAT OR LESSONS YOU LEARNT FROM THESE MADE YOU CHANGE CAREERS AND BECOME EXPERIENCES? A FLORIST? WHAT IS IT ABOUT FLORISTRY The most important thing I learnt is to find THAT YOU LOVE? out what customers want — be it particular I used to work in a manufacturing company colours, styles or even their budget — and and often had groups of foreign visitors in satisfy them. Everyone has their own taste the office for meetings. I thought it would be and a talented florist should be able to capture nice to put a bunch of flowers on the table to that and create a design based upon it. I learnt VERY GOOD! GOING ABROAD TO LEARN WHAT I LOVE WAS AN EXCITING ADVENTURE FOR ME. welcome them. As the meetings became more this by communicating with customers in the frequent, I decided to learn floristry and different floristry fields. PRACTICAL A GREAT CLASSES, CAMPUS AND THE ACCOMMODATION ALL SOUNDED decorate the meeting room with flowers. When I learnt floristry, I loved every minute ROBBIE HONEY IS A WELL-RESPECTED of it. Flowers are so beautiful and always make COMPANY WITHIN THE FLORISTRY INDUSTRY. people smile. It feels very rewarding to see WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING THERE? how flowers can make people happy. This I learnt a lot there about the different is what motivates me most as a florist. aspects of corporate and event work: buying flowers in the market, conditioning flowers, WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO MOVE TO THE making everything from small bunches for UK AND STUDY AT WRITTLE? Mother’s Day to large pedestals for corporate I was very eager to learn floristry in depth, “

events. I experienced various aspects of “ rather than through a flower school run by commercial floristry. a florist. I wanted to go to a college in the UK with a great reputation. I found out about AS WELL AS YOUR OWN BUSINESS IN SOUTH

A Q&A with Younghyun Kim A Q&A with Younghyun Writtle through an agency here and read the KOREA, YOU’VE WORKED IN MANY OTHER stories of a couple of Korean students PLACES INCLUDING GERMANY, ITALY, THE NETHERLANDS, NEW YORK AND ABU DHABI. regarding their experiences at Writtle, which DO YOU FIND THAT PEOPLE’S TASTES DIFFER was very useful for me. Practical classes, a AROUND THE WORLD? great campus and the accommodation all At an Indian wedding I worked at, I noticed sounded very good! Going abroad to learn how they were fond of bold and lively colours what I love was an exciting adventure for me. such as red, yellow and orange. In New York, people prefer flowers with a modern look, with HOW DID YOUR DEGREE AT WRITTLE HELP more compact flowers and less foliage, while TO DEVELOP YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND PASSION natural styles with more foliage are common FOR FLORISTRY? My course covered everything from design in the UK. While studying BA (Hons) Professional Floristry, theory and botanical terms to practical skills and working in a flower shop. It really helped Younghyun Kim gained a wealth of industry me to learn floristry theory in depth and apply experience and won a silver medal at the prestigious that theory effectively in my work. I was able to work in a commercial environment, using RHS Chelsea Florist of the Year competition. She what I’d learnt on the course, which was a great learning method for me. While you explains how those skills helped her to start her were at Writtle, you spent a lot of time gaining experience at various events own floristry business — Mary’s April — back and floristry companies. home in South Korea.

46 47 I CREATED MY FLORAL“ CHANDELIER WHILE

WORKING THROUGH THE NIGHT FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS. Turning a passion

I WAS IN A PANIC AND A HURRY RIGHT UP TO THE DAY BEFORE THE INSTALLATION. WHEN I WAS“ NOTIFIED THAT I’D WON into start-up THE MEDAL, IT WAS JUST UNBELIEVABLE. success

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE COUNTRY WHAT HAVE BEEN THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES Name Bente Fremo TO WORK IN AND WHAT MEMORIES DO YOU’VE FACED IN STARTING YOUR BUSINESS YOU HAVE OF IT? SO FAR? Occupation Horse Trainer As a freelancer I flew to Berlin, Germany Multi-tasking to keep the business running: for a Christmas job. All of the staff in the marketing, PR, accounting, promotion and so Company Name Hestebente flower shop, Marsono, were so friendly and on. Being a good florist to the customer is just enthusiastic. We regularly went out to the a small part of making this business successful. Christmas market at night and had fun Location Norway shopping and eating. The great atmosphere HOW DOES THE FLORISTRY INDUSTRY IN SOUTH KOREA DIFFER TO WHAT YOU EXPERIENCED in the workplace made the experience so Story Bente Fremo graduated from Writtle in 2007 and returned home to WHILE STUDYING IN THE UK AND WORKING Norway to pursue her dream of starting her own business. Eleven years encouraging and lively. I have the fondest AROUND THE WORLD? memories of them all and we still keep I can say that the demand for flowers in on, she explains how her degree helped turn her dream into a reality. in touch. Korea is not as high as in the UK. The demand After studying BSc (Hons) Equine studies and Business Management, at weddings has increased in Korea year by Norwegian-born Bente Fremo returned home to work at a bank. During this IN 2012, YOU WON THE SILVER MEDAL IN THE year, even though the demand for flowers for time she began to build up her equine business, Hestebente. “I was working RHS CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW FLORIST OF THE YEAR COMPETITION. HOW DID YOU COME other occasions has decreased. with horses afternoons and weekends at this point and slowly starting my TO TAKE PART? WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO WORK equine career,” she explains. “I had a few different jobs within the banking and ON YOUR ENTRY AND HOW DID IT FEEL TO BE WHAT MAKES YOU PROUDEST ABOUT RUNNING insurance industries before I decided it was time to live the dream full-time.” AWARDED THE SILVER MEDAL? YOUR OWN BUSINESS?

“ I had been trying to enter the competition When a bride and groom compliment me Five years later and Hestebente has gone from strength to strength. “Now “ since 2009. To enter, I had to win at a regional on how beautiful their wedding was, I feel so the business is busy and there’s a waiting list for people who want to send their meeting. It was very frustrating, but looking proud and accomplished. horse to me for training,” says Bente. “It’s been getting better results every year back, trial and error was the best way to learn. since I started and makes just under one million NOK in revenue each year.” In 2012, I created my floral chandelier while WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACHIEVE WITH Hestebente is now based on a large farm outside Trondheim, with room MARY’S APRIL IN THE FUTURE? working through the night. I was in a panic for 15 horses and approximately 100 acres of pasture. Along with trainees to I hope Mary’s April becomes a brand and a hurry right up to the day before the assist her, Bente trains both horses and their owners in natural horse-keeping, that uses flowers to provide a beautiful and installation. When I was notified that I’d management and problem solving. won the medal, it was just unbelievable. unforgettable wedding in a unique theme. TERMS TO PRACTICAL SKILLS AND WORKING IN A FLOWER SHOP. FLOWER A IN SKILLS WORKING AND PRACTICAL TO TERMS This concept is very fresh in Korea. Although Bente had been working with horses long before she started MY COURSE COVERED EVERYTHING FROM DESIGN THEORY AND BOTANICAL BOTANICAL AND DESIGN THEORY FROM EVERYTHING COVERED COURSE MY HOW DID YOUR WORLDWIDE EXPERIENCE AND studying at Writtle, she credits her degree with giving her the confidence to DEGREE AT WRITTLE HELP AND INFLUENCE run her own business. “I’d say that I wouldn’t be where I am without this YOU WHEN IT CAME TO LAUNCHING YOUR OWN degree,” she explains. “I’d still be doing the equine side of things maybe, but FLORISTRY BUSINESS — MARY’S APRIL? running a successful business — including the accounting and everything My qualification from Writtle and world else it involves — would have been a whole different story. -wide career helped me build Mary’s April as a professional and unique flower and wedding “My degree from Writtle made it possible for me to successfully start my brand. When it comes to the school side of the own business — from writing that initial business plan and applying for bank business, I’ve been able to develop my own loans, to giving me the ability and confidence to do my own accounting teaching methods based on the curriculum (saving a lot of money every year!) The management part of the degree and my learning experience at Writtle. prepared me in a very valuable way for being my own boss,” she adds. Beyond the confidence and ability she gained with business management, Bente finds it hard to pinpoint a single highlight of her time spent working with horses. “I used to say that those three years at Writtle were the best three years in my life,” she says, before adding, “I’ve had to stop saying it Interested in studying Floristry at Writtle? now, because life’s been pretty awesome after Writtle as well!” Visit writtle.ac.uk/arena_floristry

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FOR THE 70 PERCENT“ OF THE WORLD’S POOR Reinvigorating WHO LIVE IN RURAL AREAS, AGRICULTURE“ IS THE MAIN a rural economy SOURCE OF INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT.

Senior Lecturer and Development Consultant Henry Matthews explains how his team helped to improve employment, income and the living standards of some of the most vulnerable people in rural Uzbekistan. For the 70 percent of the world’s poor who live in rural areas, agriculture is the main source of income and employment. As the world’s population rises towards the much-quoted figure of nine billion by 2050, farming is going to have to meet the increasing need of those in urban areas while providing a livelihood for those living and working on the land. The issues surrounding agricultural and rural development in many parts of the world, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa, are well documented. However, there are other areas facing similar challenges but in different circumstances. One such area is Central Asia, where the legacy of the Soviet period still persists and the problems affecting rural employment are of increasing concern. The most populated country of the region is Uzbekistan, where just under half of people live in rural areas. While the economy has seen impressive growth in recent years, this growth has not been shared by those living in the countryside. The contraction of the Russian economy, which had provided employment for many Uzbek workers, means that many will be returning to their villages looking for work. Two in-country missions were carried out, businesses, in both production and The EU has pledged to support rural development in Uzbekistan and I was team leader of a which included stakeholder meetings, focus marketing to create viable, sustainable project to formulate a €25 million programme to help with this. The emphasis of the programme groups and field visits. The first area identified value chains through a national and regional was on employment, income generation and enhancing the living standards of the most as essential for the rural development was extension (advisory) service linking farms to vulnerable groups in rural areas. the need for a well-trained, qualified and universities and other research institutions. The team, representing agriculture, small business development, tourism and training took accredited labour force. Currently, many The second was a new framework for skills An essay by Henry Matthews by An essay a holistic, integrated view on how employment could be improved. While some increases in employees are working in occupations for development and training to supply a well- agricultural productivity have taken place since Soviet times, farmers have not taken advantage which they have no training and there are trained fit for purpose labour supply for rural of market opportunities or the chance to add value to the products through processing, storage shortages of highly-skilled workers. Very businesses particularly for those in and related or packaging. Employment and business development opportunities in food processing, few farmers or rural businessmen have any to tourism and agriculture. This would be marketing and distribution have not been available and farms themselves lack the ability and training in business development or delivered through revitalized and refocused knowledge in many cases to take advantage of technological improvements or market gaps. entrepreneurship, even at a basic level. institutions already in place. Farmer choice is restricted by the state, who insist that 80% of the land should be planted Reform of the educational system has been The team believed that, by addressing these with the so called ‘strategic crops’: cotton and wheat. This is at the expense of fruit and vegetable slow and there is little interaction between the two areas, both the supply and demand issues production, for which the country has a comparative advantage as well as a well-deserved education system and employers. This is of rural employment could be met. Profitable, reputation. Fruit and vegetable products are high value and offer opportunities including, at particularly true for businesses in agriculture sustainable rural businesses could be present, the Russian market (in light of the ban on some EU imports). There is a further issue and tourism, which are small and remote from created and supported, which would offer around the sustainability of much of the agricultural production, which relies on high levels policy makers and therefore lacking influence. employment to a well-trained, motivated of pesticide use and irrigation. The team put forward two proposed workforce, enhancing development in The inclusion of a tourism expert within the team helped us highlight that, as the project areas. The first was technical and rural Uzbekistan. fastest-growing industry in the world, there could be opportunities for the country in this business support for farms and rural sector. The Silk Road, which passed through Uzbekistan, already attracts thousands of visitors to the southern cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva. Tourism currently accounts for three percent of the country’s GDP, but this could be increased by creating specialist, rural farm or eco-tourism holidays alongside the current offers, which would help create employment.

