About the Award

The Award

Each year, the winning farmer will be given £4,000, a commemorative plaque and a package of support to help them promote their ideas to other land managers.

What We Are Looking For

Promoting practical ideas for improving the sustainability of farming in Scotland.

Promoting

You should have an interest in promoting your ideas to farmers, policy-makers and the media. The winner will receive support to do this for a year from a co-ordinator appointed by the Murray Trust.

Practical

The Award seeks to promote practical ideas for improving sustainability. This means that your ideas do not have to be new or unique so long as they work and you are willing to inspire others to try them.

Sustainability

The concept of sustainability includes economic, social and environmental sustainability and spans both local and global levels.

Farming

The Award aims to showcase ways in which Scotland can produce food, fibre and wood products from farms and crofts in a commercially viable way while maintaining the natural capital of the land and minimizing the ecological footprint of farming activities. Your idea can incorporate nature conservation or leisure activities but there must also be a core element of productive farming.

Conditions of Entry

• Applicants should be responsible for managing productive land in Scotland as an owner, tenant, crofter or employee.
• Applications should be made in the name of an individual, but it is recognised that the applicant may be working in the context of a farming partnership, a business or a community group.
• If you would like to nominate someone else for the award just let us know about them and we will contact them asking for further information.
• Applicants should be willing, over the following year, to collaborate with a co-ordinator appointed by the Murray Trust to communicate the ideas being developed on the farm by: providing information for a 'case study' to be published on the web; giving interviews to journalists; speaking at farmer meetings (with the co-ordinator providing support in developing and/or delivering presentations); showing VIPs around the farm; hosting a farm walk for other farmers.
• The 2010 Future Farmer Award opens for applications on the 1st January 2010.

Apply here.

Selection Procedure

The co-ordinator will select a short-list of applicants, interview them by telephone and produce a report for consideration by a panel of experts. The farms of lead candidates will then be visited and farmers will be invited to an interview with representatives of the Elizabeth Murray Trust and Scottish Natural Heritage.

The 2009 committee was:

David Younie (Senior Organic Farming Consultant, SAC Consultancy Services Division), Harvey Macmillan (Chairman of the Murray Trust), Barbara Bremner of Scottish Natural Heritage's Sustainable Use Unit, East Lothian farmer Michael Williams and Award co-ordinator, Anna Ashmole.

The decision of the committee is final, but unsuccessful applicants are welcome to re-apply in future years.

The Co-ordinator

The Future Farmer Award is co-ordinated on behalf of the Elizabeth Murray Trust by Anna Ashmole, who is a freelance food and farming consultant. Anna has worked closely with organic farmers in Scotland for eighteen years through her PhD research on farmers' reasons for going organic, serving as a Board member of the Scottish Organic Producers Association and starting up the Scottish office of the Soil Association. She is also one of the initiators of Borders' Forest Trust's Carrrifran Wildwood ecological restoration project and has worked on environmental education projects for both the University of Edinburgh and Scottish Natural Heritage.