Farmers Weekly Awards 2019: Lifetime Achievement Award

Caroline Drummond has been awarded the 2019 Farmers Weekly Lifetime Achievement Award.

Caroline has worked tirelessly for almost three decades for a charity that has shaped farming and agriculture across Britain and around the world.

From its humble beginnings in 1991, Linking Environment And Farming (Leaf) has grown under her leadership to become a hugely influential organisation, encouraging more sustainable farming practices and improving public understanding of farming and the environment.

One of Leaf’s flagship events is, of course, Open Farm Sunday, which each year connects more than one-quarter of a million people with farming, but another of her huge achievements has been leading the Leaf Marque initiative – a farm assurance system recognising products grown sustainably with care for the environment. She also recently led the successful merger with the charity Farming and Countryside Education (Face).

See also: Farmers Weekly Awards 2019: Farmer of the Year

Caroline’s impact has been huge, according to former Leaf chairman Stephen Fell, who recalls her huge efforts to “cajole and influence” people into accepting and promoting sustainable agriculture, mainly through the mechanism of integrated farm management.

“Caroline is a great communicator and has a huge list of contacts across government, retailers, researchers, NGOs and, of course, farmers, all of who respect her views and forthright discussions,” says Mr Fell.

“She is always good fun to be with, challenging and someone who likes being challenged. Farming has a huge amount to thank her for.”

Co-founder of Leaf, David Richardson, recalls giving Caroline a job at the then-fledgling charity back in the early 1990s.

“When we launched, the charity was running on a shoestring. For several years, we barely had two pennies to rub together, but Caroline was so devoted she used to take a sleeping bag and sleep under her desk in the office at Stoneleigh.

“I’ve made lots of mistakes in my life, but appointing Caroline certainly wasn’t one of them. She’s done a superb job and what Leaf has achieved has exceeded my wildest dreams.”

Caroline was awarded an MBE for her services to the agricultural industry in 2009. She is also a Nuffield scholar and was recently named one of the Women Economic Forum’s “Women of the Decade”.  All this, of course, happens when she’s not busy on the family dairy farm in Cornwall.

A graduate in agriculture, she’s a true “integrationist”, effectively combining the three components of sustainability – environmental, economic and social – in her work.

As former editor of Crops magazine, Debbie Beaton, observes: “She’s been a pioneer when it comes to the notion of sustainable agriculture in the UK.

“Over the past few decades, a lot of people talked solely about the environment, while others talked solely about food production. Caroline was ahead of her time in terms of putting the two together and linking the environment and farming. Her impact on British agriculture has been game-changing.”

In Leaf’s 2018 annual report, Caroline highlighted the crucial role of farmers providing food, managing biodiversity, acting as part of the solution to climate change mitigation, fashioning landscapes and contributing to rural infrastructure. “Leaf’s time is now,” she wrote.

With agriculture entering a period of huge change in its bid to feed the growing global population and steward the environment, the need for organisations like Leaf – and people such as Caroline – will be even more vital in the coming years.