Uzbekistan

Interested in studying Agriculture at Writtle? Visit writtle.ac.uk/arena_agriculture

50 51 Worldwide

A Q&A with Leigh Morris SHAPING LAND-BASED EDUCATION

52 53 PREVIOUS INTERVIEWS HAVE MENTIONED DID THOSE EXPERIENCES AND YOUR OWN YOUR EARLY EDUCATION AT A GRAMMAR NEEDS SHAPE YOUR VIEWS ON, AND WORK Before he became the newly SCHOOL IN YORK AND HOW IT WAS AT ODDS IN, EDUCATION AT THE WELSH COLLEGE WITH YOUR KINAESTHETIC LEARNING STYLE. OF HORTICULTURE? WAS IT OBVIOUS TO YOU BACK THEN THAT Massively. When you do any sort of appointed CEO of the National THERE WERE OTHER WAYS TO LEARN? teaching, it’s a huge realisation to find out No, I didn’t have a clue. I passed my 11+ in that people learn in different ways. Teachers York and went to a grammar school for boys. tend to teach how they like to learn. If I’m in a Land Based College, International I was always told I was quite a bright lad. session at a conference and someone wants a There were a lot of bright kids there, but I volunteer for a role-playing exercise, I’m the certainly wasn’t the brightest. The typical first one with my hand in the air. I probably Horticulture alumnus Leigh Morris school approach at that time was to have a plan more practicals, more role playing and blackboard, a teacher at the front and the more group work because that’s how I like to WONDER THAT I WAS EASILY DISTRACTED BACK WHEN I I WENT THINK TO THERE SCHOOL. WAS AN APPROACH IN PLACE AT THAT SCHOOL JUST WASN’T FOR ME. opportunity for the students to ask

learn. That isn’t how most people like to learn, SUDDENLY I AND DID I TESTS ALL WAS THESE RANKING AS HIGH AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN FOR KINAESTHETIC AND ACTIVE [LEARNING], SO THERE’S LITTLE went on a journey across the world questions occasionally. though. As a teacher, I need to be aware of It wasn’t until years later, when I did teacher that. I need to have a mixture of group work, training courses, that I realised people could practical activity, auditory stuff and visual stuff. that revolutionised his perception be kinaesthetic, visual and active learners. If you’re a good teacher you bring a lot of Suddenly I did all these tests and I was ranking those learning styles in. as high as you possibly can for kinaesthetic It was probably more impactful when I of teaching. He talks about his belief and active [learning], so there’s little wonder got to the [Royal] Botanic Garden [Edinburgh] that I was easily distracted back when I went to and started doing capacity building projects school. I think there was an approach in place around the world. When I’m training people in land-based education and his at school that just wasn’t for me. Although I did how to teach, I can explain to them that they well up until my fourth year, I got to the fifth have to use different learning styles and that year and I pretty much imploded. I wasn’t bad people learn in different ways. There have experiences with horticulture in — I just went fishing! Ultimately, I think I was in been many moments where I’ve almost been an environment where I had to do academic able to see that lightbulb come on. Suddenly subjects that didn’t allow me to be they go from a one-dimensional teacher who developing countries. inquiring or dynamic. delivers a PowerPoint - because that’s how they I went on to do a youth training scheme like to present information - to someone who and signed up to do Forestry. When I turned realises that people learn in different ways. up, I was told that there were only two of us Schools sometimes see agriculture or “ “ that wanted to do Forestry and therefore I horticulture as something that the naughty couldn’t do it, but that I could do Horticulture kids can do, which I think is a failing. When instead. They had a placement sorted out for those kids came to me [at the Welsh College me on a tree nursery: Johnsons of Whixley, of Horticulture], they weren’t the naughty kids. which is still one of the UK’s biggest landscape In this group of eight or so kids, six or seven amenity tree producers. It was during this were just like I was at school. They weren’t bad time that I grew up a lot, learnt a lot and was or disruptive — they were just active learners. inspired to go to college. Ian Nelson, who is They needed to be given a practical activity still there now as the Nursery Manager, was where you could then relate something to there as a middle year student from college. them and get them involved in a more active, He inspired me to actually go and get kinaesthetic way. I think that was a lightbulb an education. moment for me. I think those kids are in every When I went to college, I was in a world class and they typically get told to shut up, or where I could be active. I had a plot and I learnt they’re treated as the ones who can’t sit still. how to drive tractors, but I went to academic Being an active person is not a bad thing and sessions as well. Back in the day, there was a lot I think there’s still a bit of a misconception of academic rigor to the National Certificate around that in schools. course that I did. We were there for 40 weeks and five days a week. I was with people that

were like-minded and had the same learning style as me, but even then I didn’t understand that. It wasn’t until I did teacher training that I learnt about learning styles, how important they were and how different my education could have been earlier on in life. 54 55 WHAT WERE THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSONS YOU LEARNT DURING YOUR TIME IN ETHIOPIA AND OMAN? HOW DID THOSE EXPERIENCES ARISE? I ACTUALLY WROTE THE“ COURSE IN A SHIPPING

Soon after I moved to Wales in early 1998 to be a lecturer and training officer, I got an CONTAINER IN ISTANBUL. AT THE TIME WE WERE ON invitation from the principal to show around a lady from Turkey who was on something

called a Rotary Group Study Exchange. I showed her around and got a letter back from the A PROJECT WITH THE NEZAHAT GÖKYIĞIT BOTANIC GARDEN IN local rotary club with an invite to apply for the group study exchange to India and Nepal. ISTANBUL, WHICH IS AN AMAZING“ LITTLE BOTANIC GARDEN I was one of four people picked to go and spend a few weeks in India and Nepal, travelling INSIDE FOUR LOOPS OF A MOTORWAY JUNCTION. around looking at the botanic gardens, rice growing projects, tomato projects, local nurseries and other places - everything from leprosy hospitals to eye clinics to legless artificial limb projects. Ultimately I’d always felt some sort of empathy toward helping people in other countries, although I’d never been to a developing country before. It was huge. I came back and thought, ‘I need to do more. I need to engage with something more,’ and that’s how I genuinely felt. WERE THERE ANY DIFFERENCES OR SIMILARITIES IN THE WAYS THAT DIFFERENT COUNTRIES It was a massive moment in my life. APPROACHED HORTICULTURE THAT YOU PICKED UP ON? At that point I realised I wanted to do something else. I wanted to engage with the To try and answer that, I’ll give you an example of a course I developed at the Royal Botanic international community. I scoped out different options and after much research, I found the Garden Edinburgh. I’d been there for a few months and it became clear that they had been

Master in International Horticulture at Writtle. At that point I took a sabbatical to go and do the travelling around the world for years training people in horticulture, but there was no master’s. Almost two years to the day after I finished, I received an advert in my pigeon hole for qualification behind that. the Head of School of Horticulture at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. I got that job and I actually wrote the course in a shipping container in Istanbul. At the time we were on a suddenly landed in this world of international botanic gardens. project with the Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanic Garden in Istanbul, which is an amazing little botanic There are 3,500 botanic gardens around the world, along with nurseries and education garden inside four loops of a motorway junction. It was the only place they could build it and they programs and plant exchanges. There’s conservation taking place around the planet. Suddenly wanted training. When I met their director in Edinburgh and described my vision for a practical I had the opportunity to engage with a whole range of international projects including a certificate course, he said, ‘That’s just what I want. Come and write it for me.’ So, the first place we significant chunk of time in Oman. delivered that was in Istanbul and it then went across to Oman. It’s been delivered in Thailand, With Ethiopia, a mission of mine had always been to do something for VSO [Voluntary Service and we’ve run sessions in Laos and various other countries. The beauty is that the principles of Overseas]. The Botanic Garden offered to support me in doing a short placement. I went off to horticulture are the same. The differences lie in the intricacies of a different world. Ethiopia for a couple of months and visited about 40 farms, most of which were flower farms. When we teach Edinburgh students a practical on potting, we’ll have a load of rigid pots At that time, back in 2005 and 2006, there were a lot of investors looking at Ethiopia as the next made from plastic or posh terracotta. We’ll have lots of peat-based or expensive non-peat big rose producer. There were expats from Israel, the UK, the Netherlands and others all setting growing media, and we’ll have labels and pens and so on. In Laos, we were using buffalo up farms, but the Ethiopian government wanted Ethiopian farmers. The VSO was helping the excrement. We used metal cans for pots and we obtained bag pots from Thailand. We did Ethiopians develop, not the expats. exactly the same teaching process there. In short, you use the materials that are available but I went to all these farms to run workshops and it was amazing. All I really did was light the the principles remain the same, and I would say that’s the same in horticulture the world over. touchpaper. I pulled together the people from the different farms and designed the structure “

“ for a day, talking about major pests and disease problems. Just to get people from different farms WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF STUDYING FOR YOUR MASTER IN INTERNATIONAL around the same table, sharing knowledge and coming up with their combined solutions, was HORTICULTURE AT WRITTLE? amazing. To this day, there’s not been anything as fulfilling as going off and doing those workshops It was fantastic. It was a huge thing for me to go and do this. At the time I was head of for VSO in Ethiopia. horticulture at the Welsh College of Horticulture. I was 34 or 35. It was a burning ambition to go Oman was one example of an international project with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. and do this. I remember just feeling totally immersed in the experience of being a student again. There was a vision from Sultan Qaboos [bin Said Al Said, the Sultan of Oman]. He wanted a The first thing was the fact that it was an international course and we had students from national botanical garden. The architects involved approached us to to develop the master Norway, India, Greece, Bermuda and Tunisia. There was a great mix of people on the course. planning for it. They wanted to grow all the plants of Oman. They wanted to grow botanically The whole thing was interesting to me. interesting and challenging plants to commercial scale and train a team on how to do it. They In the Netherlands we were all staying together in these little old dormitories. Imagine how needed someone with a background in commercial nurseries and education, and they needed happy I was in the Dutch education system, which was 95% based in the industry doing group someone that understood botanical gardens. I ticked all of the boxes! work and real projects! Suddenly I was working with others in the industry, coming up with I spent almost three years going between Oman and Edinburgh. I had two lives and it was solutions to real problems. That’s how the Dutch education system works. Perhaps we should wonderful. Those years went like a click of the fingers. In Oman, I was living in a villa and driving learn from that. a monster truck and writing emails to Edinburgh. When I was in Edinburgh, I was running an education team and sending emails back to Oman. It was an amazing experience. One of the nicest things was to develop that Omani team. In some ways I was making myself redundant.

I SPENT ALMOST THREE YEARS GOING BETWEEN OMAN AND EDINBURGH. I HAD TWO LIVES AND IT WAS WONDERFUL. THOSE YEARS YEARS THOSE WONDERFUL. WAS LIVES IT AND TWO HAD I EDINBURGH. AND OMAN BETWEEN GOING YEARS THREE ALMOST SPENT I I was effectively setting them free to go and manage themselves. That was a really rewarding experience, working with a massive project that was a huge part of my life for three years. WENT LIKE A CLICK OF THE FINGERS. IN OMAN, I WAS LIVING IN A VILLA AND DRIVING A MONSTER TRUCK AND WRITING EMAILS EDINBURGH. TO WRITING AND TRUCK MONSTER A DRIVING AND VILLA A IN LIVING WAS I OMAN, IN CLICK A FINGERS. LIKE THE WENT OF

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IN A MORE GLOBAL CONTEXT,“ THE WORLD IS CERTAINLY CHANGING AND THE SKILLS WE NEED TO MEET THE CHALLENGES OF EVERYTHING, FROM“ FOOD SECURITY AND PUBLIC HEALTH TO ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES, ARE REALLY IMPORTANT.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW WITH THE The vision is that, over time, we get those NATIONAL LAND BASED COLLEGE? HOW WOULD qualifications to deliver exactly what industry YOU DESCRIBE IT AND WHAT DOES IT SET OUT wants. We’re going to give the industry the TO ACHIEVE? pathway to engage with the process. We also The National Land Based College is a new want to promote professionalism and clear initiative. In the UK, 75% of our land is currently employment progression in land-based maintained by farmers or estate managers. In industries and establish a CPD register a more global context, the world is certainly to do that. changing and the skills we need to meet the I am keen to see how we can get UK challenges of everything, from food security land-based education and training across and public health to environmental issues, more countries in the world. That might be to are really important. I think the UK is developed countries on a for-profit basis, or it lagging behind. might be looking to use education and training The National Land Based College is not a for capacity building where we can really competitor of the existing colleges but works start to take some of these global challenges to fill a gap. It’s a registered charity. They put forward. That, for me, is the bigger win for this out an advert for a chief executive last year and job. That’s the really exciting thing that made I went through quite a long interview process, me apply for it. I think there is a need to link accepted the job and then started in the office better with industry. I think we can do training here on 4th April this year. The overall purpose and education better. We should be more is to support land-based industries by collaborative and we could have a bigger ensuring that those working in them have impact on people and the planet. got access to the best possible training and That’s pretty much what the National development opportunities. Land Based College is aiming to do. It’s going Firstly, we want to maximise engagement to operate as a hub-and-spoke model. This with land-based industries. There are will be achieved in partnership, including with examples of colleges having an industrial existing colleges like Writtle, for example. I’m liaison panel, or different awarding bodies hoping that some of the courses and some having their own industry group. There’s of our blended learning elements will be always been industry engagement - it’s a delivered in partnership with colleges just like no-brainer. That said, I think it could be done Writtle. Maybe they’ll be delivered on a dairy better. The National Land Based College is now farm or in the horticulture industry. We need a body that we want the industries to engage to find the right places and then really develop with. We are actively wanting people who the programs. We’ll act as that hub-and-spoke. have a passion for the industry, as well as the training and skills within it, to put their hands up and say, ‘I’d like to give a bit of time to this’. Secondly, we want to establish awarding body arrangements so that we can actually vet and verify the qualifications that are delivered in the colleges. We now have a partnership with City and Guilds. They are now the lead organisation we’re working with to write qualifications that colleges will deliver.

