The Guild’s 2019 Agricultural Journalism Awards, sponsored by the APB Food Group, were presented by BGAJ President Baroness Rosie Boycott at our annual Harvest Lunch in October.
They comprise three categories: Arable, Livestock and Environmental/ Rural.
Arable runner-up was Oli Mark for his article on making a homemade seed destructor published in Farmers Weekly.
The winner was freelance Adam Clarke for article, also in Farmers Weekly, about stopping potatoes from sprouting without a suppressant.
The judges described it as a “comprehensive article, covering all the options and giving a good summary – very timely and full of useful information”.
The Livestock category saw joint runners-up in freelance Aly Balsom, for a Farmers Weekly article about reducing antibiotic usage in sheep; and Alex Black of Farmers Guardian, for an article writing about the role of livestock markets.
But the judges narrowly placed freelance Andrew Faulkner first for his piece in Profi entitled Making hay the Canadian way.
“Something as simple as hay can make the most riveting of reads, covering so many topics,” noted the judges.
Runner-up in the Rural Affairs/ Environment category was Hannah Park of the Farmers Guardian for her piece on keeping rural shepherding skills alive.
The clear winner was freelance Jez Fredenburgh for her podcast Being young and rural – the ups and downs, published through the EatFarmNow website portal.
Judges said it was good to have a podcast feature so highly and they “loved listening to the discussion between young agriculturalists from different countries and backgrounds”.
Our photo shows Jez Fredenburgh (left) receiving her award from Guild President Baroness Rosie Boycott.
