The Campaign to Protect Rural England [1] has helped farmer Paula Wolton set up a blog – a web diary where she writes about her views and experiences and the public can post their reactions.

Paula, who has a small organic beef and sheep farm near Hatherleigh, West Devon, has been working the land for more than 30 years. [2] From time to time she has appeared on BBC1’s Countryfile as a video diarist, guest and presenter.

CPRE’s Communications Director Nick Schoon said: ‘We’re delighted to have helped set up this blog for Paula, and to link to it from our own website www.cpre.org.uk.

‘Farming is essential for looking after England’s wonderful rural landscapes. [3] For the sake of both of them, we need people to have a better understanding of what farmers do from day to day and the challenges they face.

‘Paula’s blog [4] is a small contribution to that better understanding. We’ll see how it goes and later on we may help other farmers to set up blogs. The views she expresses are hers and hers alone; we’re helping to give one farmer a voice.

Paula Wolton commented: ‘I'm delighted to have this chance to express my thoughts about what is happening in the countryside. I feel there's a lot that needs to be said. I hope that working with CPRE I can help to bring the realities of farming closer to people across the country.’

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NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. CPRE, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, is a charity which promotes the beauty, tranquillity and diversity of rural England. We advocate positive solutions for the long-term future of the countryside. Founded in 1926, we have 60,000 supporters and a branch in every county. President: Sir Max Hastings. Patron: Her Majesty The Queen.

2. Locks Park is a small, traditional 85-acre organic holding on the Culm Measures near Hatherleigh, Devon, farmed by Paula for the last 16 years. She has a suckler herd of Devon Red Ruby cattle and a small flock of Whiteface Dartmoor sheep. Paula does not come from a farming background and graduated with an art degree. She first worked in London designing jewellery, supplementing her income as a photographic and clothes model. Her farming career started in her twenties when she moved to the countryside, went shopping for a table and came home with a goat. She has four sons and her husband helps on the farm when not doing his day job. Over the years Paula has set up several successful business enterprises related to food and farming, and currently she is also working a day a week at a boutique in Exeter.

3. Last year CPRE and the NFU published a joint report which looked at the quantity and value of work England’s farmers did to maintain landscape features. The report estimated farmers carried out more than £400 million worth of landscape work a year beyond what they do within the framework of agri-environment schemes. See our news release: There’s no such thing as a free hedgerow at www.cpre.org.uk/news/view/22

4. The blog’s web address is http://locksparkfarm.wordpress.com