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IT’S CERTAINLY A CHALLENGE.“ I THINK THERE’S GOING TO BE A LOT OF POLITICS. THERE’LL BE THE NAYSAYERS AND

ALL THESE OTHER THINGS. I ALSO BELIEVE THAT THERE’LL BE A HUGE NUMBER OF POSITIVE PEOPLE,“ ORGANISATIONS AND ENTHUSIASM TO WORK WITH AS WELL.

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE BIGGEST GOING BACK TO THE BEGINNING, IF YOU CHALLENGES ARE IN ALL OF THIS? WERE TO LOOK AT A YOUNG LEIGH MORRIS IN I think we need to communicate to people SCHOOL, WHAT WOULD YOU TELL YOURSELF? what this national college is, and the fact I would tell myself, ‘Don’t worry that you’re that it’s not competing. I think that getting a bit hyperactive in school because actually the industry on board is a massive challenge. there’s a lot of strength in that. Just realise that That’s not going to be fixed overnight. I think there’s a lot more outside the classroom. Great that’s going to take a lot of legwork by me, things aren’t achieved by being sat on your along with every advocate I can get, to bum listening to someone talk at the other end encourage people to engage and support the of the room. You need to engage with people National Land Based College and its vision. to work together to do greater things, rather than just sitting there and being talked at.’ I WHAT ROLE DO YOU THINK SCHOOLS AND think just knowing that at a young age would COLLEGES HAVE TO PLAY IN CHANGING THE have given me some more self-confidence. IMAGE OF LAND-BASED EDUCATION? I’ve come to learn that there are different There is a need for it to change. Personally, types of intelligence and I think kids I think that going in now and promoting should be told that. horticulture to 12–15 year-olds is wrong. I think we should be broader than that. I think when kids watch Countryfile, they’re not really differentiating between agriculture and horticulture, or even between animal care and agriculture. There are careers outside in the natural environment and I think we could be inspiring people a lot younger and allowing them to pick their own route. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t introduce them to elements of horticulture, agriculture, animal care and all the rest of it. I signed up for Forestry because it sounded like a good idea and then I ended doing Horticulture. I think I just wanted an outdoor job where I was happy. I think that somehow, we need to get past the teachers that still see it as just for the kids perceived to be less academic or naughty. Sadly that still exists in quite a few schools and we need to work together to change that.

Interested in studying Horticulture at Writtle? Visit writtle.ac.uk/arena_horticulture

60 61 Tackling the Issue of Jamie Kirk Jamie Illustrations Biodiversity Loss and Change with Dr Peter Hobson

Worldwide A Q&A with Dr Peter Hobson A Q&A with Dr Peter

AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS YEAR YOU BECAME A READER IN BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABILITY AT WRITTLE. WHERE DOES YOUR PASSION FOR THIS AREA OF RESEARCH COME FROM? My interest in nature has its roots in the first 23 years of my life, which were spent growing up in various parts of Africa and later Malaysia. Being surrounded by an overwhelming diversity of wildlife set me on a rather obsessive path towards nature-watching. Biodiversity and sustainability represent a period of “growing up” for me. They’re a move away from romantic notions of nature; they provide a reality check, as well as a clear and sober understanding that we have already lost so much of this biodiversity and continue to do so. In short, biodiversity is the footplate on which we depend for our services and well-being. We have to learn to live within our means — sustainably.

Writtle’s Reader in Biodiversity Conservation and WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BIGGEST, BUT LESS OBVIOUS, HUMAN-INDUCED FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO BIODIVERSITY LOSS AND CHANGE THAT OUR READERS MIGHT NOT BE AWARE OF? Sustainability explains the link between our ecosystem If we accept, as we now do, that humans are responsible for accelerated climate change, then we have to think of the causes and effects tied in with this, including dramatic surges in diseases, and well-being, the worldwide issue of biodiversity pathogens and pest infestations. At the Fourth International Congress on Adaptation Futures & change and the challenges he faces in his role as Climate Change in Rotterdam, we heard Canadian scientists describing the problems they are facing with forest pest and pathogen–related diseases and the mass mortality of trees. Co-Director for the Centre for Econics and Many parts of the world, including Australia, are suffering from soil salination, which is linked to large-scale water abstraction and land use practices. The paradox to the problem of Ecosystem Management. soil salination, if there is one, is the acidification of our oceans, which is partly responsible for

62 63 the coral bleaching some may have heard of. HAVING WORKED IN A HUGE NUMBER OF departments across two countries was LOOKING TO THE FUTURE, WHAT STEPS DO The ghost in this particular story is the untold DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, CAN YOU DRAW ANY never going to be easy. In the case of Russia WE NEED TO TAKE ON A GLOBAL SCALE TO CONCLUSIONS ABOUT HOW DIFFERING LOCAL HALT THE LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY AND OTHER numbers of sea creatures that will be lost from and Kazakhstan, the park managers and CULTURES IMPACT ON BIODIVERSITY LOSS EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE? the ocean’s biodiversity because they rely on scientists on the ground were truly dedicated AND CHANGE? Where does one start! Completely rethink calcium and other sea minerals to construct and committed people and we quickly There are obvious cultural differences that the current global economic model of doing their body parts (shells and skeletons). developed a friendly working relationship. affect attitudes towards biodiversity and lead business and make degrowth a top priority for Habitat loss and degradation are familiar However, these folk had their own on to different measures of impact. What is the world. This does not mean retrench, freeze stories to many, but what we are now learning bureaucracy to get through, which made a little alarming for me is I have yet to find or stifle technological innovation. On the about is the importance of ecosystem function for difficult moments. We got there in the any really tangible and heartening evidence contrary, the emphasis is more towards in supporting human well-being. At the end. The application for UNESCO anywhere of long-term, sustainable practice. promoting social endeavour as the top moment, the world’s community of scientists transboundary reserve status for There are those in the West who would lay global development goal — education for all, is attempting to put some sort of monetary Altai mountains was submitted. claim to championing the global green resolving the inequities between gender that value upon the earth’s biodiversity. This is revolution, but then it is worth reflecting have dogged our society for so long, removing essentially nonsense as we know so little about IS THERE A PARTICULAR COUNTRY OR on the continuing drive in the West to childhood poverty, providing healthcare for the full extent and function of life on earth. AREA YOU HAVEN’T YET VISITED, BUT remain a world-beating economy. WOULD LIKE TO? all members of society, living within the If I am able to quote Edward Wilson correctly, I struggle to reconcile the two. There is a growing interest in the landscape carrying capacity of the planet, securing “While the fight for progress on daunting We shouldn’t be too surprised at the surrounding the decommissioned Chernobyl biodiversity and healthy ecosystems for issues like curbing greenhouse gases grinds on, remarkable similarities in attitudes towards nuclear power plant. Almost 30 years after future generations, resolving the energy the battle could be lost if Earth’s last rich nodes biodiversity to be found between all nations the accident, the land has been unworked, crisis (and I am not suggesting nuclear fusion). of biological bounty dwindle and blink out in and regions of the world. Cultures are social wildlife has moved in and the question is being Is this a tall order or too much to ask? Well, the meantime”. constructs, which manifest in behavioural asked whether the area can be managed as a there is a short and stark answer to that traits and characteristics. As far as we know, biosphere reserve. It would require a visit by question — we cannot afford not to. THE PRODUCTION OF PALM OIL IS OFTEN HIGH- we are all one species. Collectively, we are all LIGHTED AS A MAJOR CONCERN WITH REGARDS a group of scientists to assess the situation. TO CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABILITY. HOW equally accountable for our actions. We shall see what comes of it. CAN IT BE PRODUCED SUSTAINABLY? Russia’s vast area of old growth boreal OF ALL THE COUNTRIES YOU’VE VISITED The Roundtable for Sustainable Palm forest has attracted the world’s scientists and AND WORKED IN, WHICH ARE THE MOST Oil (RSPO) was set up in 2004 in response MEMORABLE FOR YOU? WHICH HAVE international conservation organisations, as

“ to growing global concerns for the alarming SURPRISED YOU THE MOST? well as government agencies, because of the

“ losses and degradation of primary forest. What It’s difficult to say which country was most importance it holds in efforts to mitigate the the RSPO attempts to do is set out standards memorable as all of them hold a particular effects of climate change. I fly out to Germany of good socio-environmental practice, such as interest and fascination. We were working tomorrow to attend a workshop with Russian reducing the use of pesticides and chemical in temperatures of minus 25-30 degrees scientists, which marks the beginning of an fertiliser, retaining buffers along water courses, centigrade in the vast mountainous landscapes exciting programme in safeguarding the and retaining conservation headlands as island of the Great Altai mountains both in Russia Russian boreal ecosystem. sanctuaries for wildlife. For the moment it is a and Kazakhstan; on another continent, voluntary agreement and there is no assessing some of the acute problems to do WHAT SPECIFIC CHALLENGES DO YOU FACE mandatory buy-in to the scheme. with human-nature conflicts in national parks WHEN IT COMES TO TRYING TO COORDINATE The question remains as to whether RSPO DIFFERENT COUNTRIES TO TACKLE in the forests of Guatemala and Costa Rica, and SHARED ISSUES? goes far enough to safeguard biodiversity. evaluating similar issues in the Kalahari sands Cultural attitudes play a part in this, but Such concerns were recently raised by the of north Namibia. more specifically the different socio-economic German Government in response to a public In terms of our most surprising contract, perspectives of people living under very outcry over a documentary about palm oil I would have to say it was the visit we made to CULTURES ARE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTS, WHICH ARE MANIFEST IN BEHAVIOURAL TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS. CHARACTERISTICS. TRAITS AND BEHAVIOURAL IN WHICH MANIFEST ARE SOCIAL ARE CONSTRUCTS, CULTURES different circumstances most often drive production and loss of species’ habitats in DPRK at the invitation of PIINTEC, the main AS FAR AS WE KNOW, WE ARE ALL ONE SPECIES. COLLECTIVELY, WE ARE ALL EQUALLY ACCOUNTABLE FOR OUR ACTIONS. OUR FOR ACCOUNTABLE EQUALLY ALL ARE WE SPECIES. ONE COLLECTIVELY, ALL ARE WE KNOW, WE AS FAR AS change and can lead to problems of ecological Borneo and mainland Indonesia. Worldwide science academy and research centre based degradation. It is often too easy to apply the Wildlife Fund (WWF) Germany was requested in Pyongyang. We hope to continue working values of a privileged, educated, middle-class to investigate the effectiveness of RSPO, and to towards developing a biosphere programme citizen coming from a developed country to assess the regulatory measures being carried for the northern part of the country with our situations where the stakeholders and client out by staff within WWF and RSPO. This is colleagues from DPRK. groups couldn’t be further removed from that where our Centre comes in. We were tasked kind of world. In some of the biodiversity-rich with assessing the effectiveness of RSPO WHICH PROJECTS HAVE BEEN THE MOST but economically depressed regions of the principles and practices, and we are about CHALLENGING FOR YOU? world visited by our team, it soon becomes halfway through the job. Possibly the UNESCO Great Altai mountain apparent why nature is not the primary transboundary reserve. Working with several concern of the local communities. different organisations and government

