The Rural Youth Europe Magazine Rally Returned to Wales 14 Family 6 Farmers Around Europe Tell Their Stories

02 / 2014 European The Rural Youth Europe Magazine Rally returned to Wales 14 Family 6 farmers around Europe tell their stories Get to 12 know the new Board members Rural Youth Europe CONTENT Rural Youth Europe (RYEurope) is a European non- 3 Editors note governmental organisation for rural youth. Established in 1957, it is an umbrella for youth organisations working to promote and activate young people in 4-5 Going on in the countryside. It provides international training Europe possibilities and works as an intermediary between Meeting up with ECYC national organisations and youth organisations and Once an IFYE, always an public institutions at the European level. Rural Youth IFYE Greetings from Nordic Europe is a member-led organisation: democratically colleagues! constituted, the organisation is led by young people Lately in England: for young people. Rural Youth Europe unites 21 member organisations 6-9 Family farming across 18 European countries. The membership base is over 500,000 young people who either live in rural 10 Member areas or have an interest in rural life. greetings If your organisation is interested to join Rural Youth Europe or you would like more information about our 11 Our General events, please contact [email protected] Assembly or check our website www.ruralyoutheurope.com Kadri´s thank you text 12-13 New Board Rural Voices 14-17 European Rally is published by Rural Youth Europe. Views and opinions returned to expressed in this publication do not necessarily Wales reflect those of Rural Youth Europe. Text may include informal translations of statements and documents. 18-19 Updates Reproduction of articles is authorised provided the Rural Youth Project of the source is quoted and copies of the article are sent Year invitation to Rural Youth Europe. This newsletter is published Next event coming up is with the support of the European Youth Foundation the AUTUMN SEMINAR! of the Council of Europe and Erasmus+ of European Shake it – Experience in Commission. The editors express their gratitude for Jyväskylä Here are some pictures all received articles and encourage every member from Latvian Young organisation to contribute and to enrich this magazine. Latvian Young Farmers´ had an active summer! RESPONSIBLE EDITORS: Pia Nurmio-Perälä, Mikko Välitalo, 20 Calendar Otto Kronqvist ADDRESS: Karjalankatu 2A, 00520 Helsinki, Finland PHONE: + 358 45 234 5629 E-MAIL: office@rural youtheurope.com WEBSITE: www.ruralyoutheurope.com PHOTO-CREDITS: Rural Youth Europe, its members and participants of events CONCEPT & LAYOUT: Júlia Hentz CONTENT Time for new challenges Change is something many people are afraid of and it’s easier to focus on what you have rather than search for a new challenge. Still, the hardest part is to let go of the old. There have been lots of changes in my life recently. One of those was the decision to finish my part-time job at the Rural Youth Europe office. I felt the time was right for me to move on and look for new challenges. The decision was made easy to me, though, since the Finnish 4H Federation asked me if I was interested to join the board of their European umbrella organisation, Rural Youth Europe. I accepted the nomination and was successfully elected as a Board member at the General Assembly held in August in Cardiff. In this second edition of the newly launched Rural Voices, you can meet the rest of the board. We also agreed to continue the News from our members section where our member organisations share projects they are working with. I encourage you all to look for new challenges, and more importantly tell us about them so we can share them in this magazine. Enjoy reading Rural Voices magazine. Mikko Välitalo Board member Group 3 3 Our website is also mobile friendly - visit it now by scanning your mobile phone over this QR code! M e e t i n g u p with ECYC Our partner organisation from this year´s Spring Seminar, European Confederation of Youth Clubs (ECYC), held their General Assembly in Helsinki 13- 15 June 2014. Our Secretary General Pia Nurmio- Perälä met casually with ECYC´s former President and colleague from the Spring Seminar, Elena Lotrean, ECYC´s Secretary General Rares Craiut and their GA delegates. Congratulations and good luck to the newly selected ECYC Bureau with Tor Haave from Norway as current President! Going on in Europe Once an IFYE, always an IFYE As I’ve been to the IFYE conferences in the previous years, so of course I couldn’t miss it this year, when it was hosted by the German IFYEs. Every year the conference