TV presenter Helen Skelton highlights "massive disconnect" between farmers and the public

The host of the Channel 5 programme, who grew up on a farm, urged people to have greater respect for farming and encouraged the public to have a more open dialogue about where food comes from and how it is produced.

“I grew up on a farm, and have a huge amount of respect for farmers,” she said.

“But now I live on the edge of the city, and there’s a massive disconnection between food producers and the rest of the country.”

The presenter went on to say it was a very different situation to the one she had experienced during her years living on the continent.

“I lived in France and it’s very different there, you go to the market and you ask the farmer there what you should get, they tell you what’s best at that time of year.

“We don’t do that over here. If we went into a supermarket and the person behind the counter said: ‘You should eat this’, we’d tell them to mind their own business. I think that’s a shame.”

The former Blue Peter presenter said that she hopes Springtime on the Farm, which returns for its third series on April 13, encourages respect for farming.

The show was scheduled to be broadcast live from Cannon Hall Farm in Barnsley, but producers have been forced to change their plan due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Series producer Richard Mortimer said: “Luckily, a lot of the content has already been filmed and in these somewhat unusual circumstances, we have found a way to carry on without a single person in the production having to leave their homes.

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