64 65 Crafting Landscapes with Yuhei Nakajima Worldwide

WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE PRACTICE OF YOUR PROJECTS AT AECOM ARE BASED IN IS THERE A PARTICULAR PROJECT YOU’VE TELL US A LITTLE MORE ABOUT THE URBAN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE THAT YOU LOVE? DIFFERENT COUNTRIES ALL OVER THE WORLD. WORKED ON AT AECOM THAT YOU’RE PLANNING YOU DID FOR THE NEW CITY IN THE As a profession, it allows me to observe DO YOU HAVE TO ADAPT YOUR PRACTICE MOST PROUD OF? MIDDLE EAST — WHAT WERE THE AIMS AND and understand the particular landscape I am TO SUIT THE DIFFERENT CULTURAL NEEDS I am proud of the city development project OBJECTIVES FOR THIS PROJECT AND HOW DID OF THESE COUNTRIES? YOU CONTRIBUTE TO THEM? engaged with and interpret it through design, along the coast of the Middle East. This was My main work happens in the Middle East, This project was to provide the landscape using my own personal experience and the very first project I worked on where I dealt with projects that involve many people with design for the city’s infrastructure and service perceptions of nature. Landscape architects with everything by myself, from the design to various backgrounds. In those situations, I areas, such as police stations or hospitals. need to understand the natural and social the construction details. The project ran for need to be adaptable and flexible to ensure It was partly a strategic design before the character of a landscape. Experiencing the more than half a year, so I developed a good YOU’LL ATTRACT SIMILAR KINDS OF PASSIONATE AND POSITIVE PEOPLE ALONG THE WAY, that the project progresses smoothly. This is construction, but it still required me to landscape is a great thing and people in cities bond with the team involved.

generally the case in global companies like work on a detailed scale. We had to look STAYING POSITIVE AND PASSIONATE ON A PROJECT IS IMPORTANT. AS A RESULT, especially need the sense of nature that they this, where people from various countries at everything from a city-wide scale, right provide. I love that I can contribute to creating WHAT ARE THE MOST CHALLENGING and backgrounds are involved in each project. ASPECTS OF THE WORK YOU DO? down to the details of roadside planting. these essential spaces in cities. More specifically, Middle Eastern society is The biggest challenges for me are Members of the team are all assigned dominated by cars, so I have to think about people-based. Building trust and relationships different areas but we’re working side by side, HOW DID YOUR STUDIES AT WRITTLE SHAPE AND DEVELOP YOUR PRACTICE? prioritising traffic in all of the design processes. on projects is important. They help everyone so when it came to delivering my ideas, my Studying at Writtle brushed up the skills For example, I have to make considerations to work more efficiently and they make it experiences of presenting to the lecturers I gained through my earlier studies in Japan. like ensuring that the height of the kerb easier for others to understand the thinking at Writtle helped me. Design is very intuitive in Japan, but Writtle prevents cars from parking on the pedestrian behind my designs. WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO NEW taught me how to use language as a tool to pathways, which would not be a big Another challenge is language. I believe that “ GRADUATES FROM THE MA LANDSCAPE consideration in my culture. language is only one part of communication “ express design, which is very relevant to the ARCHITECTURE COURSE AT WRITTLE LOOKING

A Q&A with Yuhei Nakajima A Q&A with Yuhei day-to-day work I do now. Writtle had more and that design cannot be expressed fully TO TAKE A SIMILAR CAREER PATH TO YOURS? focus on the academic side, so I think about by verbal communication alone. Yet clearly Staying positive and passionate on a how the theory I learned can be implemented delivering my intentions in design or process project is important. As a result, you’ll attract as the base of practice. This thinking process can be a challenge. English as a second similar kinds of passionate and positive people gives me the energy to bring my skills to the language can be difficult, but I am putting along the way, whether they are designers or next level. extra effort into understanding and engineers. Working with similar people is a lot being understood. more fun, too. Landscape architecture is a great profession because it’s a small world — HOW DID YOUR DISSERTATION AT WRITTLE all the people you meet are friends with HELP YOU TO GET THE JOB YOU HAVE AT

After studying MA Landscape Architecture and AECOM NOW? someone you already know. This family-like My dissertation was on ski resort design. aspect of the profession makes it great to graduating in 2014, Yuhei Nakajima caught the At the time of the application, AECOM’s be a part of. London office happened to be engaging with attention of multi-national engineering firm AECOM the ski resort project. This was unusual, as there are very few companies doing ski resort with his dissertation on ski resort design. Now design and the majority are based in North America. My portfolio was picked up and based at the company’s London office as a Graduate my research area became of interest. I had Landscape Architect, Yuhei works on projects that the privilege of seeing my research used in real-world practice. cover everywhere from Costa Rica to Russia,

Montenegro and the Middle East. Interested in studying Landscape Architecture at Writtle? Visit writtle.ac.uk/arena_landscape

66 67 Photo provided by RSPB Protecting the Little Terns UK

Working as an RSPB Little Tern Project Assistant on Chesil Beach in Dorset was an unforgettable experience. Many people have typical days at work, but no day, morning or night was the same on this project. People are interested in different things, but for me the natural world is the most fascinating of all — especially wildlife and birds. Having just finished my Conservation and Environment degree at Writtle, I was excited to get out into the world and get involved with conservation projects. When I saw an advert for a chance to work with little terns in Dorset, I thought it would be a great opportunity to observe this species, help protect them and explore an area of the country I hadn’t visited before. I was very fortunate to get the position as competition was fierce. We worked shifts to deter predators and monitor the birds. In a small colony, a kestrel can take all the chicks in a few days, so we put out diversionary food to try and prevent this. Nest checks were essential to monitor when the eggs hatched, if chicks had moved off their nest and whether adult birds were present. We also scanned for foxes in the darkness, as they can destroy several nests in a colony in just one visit. A special part of the early morning shift was watching the terns leave their nests, knowing that you had helped to keep them safe — not to mention the great views of the chicks at this time. Ringing was conducted on site as part of the EU LIFE+ Nature Little Tern Recovery Project. During this, we discovered that two birds were 15 and 16 years old. These birds will have flown more than 100,000km during their lifetime, which is amazing! It wasn’t all about the little terns, however. When you spend time on one site, you really get to know the area and wildlife, whether it’s other seabirds passing by, early morning visits by hares or occasional sightings of barn owls. Working at varying hours of the day, throughout all weathers meant that sometimes just walking along the beach was a challenge, as the shingle would give way beneath your feet while the strong, unrelenting wind was trying to push you over. Despite the minor tribulations, it was such a privilege to monitor the UK’s smallest tern species with a great team. It was especially rewarding watching the fledglings take flight and knowing I had helped to protect a rare and special bird.

After graduating with a first class degree from BSc (Hons) Conservation and Environment, Alice Johnson went on to volunteer with the RSPB on the Little Tern Project at Chesil Beach, Dorset. She tells the story of how the team protected a small tern colony against nocturnal predators and discovered some of the oldest birds

ever ringed on the site. Interested in studying Conservation at Writtle? Visit writtle.ac.uk/arena_conservation

68 69 Phillip Adams is a Lecturer in Veterinary Physiotherapy and Course Manager for the Ask the experts: Integrated Masters in Veterinary Physiotherapy and BSc (Hons) Animal Therapy. UK Robin Gill is a practising Veterinary Physiotherapist What makes Veterinary and Course Scheme Manager for MSc Veterinary Physiotherapy. Physiotherapy so popular? Sue Tracey is a Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Physiotherapy and Course Manager for BSc (Hons) Equine Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation

Caroline Flanagan is the Head of School for Sport, Equine & Animal Science.

THE VETERINARY PHYSIOTHERAPY PROGRAMME IS CLOSELY LINKED TO DELIVERING THE COURSES HERE ARE QUALIFIED THERAPISTS THAT WORK IN INDUSTRY. INDUSTRY AND THE NAVP [NATIONAL

ASSOCIATION OF VETERINARY CURRENT INDUSTRY LINKS ARE INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT. MANY OF THE STAFF PHYSIOTHERAPISTS]. HOW IMPORTANT ARE THESE FACTORS WHEN IT COMES TO DEVELOPING NEW COURSES? Caroline: Over recent years, all higher education courses have needed to demonstrate a clear link with industry and the sector that they serve. The Veterinary Physiotherapy courses have been designed in conjunction with the NAVP, as well as being

delivered and assessed with considerable “

input from their members. As a result, the “ academic qualification and clinical skills that students learn will be recognised by both owners and vets.

Sue: Current industry links are incredibly important. Many of the staff delivering the courses here are qualified therapists that work in industry alongside their role at Writtle.

A Q&A with Phillip Adams, Caroline Flanagan, Robin Gill & Sue Gill Gill & Sue Caroline Flanagan, Robin Adams, A Q&A with Phillip It gives lecturers credibility when teaching

clinical skills and helps when it comes to giving the most relevant information to students. As a result, students see a wide range of therapists working both at Writtle and later on during external placements. It certainly gives them a reality check, which focuses their minds on practical as well as academic skills.

Phillip: Being closely linked to industry The Veterinary Physiotherapy courses at Writtle may be ensures that students are up to date with both current literature and clinical techniques. relatively new, but they’ve quickly proven popular with Their skills are assessed by practicing therapists as well, ensuring that they have staff and students alike. We brought together four of the the skills on day one to allow them to hit the minds behind them to explore their success and talk ground running. With the NAVP, students have a professional body behind them to give them about the new Canine Therapy Centre on campus. the support, advice and help they need.

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STUDENTS CAN“ SEE A CAREER PATHWAY OPEN TO THEM“ WHEN THEY’RE ON A VETERINARY PHYSIOTHERAPY COURSE.

Robin: Skills that are endorsed by industry are essential for any career. It’s an important Robin: It’s absolutely vital! As my colleagues have said, without passion and the tenacity requirement for prospective students and one that has driven the development of our courses. to be successful on this course, it could not be done. Linking education to industry requirements is vital. Sue: As is often said, ‘Love is not enough.’ Tenacity, a willingness to learn, excellent animal THE CONFIDENCE TO OUT GO AS PROFESSIONALS AND SPEAK OTHER TO PROFESSIONALS CLIENTS, AND VETERINARY SURGEONS. SINCE ITS FIRST INTAKE OF STUDENTS IN 2014, THE COURSE HAS PROVEN TO BE EXTREMELY handling skills and empathy with animals is essential. This course is demanding both WE TRY TO EMBED THAT THOSE SKILLS WE HAVE IN THE DEVELOPED INDUSTRY AS THERAPISTS. THEM THIS GIVES POPULAR WITH STUDENTS. WHY DO YOU THINK THIS IS? academically and physically and there are highs and lows to the job, as in every profession. Caroline: It’s an area that is only just beginning to be accepted as vitally important to support the requirements of animals recovering from injury or operations. Ironically, it EMPLOYABILITY IS HUGELY IMPORTANT TO STUDENTS WHEN LOOKING AT WHICH COURSE has been accepted within human medicine for a great number of years, but is only just TO STUDY. HOW DO THE VETERINARY PHYSIOTHERAPY COURSES PREPARE THEM FOR beginning to be routinely used by vets. Now there is a demand for people with the right REAL-WORLD SITUATIONS? qualifications to provide it. Students have also been made more aware of the possibility of Caroline: Often, vet physios have two choices: to either become self-employed, or to be veterinary physiotherapy as a career, either because they have used these services for their employed by a large veterinary practice to work directly with their clients. We try and prepare own animal, or are looking for an alternative to doing veterinary medicine. graduates for both options. On top of this, graduates will also have a good grounding in laboratory skills, be an excellent communicator of scientific information to both technical Sue: Students can see a career pathway open to them when they’re on a Veterinary and non-technical audiences, and be capable of using their skillsets in a completely different Physiotherapy course. For example, with every animal therapeutic techniques lecture, they have environment if required. Gaining practical skills is an important element of the courses and a clinical practical session to support their learning, which gives them a sense of what it’s going to these are assessed alongside academic knowledge. “ be like when they qualify. As Caroline has said, human therapy has been accepted for many years “ and carries a research base. The students training now will be the innovators of the future and Phillip: By learning established and practical clinical skills, based on a thorough academic they will be carrying out research that will improve animal therapy and welfare. knowledge and rigor, students finish the course and feel competent at communicating at all “ levels in those real-world situations. “ Phillip: Writtle’s unique, state-of-the-art facilities, the passion and drive of the academic teaching staff, and the developing area of Veterinary Physiotherapy, have all helped to make Robin: The level of practical teaching we are able to deliver, due to excellent facilities and it extremely popular. qualified staff, means that students leave with not only the academic skills they need, but also the practical clinical skills and confidence required to be successful in their future career.

