And that plan was to make his farm Carbon Neutral within three years, with a cut back here and an innovation there, here a recycling bin, there electric carts and everywhere lots of good intentions and innovative ideas! Read on for more information on the Green Farm project and then send us your thoughts. We all need to work hard to protect both the Arctic circle and the rainforest, and with your help Old Macdonald’s can play our part.
Old Macdonald’s Farm in Weald Road, Brentwood, has set out a bold but achievable strategy for not only becoming Carbon Neutral within three years but also of educating, in fun and exciting ways, the many thousands of children and of course their parents in how to save energy and help the environment. Joseph Manning, owner of the farm and therefore the embodiment of Old Macdonald himself, is determined to implement the changes needed and sees that they will all in fact be beneficial to his operation.
The farm covers 20 acres of land with a wide variety of livestock from all your farm favourites to more unusual creatures such as Meerkat and Alpacas. He has found that the public who visit the farm really soak up the information he gives them on the background of the animals they see and is sure that they will all appreciate reading environmental information as well. He hopes to produce an Environmental Information board with Essex County Council’s environmental information team. He has introduced recycling bins around the farm and his staff are encouraging the visitors to use them, in the hope that this will encourage them to recycle at home. Joseph is now working with the Essex Resource Efficiency Club to look at the best way to have these materials used in future.
Other innovations introduced by Joseph are electric vehicles to be used around the farm to cut back on fuel consumption. No fuel driven carts in this farm. All attractions for children such as the kiddie rides have been designed to reduce power needed to drive them. He now seeks to source more of the products he needs, such as goods for sale or food stock for the cafeteria, locally, and has tied up a superb arrangement with Sainsbury’s to take near to sell by date produce for use as food stuffs for the farm animals.
“I do not know how the chickens will take to seeing Sainsbury vehicles pulling into our car park in case they think they have come to collect them to serve as roasts, but instead these lorries will be delivering. How much better this is than seeing all that produce go to land fill.”
Joseph is very keen on the exchange services offered by Essex Materials Exchange. “I will also promote this to our guests, and show them how materials can and should be reused around their homes. We have been a wasteful society for too long: buy it, use it, and chuck it away. Well, this is no longer sustainable and we shall play our part, and I hope to find it adds to our profits too!”
“In ten years time we will, I hope, see this type of approach as standard and our children will wonder why we did not do it before. We should take this up as an exciting challenge, necessary and vital.”
The scheme was first launched last summer and following a competition young Charlotte won a free annual season ticket for her design of the Tractorpult which was built and shown during the October Half Term in 2007. (You can read about that in these news stories, in the article about our challenge to Colchester Garrison.) Now he invites readers of his website to suggest other useful environmentally friendly projects which he can implement on the farm. Everyone who sends in a suggestion will win a free day out at the farm, and anyone who produces ideas that can be implemented will win a free annual Value Pass. All you have to do is post your ideas here on the website.
