Allotments farmer given travel prize

Tamara Hall, managing director of Molescroft Farms Ltd, has been selected as the Yorkshire Agricultural Society’s Nuffield Scholar for 2013.

She has chosen community-supported agriculture as her subject and will travel to a project in Athens, which originally piqued her interest, as well as other initiatives in America, Japan and Scandinavia.

She set up a not-for-profit organisation to create a 65-plot community allotment on her land off the Beverley bypass earlier this year which already has 70 people on its waiting list.

Ms Hall, who is a member of the society’s council, said her interest began after reading a newspaper article about how farmers were renting small areas of land to families in Athens. The families decided what the farmers grew, guaranteeing a stable income, and the families had cheaper and better food.

She said: “Allotments are very popular and often oversubscribed and not everyone has the time or desire for one, so, as with the Athens project, community-supported agriculture might work well in the UK as an alternative. But you would need polytunnels to extend the growing season.”