GAINING PRACTICAL SKILLS IS AN IMPORTANT ELEMENT OF THE THE OF ELEMENT IMPORTANT SKILLS AN IS PRACTICAL GAINING Robin: The clear link to a chosen and desirable career is one element, along with

COURSES AND THESE ARE ASSESSED ALONGSIDE ACADEMIC KNOWLEDGE. THESE ASSESSED AND ARE ALONGSIDE ACADEMIC COURSES excellent facilities. More than anything, the feedback we get from open days is that Sue: As a team, we act as enablers for our students and we try to embed those skills that prospective students are able to pick up on the clear passion and openness that staff we have developed in the industry as therapists. This gives them the confidence to go out as on the courses have. That makes for a really great learning environment that students professionals and speak to clients, other professionals and veterinary surgeons. And of course want to get involved with. they will have developed excellent clinical skills during their time at Writtle!

HORSES AND DOGS ARE PARTICULARLY WELL-LOVED ANIMALS AND VETERINARY PHYSIOTHERAPY YOU RECENTLY OPENED A NEW CANINE THERAPY CENTRE ON CAMPUS — WHAT MAKES IT HAS A STRONG FOCUS ON BOTH. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR STUDENTS TO HAVE AN AREA THAT PARTICULARLY SPECIAL AND IMPORTANT TO VETERINARY PHYSIOTHERAPY? THEY’RE PARTICULARLY PASSIONATE ABOUT? Caroline: The centre enables us to use our in-house facilities for both equines and canines

Caroline: Quite simply, no-one will complete a Veterinary Physiotherapy course successfully to fully complement the courses we teach. Because it has been purpose-built from the very if they aren’t passionate about animals, their career and their personal and professional first brick, we are lucky that it contains everything we may need to teach students and, development! It is academically tough, physically demanding (it’s not much fun treating a hopefully, eventually run a commercial therapy referral centre on site. less-than-willing horse on a freezing cold day!) and requires considerable dedication to learn and constantly practice clinically-relevant skills. Phillip: Quite simply, this facility is unique to Writtle and cannot be found at any other university in the UK! Phillip: If the student is passionate about a subject, it will increase their motivation to learn and push them through the difficult times. It will allow them to relate issues to their Robin:The training area, with its integrated IT facilities, makes for a wonderful classroom own animals and experiences and sometimes challenge preconceived ideas. environment to help students learn and get more involved in the learning process.

72 73 HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO HAVE SPACES, FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT LIKE THIS TO ENRICH THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE? Sue: The management team at Writtle are very supportive and have been instrumental in providing essential and innovative learning tools. We have a state-of-the-art equine water treadmill and hydrotherapy spa, as well as a wonderful therapy barn where group lectures and practicals take place. The indoor schools and concrete trot ups are used for gait analysis and lameness evaluation and we have a range of other equipment such as the mechanical horse, Tekscan pressure pad, gait analysis software and modalities such as electrotherapy, all of which are essential to student learning. Obviously the most important ingredient is the horses, of which there are a wide variety of breeds, ages and sizes.

Phillip: Importantly, students are able to use this equipment rather than reading about it in a book. This builds the confidence they have in their own skills and expertise and increases their employability as a result.

Caroline: Staff are able to work with specialised equipment at the forefront of research and students have the unique opportunity to use and experience this equipment in a teaching environment. Students will be able to build on their practical skills and have hands-on experiences of using the equipment, instead of simply reading about it. Using a variety of learning styles makes a huge difference.

Robin: It is vital for improving students’ confidence and knowledge. They can interact and gain competency with equipment used in industry within a supportive teaching environment. This enables them to also evaluate the benefits of such equipment, which is often a considerable investment, so they can make informed decisions on future use in their own practice.

Interested in studying Veterinary Physiotherapy at Writtle? Visit writtle.ac.uk/arena_veterinary

74 75 Teaching future gardeners UK A Q&A with Joe Archer

Since graduating from BSc Horticulture in 2013, Joe Archer became the star of BBC Two’s Kew on a Plate, working alongside Raymond Blanc in Kew’s Kitchen Garden. Now, he’s launching his first book — The Kew Gardens Children’s Cookbook — with the hope of an inspiring a new generation of kitchen gardeners.

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I HAD THIS ENTHUSIASM“ FOR GARDENING AND ENJOYED IT BUT IT WASN’T UNTIL I STARTED STUDYING PLANTS

AND EVERYTHING ELSE THAT COMES ALONG WITH A DEGREE, THAT I FULLY REALISED HOW INTERESTING“ IT COULD BE. IT JUST GREW AND GREW AND GREW.

WAS IT DAUNTING TO NOT ONLY START A NEW JOB AT KEW, BUT ONE THAT WAS THE SUBJECT OF A BBC TWO TV PROGRAMME? Yeah, I’m sure they didn’t really say that much about being on camera or anything like that in the interview! My job was to go there as the gardener and support what the television crew wanted to do. They said to me, ‘Would you be willing to push a wheelbarrow in the background?’ TALKING ABOUT COMPOST. I HAD TWO CAMERAS IN MY FACE. IT WAS VERY, VERY SURREAL BUT I QUITE ENJOYED IT. Then I found out they would do filming on my very first day. They said to me, ‘We just need THEY PUT THIS MICROPHONE ON ME AND BEFORE I KNEW IT I WAS STANDING IN FRONT OF RAYMOND BLANC to put this microphone on you just in case Raymond Blanc wants to talk to you.’ They put this microphone on me and before I knew it I was standing in front of Raymond Blanc talking about compost. I had two cameras in my face. It was very, very surreal but I quite enjoyed it. Everyone was really into this project and you could tell there was a lot of excitement about it. It was a real privilege to be part of it.

DO YOU HAVE ANY PARTICULAR STAND-OUT MEMORIES OF FILMING/WORKING WITH RAYMOND BLANC? He’s a real character and very passionate about what he does. He’s passionate about gardens especially and he respected our craft, which was really nice to see. I learned so much from him in terms of when vegetables are ready to be picked and when they taste good, which I think many more gardeners are into now — not just growing big, long leaks, but stuff that really tastes good. He taught me a lot about that.

There was a fox that was used to walk into the garden and it stole Raymond Blanc’s shoes “ one day. He was running around like a mad Frenchman trying to chase it. It was an absolute “ thrill to be watching that!

SHOE-STEALING FOX ASIDE, DID THE WHOLE THING FEEL A BIT SURREAL? Yeah, and there was also quite a bit of pressure as well, because I hadn’t actually been a vegetable gardener before. The TV people didn’t mind that things weren’t always perfect and I think that’s what was quite good about the show. A lot of people have said they liked it because they saw that we had problems as much as anyone else does when trying to produce food. We had pests, diseases and problems with the weather.

DO YOU THINK THAT’S A FACTOR THAT PUTS PEOPLE OFF GROWING THEIR OWN FOOD SOMETIMES? I think it does, yeah. I was looking in the garden this morning and almost every single crop had a pest on it or some kind of potential for a pest. It can be quite disheartening. One thing I’ve always

noticed is that towards the end of summer, when all the harvest starts coming in, you realise that everything keeps growing. It takes that commitment all year, from early spring right to the end of the year. All it can take is someone going on holiday for a couple of weeks or a really hot spell for things to go wrong. It can quickly put people off, so it takes a bit of time to learn how to deal with those things.

78 79 WHAT WERE YOUR EARLIEST CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES OF GARDENING/GROWING VEGETABLES? My dad was a tree surgeon and I grew up working with him. Our back garden was like a jungle — full of logs and loads of space where I could just grow whatever I wanted. I remember my nan buying me a tomato plant. I planted it in the garden and it just withered away, but I think it was the excitement of getting it, planting it and seeing it grow, even though it probably wasn’t that successful. I think I just liked the excitement of seeds coming up. It was something that I carried on doing all the way up until my early twenties.

HOW DID THAT INTRIGUE TURN INTO STUDYING HORTICULTURE AT WRITTLE? When I left school I actually went off to do a marketing degree. I didn’t even think about gardening as a career, even though I loved it. I lasted about three months [on the marketing degree] and then dropped out. I had various jobs. I worked in a supermarket for a bit and worked as an apple picker. Then I finally decided to do the studying and found myself enrolled at Writtle a few months later. I had this enthusiasm for gardening and enjoyed it but it wasn’t until I started studying plants and everything else that comes along with a degree, that I fully realised how interesting it could be. It just grew and grew and grew. “

“ DID YOU HAVE A LIGHTBULB MOMENT DURING YOUR TIME AT WRITTLE WHEN YOU REALISED THIS WAS THE CAREER PATH FOR YOU? I don’t think there was any one moment. I think it was just the fact that every time we went to a lecture or every time we were set an assignment, I was just really into it. Every time, we were doing stuff about science and plants and the history of gardening and all the practicals. Every single time, I was just really up for it. It never felt like a chore. It was always something I was really excited about. I couldn’t wait to get out into the industry and actually do it as a job.

HOW WAS THAT EXPERIENCE OF GETTING OUT INTO THE INDUSTRY? In my first year at Writtle, someone said to me, ‘It’s not how well you do when you’re assessed THERE WAS A FOX THAT WAS USED TO WALK INTO THE GARDEN AND IT STOLE STOLE IT AND GARDEN THE INTO WALK TO USED WAS THAT FOX A WAS THERE — it’s what you do while you’re studying.’ With that in mind, I did an internship at Kew [Gardens] in the summer after my first year at Kew [Gardens] and I was absolutely over the moon to get that. I spent three months there and picked up so much practical knowledge. I loved it. After I did my second year, I did another internship at the Chelsea Physic Garden in London. I had a great time RAYMOND BLANC’S SHOES ONE DAY. HE WAS RUNNING AROUND LIKE A MAD FRENCHMAN TRYING TO CHASE TO IT. TRYING FRENCHMAN MAD A LIKE AROUND RUNNING WAS HE SHOES DAY. BLANC’S ONE RAYMOND there with a really great group of gardeners. Then I managed to get on the traineeship scheme. I graduated on a Friday and started work on a Monday. It was straight in at the deep end, but with everything I’d learned, I could just put it into practice. It just so happened that when my year [at Chelsea Physic Garden] was up, I heard someone say that there was a job going at Kew working on a kitchen garden, so I said, ‘Alright, I’ll give that a go.’ I went to the interview and managed to get it!

80 81 EVERY PLANT THAT’S IN THE BOOK IS ONE I GREW I would do a draft, send it off, the editor would read

“ it, send it off to the proof readers and then it would come AND WE HAD TO CAPTURE IT AT DIFFERENT STAGES: THE

back with all of these changes to be made. Eventually, we CHILDREN PLANTING THEM, COMING UP FROM SEED, ETC. IT TESTED got there. It took six months I reckon. I would be on the MY HORTICULTURAL SKILLS,“ AS WELL AS MY ABILITY train home from work writing about how good spinach is TO WRITE ABOUT THEM. or trying to come up with quirky facts about courgettes. I was really pleased that I did it. It was a challenge, but I finally got the first book from the printers the other day and I’m so pleased with it. It’s an actual book, and I can’t quite believe that I made it.