is a great chance to meet up with old and new IFYE friends from across Europe and to spend a busy but entertaining week full of fun, excursions and parties at the annual IFYE reunion. Just as the past conferences, also the German hosts organised a fabulous program. It started 4 with the “Kindezeche”, an important folk festival in the region and later during the week we could choose between varieties of different excursions to historical sites, relaxing tours to the beach or visits to interesting companies. Also the evenings and nights were busy with many unique parties, entertainment and games. And of course we also celebrated our own Oktoberfest. All too soon, a busy week came to an end and everyone is looking forward to the next IFYE reunion for a new action packed week. And just as the IFYE slogan, “Once an IFYE, always an IFYE”, says, I will definitely also go to the IFYE conference in Scotland next year. G re e t i n g s fro m Rural Youth Europe congratulates Finlands Svenska 4H on their 85th anniversary. Keep Nordic colleagues! up the good work with the Finnish children Most of the Nordic 4H organisations, as well as and youth! many Nordic sport and cultural organisations, Going on in Europe are members of the Nordic umbrella organisation Nordisk Samorganisation for Ungdomsarbejde (NSU). This year their largest event was the Nordic Youth Week for youngsters aged 13-19 in 28.7-2.8 in Arendal, Norway hosted by Frilynt. The event was combined with the host´s national Splash camp, so in addition to the 50 Nordic participants there were also 250 Norwegian youngsters. Theatre, film, dance and music were the main parts of the programme. Right after that, 4-10.8, was NSU’s Leader School hosted by Føroya Ungdómsráð on Faroe Island. This is a training on leadership for 30 18+ youngsters and Lately in England: included much outdoor activities in the beautiful Chairman of the NFYFC, Claire Worden, celebrated landscape. The main language on NSU events is her year in style in mid August at the Eden Project Scandinavian, which is a free mixture of Swedish, in Cornwall, England with a ball attracting young Danish and Norwegian. farmers from all over England and Wales. 5 M o o rco u r t Farm Chris Price from Moorcourt Farm Herefordshire, England https://www.facebook.com/moorcourtfruitltd Family farming 1. You’re a farmer 2. How much land 3. Why do 4. What is 5. What are family, but who in and how many you want to the special the challenges your family actually animals do you have be a farmer? about your of being a works in the farm? at the farm? What are farm? farmer? you producing? 1. • I am 29 and I am the third generation • The biggest challenge is definitely the weather, it5. to live and work on this farm. Mum does can make a big difference to our yields. The other the paperwork and administration duties. challenge is world commodity markets affecting our Dad and I do everything else and gradually end prices. Both of these things are out of our control I’m taking over more of the management so we have to try and minimise their impact. decisions from him. • We don’t find that European • We farm 200 hectars in total. Of legislation is a big deal. We have that we have 8 hectars of cherries, to comply with it anyway and 1 hectar of Blueberries, 50 hectars it supports best practise. of cider apples, 100 hectars of Our fruit is grown to supply cereal crops and the rest is grass local markets in the UK so 6 for our cattle. We have between at least some of our crops 200 and 250 cattle at any one are resistant to international time for beef. 2. competition. 6. • I find it very exciting. Every day • I want to expand the business is different, every day I’m learning a bit more to reach a sustainable 3. something new and developing the size and secure it for the future. I business a bit more. I love working outside want to maintain the family farming ethos and working with nature. It’s great to which we have here. 7. follow our crops and livestock through the seasons and get a reward at the end. • There is no right or wrong way, but take advantage 8.of what you have. For example your soil type or the • We can grow a wide range of crops here climate you live in might be a useful strength for your on our medium-heavy loam soil. The business, or the fact you might be near to cities where seasons are also quite late so this helps you can market your produce and add value. us with our marketing, especially the cherries where we can sell them at the • I got married on this farm last summer during a really end of the season when other farmers busy time.

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