WHY DO YOU THINK IT’S SO IMPORTANT THAT WE CONTINUE THE TRADITION OF GROWING DO YOU HAVE ANY PARTICULAR HOPES OR OUR OWN VEGETABLES AND COOKING WITH THEM? ASPIRATIONS FOR IT? I think it’s a really nice thing to do, even as a hobby. It’s quite peaceful — not from a professional I hope it sells well! It would be really nice to think that point of view, but from a gardening point of view. You come home from work and it’s really people will try and grow something from the book and

rewarding. It makes you feel good. I think that’s what most people get out of it. You have a then cook with it as well. That would be enough for me.

different relationship with vegetable growing compared to other popular gardens, I think. It’s a family book. This is why I was mentioning that adult People really like to see things grow. I think it’s good for your mental health to be outside education course, because the things I was writing in and learning about how food grows. the book for children were not that different to what I’d For children it’s quite important, too. It teaches them responsibility and how to look after been teaching adults. There are not that many things in things. We try to teach them what is in season as well. I think that later in life, when they come life that a family could do and learn at the same pace. to make bigger decisions and more ethical decisions, perhaps it will really help. What was also interesting was that when the kids came into the garden to actually do the gardening, I THERE OFTEN APPEARS TO BE A DISCONNECT IN CHILDREN’S MINDS BETWEEN THE FOOD ON THE didn’t really want to dumb it down as such. I wanted the TABLE AND WHERE IT COMES FROM. DO YOU THINK TEACHING CHILDREN EARLY ON IN LIFE TO children to do what I do. I didn’t see any reason for it to GROW THESE KINDS OF THINGS HELPS WITH THIS? It does. I’ve been saying that it’s important for kids to learn how to grow their food. I guess be different. I had them doing all the seed sowing, fishing it’s the same for adults, as well. Even if you’re not that green-fingered, you might pick up a pot of out vegetables and harvesting them. They were digging

“ herbs at the supermarket every now and again. There’s something about growing it on your own, things out and planting things just as we would do. “ even on a really small scale, that’s quite addictive. I was really impressed with how quickly they could You’ll find that people who have allotments tend to get really addicted. It’s that excitement pick things up. of buying the seeds and sowing them in springtime, watching it all unfold and working out what To inspire some new gardeners would be the ultimate you’re going to do differently next year. hope, but even just to get a family or children interested would be a really good start. HOW DID THE IDEA FOR YOUR BOOK — THE KEW GARDENS CHILDREN’S COOKBOOK — COME ABOUT? WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO ANYONE LOOKING After Kew on a Plate I had quite a few offers to do different things. I was asked to do a day-long, TO MAKE THOSE FIRST STEPS INTO GROWING THEIR OWN FOOD? adult education vegetable growing course at Kew, which I did. Later on, Kew Publishing Start small — that’s the advice I always give. People approached me and said, ‘Look, we’ve got this idea to write a children’s book — growing will get carried away and grow loads of things and it’s too vegetables and then also how to cook them,’ and I thought, ‘You know what? I’m going to go for it.’ much too soon. Start with a window box. You can have a

I WOULD BE ON THE TRAIN HOME FROM WORK WRITING ABOUT HOW GOOD SPINACH IS OR OR IS GOOD SPINACH HOW ABOUT WRITING WORK FROM HOME TRAIN THE ON BE WOULD I We had a few meetings about what they wanted and it was already going to be a challenge few salad plants growing in the window box and pick the because, ideally, you want to start this whole process in the spring so you can grow all the plants TRYING TO COME UP WITH QUIRKY FACTS ABOUT COURGETTES. I WAS REALLY PLEASED THAT I DID IT. DID I THAT PLEASED REALLY WAS I COURGETTES. ABOUT FACTS QUIRKY WITH UP COME TO TRYING leaves off for five or six weeks. It will keep on producing and see that process. Every plant that’s in the book is one I grew and we had to capture it at and you can gradually build it up. Next year, take on a different stages: the children planting them, coming up from seed, etc. It tested my few more things. Do a bit in the garden if you’ve got one. horticultural skills, as well as my ability to write about them. Before you know it, you’ll be growing loads. If you’re going to grow something, read up on what WHAT WERE THE HARDEST PARTS OF THE WHOLE PROCESS FOR YOU? you need to do. I do it all the time, even if I’ve grown Writing for children. First you think it’s going to be really easy, but actually it’s really quite something hundreds of times before. Just experiment — difficult. For example, if you’re writing about how to grow something, you’ve got to make sure that’s the best way to learn. If you grow something and that all of your instructions make sense and that a child would be able to follow them with it dies then you’ve perhaps learned why it died and you the help of an adult. won’t make that mistake next time. Start small and you You’ve also got to make it exciting and you can’t make it too complicated. The way I’d do it is to can gradually progress. Soon you’ll have a big write out how I would do it normally and then try to adapt it for a child to understand. My mum kitchen garden. is a nursery nurse and I got her reading it to help me. You also have to be really enthusiastic about every single vegetable, which was a new challenge.

82 83 The Future of Farming George Eustice MP Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)

George Eustice was brought up in Cornwall, where his family continue to run their farming business. As well as being the Minister of State at DEFRA, he is also the Member of Parliament for Camborne and Redruth.

WHAT ARE YOUR OWN EARLIEST MEMORIES through its Agri-Tech Strategy to improve the flow OF FARMING? of ideas and solutions from the laboratory to the Cutting cabbages in Cornwall! farm, while the £70 million Agri-Tech Catalyst is supporting new collaborations between researchers HOW HAS FARMING IN THE UK CHANGED and industry. The Agri-Tech Strategy is designed OVER THE LAST TEN YEARS? to ensure that the UK becomes a world leader in We have seen a decline in the number of agriculture science and technology, and to ensure holdings and their consolidation into larger units. the process is as productive as possible whilst There have also been some steps forward in reducing environmental impact and resource use. technology with the use of robotics and GPS systems, leading to the early development of WHAT ROLE DO EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS LIKE There’s never been a more ‘precision farming’. WRITTLE PLAY IN THE FUTURE OF FARMING? We need to make sure that the industry WHAT DO YOU THINK FARMING IN THE UK continues to attract bright new talent, and exciting or challenging time to WILL LOOK LIKE TEN YEARS FROM NOW? agricultural institutions like Writtle are absolutely Global demand for food is projected to grow key in ensuring that the farming innovators of be involved in farming, whether 60% by 2050. Britain, with its scientific know-how tomorrow have right skills and training to take and flair for innovation and quality, is in a superb advantage of new technology. The lessons I you’re in the fields, in the office, position to take advantage of this opportunity. learned at Writtle have been useful throughout This means getting to grips with exciting new my entire career, from running the family in a classroom, or in the House technologies such as satellite navigation to guide business to my current role as DEFRA minister. the precise application of pesticides, or robotic systems which will play an increasing role in of Commons. We asked NFU Vice HOW CAN WE ATTRACT MORE YOUNG handling livestock to improve productivity PEOPLE INTO FARMING? President Guy Smith, Writtle and welfare. There are lots of opportunities for young At the Environmental Sustainability Institute people in the farming sector, and I want to Chair of Governors Julia Smith, at the Tremough University campus in my own see new entrants acquiring the skills and constituency, there is also work being done on experience they need, including the support and and DEFRA Minister George drone technology. This offers many new opportunities they need to take on the running opportunities to help us understand the of farms in the future. Agriculture is an exciting Eustice for their thoughts on environment, providing us with a better and rewarding career and the industry needs to A discussion with George Eustice MP, Guy Smith & Julia Smith Guy Smith MP, Eustice with George A discussion understanding of the topography of the land and continue to attract talented new entrants who how farming has progressed a better assessment of issues like flood risk, plant can rise to the challenges that will occur in the health, soil quality and landscape features. This coming years. and what’s next for the industry sort of sophisticated data is transforming our ability Farming is the foundation of our food industry, to manage both our environment and promote but there are a number of barriers stopping young and the profession. more efficient farming. people seeking a career in the sector. I want to work to remove these barriers and it is vitally important WHAT ROLE DOES NEW TECHNOLOGY PLAY that we make farming a more attractive career IN THE FUTURE OF FARMING? choice for talented, entrepreneurial young people. To compete on the global stage, the industry needs to attract people with the right skills, to WHAT CAN FARMING IN THE UK LEARN FROM invest in technology and to innovate. Technological OTHER COUNTRIES? innovation is key to unlocking the potential of Some countries have been better at deploying farming by improving productivity and tackling new genetic technologies such as GM. Others have problems such as pests and disease. a better approach to policy for farm support, such The Government has invested £160 million as the government-backed insurance schemes in Canada.

UK

84 85 Julia Smith Chair of the Board of Governors, Writtle University College

With a family farming background and teaching experience in further and secondary education, Julia Smith has served as Governor at Writtle for six years. She is also an author for Cambridge University Guy Smith Press and BBC Bitesize. Vice President, NFU

As well as running his own family farm in north-east Essex, Guy Smith is the Vice President WHAT ARE YOUR OWN EARLIEST MEMORIES collaboration and links between farming and of the National Farmer’s Union. He is a fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society and recipient OF FARMING? education circles. As for GPS, with the computer on of an honorary doctorate for Services to Agriculture from University of Essex. I first came onto the farm when I met Guy board the combine, the sprayers more complicated [Smith] in 1984. Having a police inspector for than your dishwasher, as well as the iPad in your a father ensured that all tax discs were pocket, you cannot be a luddite farmer. WHAT ARE YOUR OWN EARLIEST MEMORIES WHAT ROLE DO EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS LIKE quickly up to date, all trailer lights worked Embrace the Apple! OF FARMING? WRITTLE PLAY IN THE FUTURE OF FARMING? and the MOTs were in order. Back then it was Being in the farm truck at harvest time with The need for graduates and trainees who are impossible to track Guy down, but now I can have WHAT ROLE DO EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS LIKE my dad and being shaken about on the seat as we competent in programming cab computers will him pinpointed to within three feet! Maybe this is WRITTLE PLAY IN THE FUTURE OF FARMING? went across the rough ground of the fields. I vividly become greater. We will need places like Writtle not such a good thing to be able to do, but farming Being armed with good qualifications is vital remember the exhilaration of being high up in the to produce these young people by training is no longer the solitary occupation it once was. in today’s economy. No longer will you get a job cab. I also remember the clouds of dust that fogged them and teaching them in well equipped, Farming has also transformed into spending as on a farm without some sort of certificate or ‘ology’, out the combine driver as he pulled up alongside cutting-edge facilities. much time looking at budgets and bank margins as Maureen Lipman would say. We need great an old Ransomes combine to unload the tank. The as your field margins. Every farmer is a trader, educators with up-to-date industry experience deafening roar and clatter of the combine is also HOW CAN WE ATTRACT MORE YOUNG accountant and futures speculator in and we need Writtle’s Senior Management and PEOPLE INTO FARMING? something I still remember to this day. such lean times. the Governing Board to support innovation and By inspiring primary school children to think technology with a progressive, forward-thinking of agriculture as high-tech and progressive, while HOW HAS FARMING IN THE UK CHANGED HOW HAS FARMING IN THE UK CHANGED attitude to learning and teaching. It’s what we OVER THE LAST TEN YEARS? offering exciting careers in an industry that the OVER THE LAST TEN YEARS? are here for. The tractor cab is fast resembling the cockpit world will need more tomorrow than it does today. Farmers now have a voice, much more so than of a jet airliner with telemetry, GPS and robotics. Hopefully events such as the Essex Food and they ever did. Social media has generated forums HOW CAN WE ATTRACT MORE YOUNG It’s fundamentally changing the life of the driver. Farming day, held at Writtle every June for 3,000 for discussion. It has brought people together much PEOPLE INTO FARMING? As someone who has spent more hours in tractor Essex schoolchildren, help achieve this. And don’t more. You can see what the Young Farmers and Events such as the Essex Agricultural Society’s cabs than I can remember, this is a real gear shift forget: it also helps if the students are allowed to Students’ Union get up to and what our alumni have Food and Farming Day at Writtle are an ideal in technology. It is very exciting and will transform stroke a cow and hold a duckling. gone on to do as they are doing it. A picture can tell mechanism by which we can sow seeds in the field operations. a thousand words and surely everyone must have minds of young people — 3,000 of them, to be WHAT CAN FARMING IN THE UK LEARN FROM taken a ‘felfie’ (a farm selfie)! Mr Smith is now more precise. Every small child loves a shiny tractor or a OTHER COUNTRIES? WHAT DO YOU THINK FARMING IN THE UK likely to be on the iPad looking at other dairy cow, an eagle owl or a sack of wheat to grind WILL LOOK LIKE TEN YEARS FROM NOW? Travel always broadens the mind and gets you people’s crops and fungal problems. into flour. We need more of these memory-makers In ten years time, tractor drivers will become out of your ‘box’. As someone who benefitted from for older students too, with great careers advice and tractor programmers. Drone and camera a Nuffield Farming Travel Scholarship in my 30s, WHAT DO YOU THINK FARMING IN THE UK guidance. We need farmers and Young Farmers to technology will change the way we manage I always encourage young farmers to do the same. WILL LOOK LIKE TEN YEARS FROM NOW? celebrate what they do and sell good news stories, crops and livestock. Farming will become far Farmers across the world have many commonalities It will still look like an exciting industry to and we need Writtle to shout loud and proud more precise as we harvest data 24/7. and that encourages a spirit of camaraderie. At get into with drones and robots, driver-less and about what we do best. the same time, farming in different cultures and chemical-less no doubt. Farmers will adapt to better WHAT ROLE DOES NEW TECHNOLOGY PLAY climates can provide the inspiration to realise farm crops and animals. It will still be a green and WHAT CAN FARMING IN THE UK LEARN IN THE FUTURE OF FARMING? that what you are doing back home pleasant land, full of the birds and the bees. Farmers FROM OTHER COUNTRIES? It will enable us to tailor inputs to outputs far need challenging. will still be droning on, but in a very different way. The internet has brought the whole world much more precisely, optimising costs and our carbon closer. We can learn to count our blessings more. footprint. These are two key challenges WHAT ROLE DOES NEW TECHNOLOGY PLAY We have it tough right now, but we still live in such a going forward. IN THE FUTURE OF FARMING? beautiful environment. On our farm I can see foxes, Mr Smith has progressed from using a mobile owls, water voles, kingfishers, brent geese, ring phone that was the size of a house brick to ousels (yes, really) and hoopoos (yes, really!). something smaller than his own thumb is capable It seems to me that the whole world would of using well. Social media is a huge mechanism for really rather be here anyway. instigating changes in communication, allowing

86 87 A DAY AT Designing for LIVE NATION UK 9 - 10 am Busted, Beyoncé & Like many people, the first thing I do when I get into work is check my emails and get organised for Bruce Springsteen the day ahead. I also read up on the latest news in the music industry to give me a good idea of what’s going on around me. First on the agenda is a campaign WHERE DOES YOUR CREATIVITY COME FROM? WHAT’S THE MOST CHALLENGING PART meeting to discuss the work for the I’ve always been a creative person for as OF WHAT YOU DO? following week. I also get a sneak long as I can remember. For my birthday and Live Nation work with a lot of well-known peek at some of the big shows at Christmas I would be presented with art artists, so you know the style and the type of coming up this year — one of the perks of the job! supplies or crafts to create things with. I always music that they like. However, we also work loved drawing on whatever I could get my with a lot of up and coming artists who are 11 - 12 pm trying to venture out onto the music scene. hands on and would always try to leave my After my meeting, it’s time to get my mark. One of my first memorable projects Helping to build up a profile for them can head down and work on a couple in my GCSE Graphics class was creating be challenging, but it’s also very rewarding. of design briefs. For instance, today I’m creating tour posters for artists. merchandise for a band. Ever since that HAVE YOU HAD ANY PARTICULAR HIGHLIGHTS With a list of all the ads going into project I knew that I wanted to work in DURING YOUR TIME AT LIVE NATION? newspapers and magazines this the music industry. week, I get to work preparing them. My favourite moment was working with For the next hour or so, I resize Busted — one of my favorite bands growing HOW DID YOUR TIME AT WRITTLE HELP tour posters to fit the specs and TO DEVELOP YOUR ART AND STYLE? up. They announced that they would be getting changing the artwork to the correct Being a student at Writtle let me explore back together after 10 years for a reunion tour. colour profile for print. Once I worked very closely with the promoters, they’re complete, I send them and challenge myself to experiment with off for approval from the campaign team, band and their management different techniques. It took me out of my campaign teams and promoters. comfort zone so I could really figure out the to produce an exciting tour experience along medium I enjoyed working with. My year with designing their tour poster and logo. 1 - 2 pm group were very close. We used to discuss I was also invited along to press Lunchtime is a great excuse to get out and about, exploring the A Q&A with Naomi Bradshaw our work often and support each other with conferences and photo shoots with the band to discuss the artwork. It was great to hear city of London for new ideas and different projects. I learnt a lot from them and inspiration. I’m back at my desk in maybe if we weren’t such a supportive group, their thoughts on my work. As a result, we time for any amends from the I wouldn’t have been so adventurous were offered the chance to work with their campaigns team on work that was with my art! friends, McFly, on their upcoming tour. completed in the morning. Once they’re all approved, I send them off to the printers. HOW DID YOUR JOB WORKING FOR LIVE ARE THERE ANY PARTICULAR LESSONS NATION COME ABOUT? OR IDEAS YOU TOOK FROM WRITTLE THAT YOU APPLY TO YOUR WORK TODAY? 4 - 5 pm Before I started working at Live Nation, I Don’t be afraid to try out new things and For the big tours especially, some of built a profile for myself online. As a result, 5 take risks! All the assignment briefs, exhibitions my afternoon will be spent creating Seconds of Summer contacted me directly to digital screens and billboards for and presentations at Writtle helped to build ask if I could create something exclusive for their shows in different cities across up my confidence and shape me into the their tour. This helped me move toward the the UK. Before I head home, I spend person I am today. some time creating adverts for role I am now doing, which involves designing Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. and creating tour posters for everyone from It’s great to see the work I do posted Beyoncé to Nick Jonas. up on artists’ social media accounts. 6 pm With work finished for the day, I take advantage of one of my Naomi Bradshaw studied Art and Design favourite perks of the job and head off to a Live Nation concert at Writtle before accepting a job at Live or event!

Nation Entertainment. Interested in studying Art and Design at Writtle? Visit writtle.ac.uk/arena_art

88 89 UK

with Harry Appleby CHANGING INDUSTRY

90 91 It’s the goal of any final year student to graduate with a job already lined up, but Harry Appleby has gone one step further. The BSc (Hons) Animal Science student is finishing off his studies at Writtle with a job and a research project that could revolutionise the entire poultry industry. He explains the project, his passion for chickens and where he hopes to take his findings next.

92 93 WHERE DOES YOUR PASSION FOR ANIMAL up. They’re sentient beings, so they feel pain.

SCIENCE COME FROM? They’re conscious of their environment and THAT’S WHY THERE ARE“ 4.2 BILLION MALES

As a kid, I was always outside. My mum that’s what really spurred me on. I didn’t want KILLED AROUND THE WORLD AT ONLY A DAY OLD. THIS bought me a rabbit for my first pet, and when to have finished my degree not having made IS PROBABLY THE NUMBER “ ONE ETHICAL DILEMMA we bred them I was absolutely infatuated. a bit of a change. There are so many problems Apparently I would sit by the hutch for hours, and there are so many opportunities to make IN THE ANIMAL INDUSTRY. watching the babies and the adult rabbits. change, and you just have to grab the bull by When I got older, we moved house and I the horns and run. It’s terrifying, but you convinced my mum to get chickens. They were have to do it. called Millie, Molly and Mandy, and they were In the late 1980s, there was a study that absolutely awesome. They just sparked such looked at trying to sex the chicks in the egg. It a… well, it has become a love and a passion. was very much in the early days, so they didn’t explain how tricky it is. We’re dealing with tiny the brown ones become your layers. We sexed It sounds very weird I know, but chickens have all the advanced science that we have little embryos! We then took a small amount of our chicks and we compared that to the results are very interesting. People completely now. They attached electrodes to the eggs the fluid out of the sac and stored it at minus that we got from this fluid. That was pretty underestimate their behavior — and listened to the chicks’ heartbeats. They 20 degrees. Then we put the eggs back in the much the method. After they’d hatched, they they’re complex. found that, on average, the female’s heartbeat incubator, and then again on day ten, we took were all taken home to my mum and dad. I remember incubating my first eggs and was two extra beats per minute. And that was them out of the incubator and took fluid again. doing what a lot young poultry keepers do: the first real study that looked into trying to We took the fluid from day eight and day SO, USING THIS METHOD, YOU CAN SEX THE ITADOPT AND USE IT FOR ALL BREEDS.’ BECAUSE WHAT WE FOUND IS THERE IS A BREED DIFFERENCE. we’ll sit there and we’ll look at the eggs sex them in the egg, but the difference wasn’t ten and put them through an ELISA. ELISA is CHICK WHILE IT’S STILL IN THE EGG? incubating, wondering if it’s going to be significant enough. an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay — it’s What we found is that, on day eight, the a boy or a girl. And that’s really what WE NEED TO BE CAREFUL ABOUT SAYING, ‘HEY, THIS IS AN AMAZING METHOD. LET’S More recently, there was a study in 2013 an immunological test. Basically, it helps to find concentration of estrone sulfate for males sparked everything. in Germany. It used the same method as I a specific hormone that you’re looking for. In and females was too low to be detected. We did, hormone analysis, and it looked at three couldn’t tell males and females apart. On day DID THOSE EXPERIENCES AND YOUR OWN our case it was oestrone sulfate. So this ELISA different hormones. Two were predominantly ten, the females came onto the ELISA: all of NEEDS SHAPE YOUR VIEWS ON, AND WORK is basically a tray with ninety-six wells. In these IN, EDUCATION AT THE WELSH COLLEGE female hormones and one was testosterone. wells, there’s an antibody that can capture the the females, but none of the males. That OF HORTICULTURE? They wanted to look at the three hormones estrone sulfate molecule. demonstrated to me that the males had a When I went to Writtle, my understanding and the levels of these within the allantois: a If you put a fluid in that has oestrone sulfate concentration which was really, really low sac like structure which forms within the egg compared to the males in the German study.

“ was the same as that of every poultry keeper. in it, the antibodies will be complementary and acts as a waste storage site while the chick Using this ELISA, if you get a reading from the “ You know their behavior, and you know more to the molecule and they’ll basically attach than a layperson does. But then when I went is developing. They looked at the hormones to it. And then you go through the test and day ten samples, you can assume that is a girl. and found that estrone sulfate, the same If it isn’t detected by the ELISA, it’s a boy. “

to Writtle I started doing modules like when you get to the end of it, you watch the “ Comparative Anatomy. I would do so much that I looked at, was the most reliable one colour. The colour of the solution is directly What is remarkably different from the extra reading because it was so interesting. because the difference in females and linked to how much [oestrone sulfate] is in German study is that our males had a lower The modules brought me into a completely males is significant. there. Interestingly, what sets this apart from concentration [of estrone sulfate] than their different world. There’s knowing about They used a breed that was predominantly the German study is that both our males and males. Commercially, that’s the main finding. chickens and then there’s knowing about a German breed, the Lohmann. I thought females had lower concentrations [of oestrone Despite us being able to sex these, which is chickens! I can’t even explain how much my I’d take our best breed, ISA Brown, which is sulfate] on day 10 than that reported within brilliant, we also found that concentration degree has advanced my level of knowledge coincidentally the most efficient in the previous research. From that, you can -wise, a breed difference in oestrone sulfate of chickens. It’s absolutely mad. industry, and see if that one can be sexed. work out the exact concentration of that may exist. And that’s the main emphasis of my hormone in the fluid. report: we need to be careful about saying, SO, HOW DID YOU SEX A CHICK IN THE EGG? JUST HAVE TO GRAB THE BULL BY THE HORNS AND RUN. IT’S TERRIFYING, BUT YOU HAVE TO DO IT. IT. DO TO HAVE YOU IT’S BUT TERRIFYING, RUN. AND HORNS THE BY BULL THE GRAB TO HAVE JUST WHAT’S THE BACKGROUND TO YOUR RESEARCH ‘Hey, this is an amazing method. Let’s adopt

Finally, we let the chicks carry on through

THERE ARE SO MANY PROBLEMS AND THERE ARE SO MANY OPPORTUNITIES TO MAKE CHANGE, AND YOU YOU AND CHANGE, MAKE TO OPPORTUNITIES MANY SO ARE THERE AND PROBLEMS MANY SO ARE THERE ON OVO SEX IDENTIFICATION OF CHICKENS? It sounds like a recipe! I put all the eggs incubation. When they hatched, we knew their it and use it for all breeds.’ Because what we WHAT INSPIRED IT? into the incubator on day one. On day eight I sex based on the colour. The females are dark found is there is a breed difference. The problem we have at the moment is that took them out of the incubator and marked brown, and then the males are kind of like an chicks can’t be sexed in the egg commercially. an area on the shell 0.5cm away from the air off-white yellow. That’s normally how it’s done In the laying industry, only the hens lay eggs. sac. Following this, each egg was tilted on a commercially. When they hatch, you throw Cockerels don’t lay eggs, and you can’t put 45-degree angle, before incubating it for a the white ones into the grinder, and then all them into meat production because they can’t further 15 minutes. Because I’d incubated it on grow as quickly, as efficiently, or as big. That’s a 45-degree angle and given that the allantois why there are 4.2 billion males killed around is the lightest sac, it came towards the top of the world at only a day old. This is probably the egg. Once the 15 minute incubation had the number one ethical dilemma in the finished, a very small hole was drilled into the animal industry. marked area. Then I cautiously inserted an These chicks are either gassed or they go insulin syringe, only a tiny amount, because into mechanical macerators that crush them the sac was literally behind the shell. I can’t

94 95

WE ARE MEANT TO BE LEADING“ THE WAY ON ANIMAL WELFARE. AND IF WE WERE, THEN WE SHOULD BE PUTTING MORE MONEY INTO THIS. AT THE MOMENT,“ I AM THE ONLY PERSON WHO HAS SEXED THEM IN THE EGG IN THE COUNTRY.

WHAT’S THE NEXT STAGE FOR THIS RESEARCH? I’m writing out the recommendations for further research at the moment. I’m going to apply for a £100,000 grant, which would enable me to hopefully continue this. Through the grant, and the PhD I want to do, I want to look at a good number of the poultry breeds used in the industry, and run this test again on every single breed using the same ELISA to see if there are differences between all those breeds. To our knowledge, there have so far only been three breeds tested using this method at such an early stage. All three times, there has been a difference between the breeds and hatchability. So we need to look at that further, as well as the breed differences in concentration. We also need to see whether there is a breed difference in sensitivity: if we use this method commercially, what breeds are going to be best to use this method with? I would also like to look at genetic testing. Although hormone testing looks promising, there are factors that can influence it. Research has been coming up recently that looks at different types of environmental changes and how they influence the hormone concentrations in the egg. Finally, I really need to look at what the farmer is going to want to know. Are chicks coming from the hatchery, having had this method tested on them, going to grow as well as the chicks that haven’t? Are they going to lay as well when they become adults? There have been hundreds of years of this selective breeding, and the farmers have got them where they want to be. They’re so efficient and so, performance-wise, they are awesome. I need to be able to say to farmers, ‘I can tell you that these chicks are going to perform the same, if not better, than the ones that haven’t’.

IS THAT YOUR AMBITION? TO COME UP WITH A SOLUTION THAT’S RELIABLE, CAN BE ADOPTED BY THE INDUSTRY, AND HOPEFULLY GO SOME WAY TO SOLVING THE PROBLEM THAT YOU’VE DESCRIBED? A hundred percent. I’ve made links with Hendrix Genetics, a key player in the laying-hen side of the industry, but also Hook2Sisters, one of the biggest food production companies in the UK. I’ve recently taken on a job with them to get my foot in the door and get some experience. I hope, alongside the job at Hook2Sisters, I’ll be able to continue this research.

IS THERE A HUGE PRESSURE WITHIN THE INDUSTRY TO COME UP WITH A SOLUTION TO THE ISSUE? Yeah, there is. There’s a huge demand for [a solution] in the UK, but also in Europe. The German government are very much pushing for it. They’re putting huge amounts of money into their science to come up with a solution. It’s all based at the University at Ludwig. I do think there needs to be more effort on the UK side of it, because at the moment, these chicks that I’ve hatched are the first chicks in the UK to have been sexed in the egg before they can feel pain.

SO IN A WAY, YOU’RE REALLY LEADING THE CHARGE ON THIS? IN THE UK, AT LEAST? Yeah, kind of. In Europe the Germans are leading the way, but I think Britain needs to contribute because we’re slaughtering [chicks] at a day old as well. It shouldn’t just be the Germans leading the way on this. We have the technology. We’re a very smart country. We are meant to be leading the way on animal welfare. And if we were, then we should be putting more money into this. At the moment, I am the only person who has sexed them in the egg in the country.

96 97 HOW DOES THAT FEEL? Like a dream. When I was in school, I didn’t get science because I wasn’t passionate about it. Because it’s now become day-to-day, I wake up and don’t think about what I’ve done. So then when I explain it to people, or when I stand up and present in conference, it’s like waking up from a dream and realising I’m living it. It’s nice because I still have the chickens at home. My partner named the first one Wilma. It was awesome to look at her and think, ‘You’re the first one!’ When I go home and I see the chickens, I think, ‘You don’t understand. You’re the first ones in Britain’.

HOW HAS WRITTLE HELPED AND SUPPORTED YOUR RESEARCH ON A PRACTICAL LEVEL? They’ve been really supportive. This isn’t a normal dissertation! Normally, if you come up with a huge dissertation like this it’s deemed too big because the dissertation is meant to be about you putting your toes in the water and seeing how research feels. You don’t jump in, ‘YOU’RE THE FIRST IN THE ONES UK, JUST REMEMBER THAT.

splash about and make a big bang. ME ANYMORE’. PECK AND DON’T LIKE A DREAM. IT’S The main person that has helped me hugely is Dr. Angela Murphy-Thomas. She had a baby last year, and when I was planning this I went to her and I said, ‘I want to do this. I have to obtain funding and I want to go for it.’

I really wanted her on board because she’s “

huge in genetics and I thought we could “ work well together. She was going on maternity leave, so she wasn’t meant to have any dissertation students. But she said, ‘We’ll do it, but you’re going to be my only dissertation student.’ I can’t even put into words how supportive she’s been throughout her whole maternity leave. Without her it wouldn’t have been as easy to get through the harder parts of this and make it as successful as it has been. She has been second to none.

CAN YOU PINPOINT A MOMENT IN ALL OF THIS THAT YOU FEEL MOST PROUD OF? When I took it to a conference. It was an international conference, so we had scholars from all over the world coming, and I presented it in front of everyone and it was that moment when I realised, ‘I’ve done it’. Yeah, that was a big moment. Even now, I go home and just see the chicks from the research and just kind of whisper in their ear, ‘You’re the first ones in the UK, just

Interested in studying Animal Science at Writtle? remember that. And don’t peck me anymore’. Visit writtle.ac.uk/arena_animal It’s like a dream.

98 99 Bringing living bars to the Illustration Maisie Parkes Maisie UK’s biggest festivals

UK

Wandering among the vans of food vendors and huge temporary stages of the average UK festival The Living Bar Company’s work can be seen everywhere from Glastonbury, to Cambridge Folk site, it’s easy to forget that many of them are based on working farms or set in some of the most Festival, to Dublin Fringe Festival, with the latter involving an octagonal Bamboo bar. “The design beautiful parts of the countryside. BSc Horticulture alumnus Tim Goodman has set about to has developed over time from a bar with an internal garden to its current form with trees and change that. After landing a job designing a garden for the Kidzfield at Glastonbury and through planters creating the impact,” explains Tim. His ambitions for bars in the future shouldn’t come conversations with some of the brains behind the festival, he began creating ‘living bars’ at some as too much of a surprise, either. “More plants! Always more plants,” he enthuses. of the UK’s biggest summer music events. The living bars have garnered “every shade of reaction you can imagine” along the way. “From “Behind the scenes at Glastonbury is a great place to meet creative people who are willing the nonplussed to the amazed, I love hearing what people think about the products I create,” says to take a risk on ideas which might seem — and often are — completely impractical!” says Tim. Tim. “They all help me to improve what we do.” Constant improvement seems to be high up on “One slightly drunken conversation led to another and before I knew it I found myself designing Tim’s agenda, too. “Honestly,” he admits, “we are nowhere near achieving the look that I have in the first living bar for WOMAD later that year. Two years later I found myself back at Glastonbury my mind. There are so many ideas that I want to bring to life.” The ambition, Tim says, always installing a 60-metre tree bar as well as a three-metre long mint wall for Mojitos and Pimms.” stays the same. “To bring people in closer contact with the great diversity and beauty of plants Before Tim set sights on the UK’s biggest festivals, he was exploring how horticulture in unexpected ways and places.” could make a difference to people’s lives in an entirely different sense. “I was working as a Running your own business can be tough, especially when it comes to the seasonal nature horticultural trainer in various places, including extension programmes for primary school of festivals. “Let’s just say the last three winters have been quite challenging and leave it at that children in Chelmsford, prisoners in HMP Bristol, and adults with learning difficulties in Wiltshire eh?” says Tim. “I don’t want to bring your readers down too much!” Despite this, The Living Bar for the Shaw Trust.” Tim explains. “Throughout the six years of working in this area, I became Company continues to grow three years in, and it’s Tim’s love for nature that inspires him to convinced of the singular ability of gardening and horticulture in general to benefit people’s persevere. “I’ve always been slightly overawed with the natural world and the myriad ways it lives in many concrete ways.” manages to exist and thrive in even the most inhospitable of habitats,” he explains. “I find it a One of Tim’s defining experiences was during his work for the Shaw Trust, where he spent continuing source of inspiration in both my personal and my business life. Both present you time working with 11 year-olds who were at risk of dropping out of school due to poor behaviour. with challenges and the only way to succeed is to adapt to them and work them to your “All of the kids responded so well to our weekly sessions in the garden,” Tim explains. “They advantage, just as the natural world manages to do so elegantly.” often have bags of energy that they need to burn off before they can be calm enough to learn Tim’s biggest inspiration and motivation, though, is family. “It starts and ends with them,” effectively. Where better to do this than a garden? After all, there’s always something that he says. He even has his step-daughter Lily to thank for the business name. “It came from her needs doing outside.” in a moment of inspiration and has summed up the business brilliantly ever since. Thanks Lily!” Tim’s future ambition is to employ the people that he helped in his earlier career through his business — The Living Bar Company — giving opportunities to adults who might otherwise find it difficult to obtain work due to their mental health or learning difficulties. For now, though, he’s turned his attention to making the average UK festival a little bit greener and enriching the experience for its customers.

The Living Bar Company — the brainchild of Horticulture alumnus Tim Goodman — is on a mission to make the UK’s festivals a little bit greener. Tim explains how the idea came about and how horticulture can change lives.

100 101 A FAREWELL from Alan Titchmarsh

Writtle’s departing patron reflects on his 15-year tenure, having a building named after him and the future of the University College. I little imagined, when I became Patron of Writtle, that our association would last so long. I thought that it was very kind of them to ask me, but that two, three or maybe four years would be the maximum tenure they would expect or even demand. Surely students and staff like new faces around the place to inject a bit of life or a bit of novelty? Had I known then that our association would last 15 years I would have been more than a little surprised, but it has, and could not have been, more enjoyable. The Queen has had twelve prime ministers during her reign. I have occupied the post of patron during the ‘reign’ of three principals — each of them different in approach, but each with the common goal of making Writtle one of the very best institutions of its kind in the country. It has been my pleasure and my privilege to try to foster that aim, and to spread the word about a college that I believe to be second to none in the breadth of courses it offers and the way in which it delivers education, stimulation and the will to improve the quality of our lives through the stewardship of the landscape and the better understanding of animals. The annual graduation ceremony has always been a joyfully anticipated bookmark in my year. It’s a chance to meet students who share my passion for the natural world, the environment and the landscape, and who are about to go out into the world and do their bit; carrying the torch that I have carried for so long and spreading the word about the need to cherish our inheritance. That annual highlight was added to by the creation of The Titchmarsh Centre. At first I thought that it was a joke. Surely they didn’t really want to name a building after me? Such things are reserved for queens and princes. But when I saw my name emblazoned on that tall building, and went inside to see what went on within its walls, I realised it was no joke. I am extremely proud to be associated with ‘TC’ as it has become known; not just for the ego-trip, but because within its confines people are taught practical skills — something I have always valued and fought to get those in high places to appreciate. The country cannot be run by academics alone; we need craftsmen and women with a practical turn of mind to deliver the goods. Apprenticeships and further education courses are every bit as important as degrees, and Writtle understands and appreciates that. After 15 years I think it is a good time to move on. When Writtle becomes a University College it will be good to have a new patron-cum-chancellor. Whoever takes on the role has all my good wishes. I leave with a sense of pride in being involved in a small way in Writtle’s tremendous achievement, and I hope that the Titchmarsh Centre might hang on to its name for just a little bit longer; at least until they get fed up with trying to pronounce it. Thank you all so much for making me so welcome.

Alan Titchmarsh MBE VMH DL

102 103 Editor Craig Emery Head of Marketing at WUC

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Michael Driver michaeldriver.co.uk

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Maisie Parkes maisieparkes.co.uk

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104 Laucala Island Golf Course designed by Writtle alumnus David McLay Kidd. Read more on page 12. Writtle University College Facebook – #WrittleArena +44 (0) 1245 424200 Cover illustration Chelmsford Twitter – #WrittleArena writtle.ac.uk Michael Driver Essex Instagram – #WrittleArena CM1 3RR