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Down on the farm with JB Gill - kids, farming and inspiring the next generation

Presenter, musician and now author, JB Gill has done it all, but farming and education is at the heart of all he does. Emily Ashworth talks to him about his role as one of industry’s biggest supporters.

clock • 7 min read
Down on the farm with JB Gill - kids, farming and inspiring the next generation

For those with young children, you will have at some point probably found yourself humming along to the tune of CBeebies kid's farming programme, Down on the Farm.

Hosted by JB Gill, TV presenter, former musician and now farmer, he has been an advocate for educating children about the industry for a long time, having come into it as a new entrant himself.

After successfully breaking into the music industry with hit global boyband JLS, in 2012 JB moved to the Kent countryside with his wife, Chloe, and has since welcomed two children - Ace, who is now eight, and Chiara, who is four.

His latest achievement has seen him publish his first children book, Ace and the Animal Heroes, in April 2023. And, of course, it has been inspired by his children and his childhood growing up in London.

"It has been a long time coming," says JB, 36.

"I had the idea in 2014, and it was going to be a picture book, but I was not able to publish for one reason or another.

"During lockdown I went back to work on it."

It is a two-book series and has, says JB, been a labour of love.

It is about a little boy - named Ace at the request of his son - who leaves his home in the city and decides to take over the farm.

Ace must get the farm in ship shape within 30 days of being there.

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This is another way for JB to continue doing what he is most passionate about, which is helping to bridge that gap between farming and those outside it.

He says: "I am incredibly passionate about the farming industry and opening it up, and over the last 11 years I have been very vocal about it.

"It is important that children from non-farming backgrounds have access to the countryside, and there are lots of ways to do that, but one great way is literature.

"Children can enter into a world that is not familiar; it allows them to live it, dream it and imagine it - even escape sometimes.

"It is great for farming to be that subject matter, and it is reminiscent of my own personal experience.

"I grew up in the city, but I was lucky that I did have access [to the outdoors] and my parents very much felt it was important.

"My formative years were spent in the Caribbean and there is definitely that proximity to where your food comes from and more of a rural lifestyle through that island mentality.

"I went to school in an urban area, so it was important to portray that in the book. I wanted my reality to be embedded in it and to have farming at the forefront of it - but I wanted to have a fun story as well."

Daughter Chiara also plays a starring role, acting as Ace's best friend and trusty sidekick in the book.

In fact, everything JB does seems to pivot around the values he has on family life, and education and inspiring children to enjoy food and farming are key to much of what he does.

After the success of Down on the Farm, he began a cooking series with his family, Cooking with the Gills, allowing him to bring the farm-to-fork story full circle.

"It focussed on that connection between where our food comes from and what we are eating, as that has been lost over the years," he says.

"There are some shocking statistics around. I have done work with the Royal Countryside Fund and the Mayors Fund for London as an ambassador, and you look at the information they have collated over the years - kids do not know eggs come from a chicken.

"I take it for granted, as my kids learnt how to count by counting the eggs from the farm.

"Cooking with the Gills has been a great way to showcase where food comes, but we also touch on world food days and lots of different food dates in the calendar.

"But it is also about getting them involved.

"As a parent you do probably worry about getting them involved and think about safety in the kitchen, but for me I think it is about that whole process. Even taking the kids shopping - I know it is a daunting task, but get them to go and get the cucumbers, or the strawberries and then you can talk about seasonality.

"Now is obviously the perfect time for strawberries but in January definitely not - my little boy loves them but, I always say if it is not in season then we do not really want to know.

"So, with the show, getting the kids in there cutting and smelling is really valuable for their own relationship with food, because they become adults and parents and they will then have a great grounding."

But if we are to encourage youngsters to take an interest in our industry, it must come from two places, says JB, and that is from schools and a big push from the government.

With their farm at home, he would love for Ace and Chaira to consider farming as a career, but every single career should have an agricultural aspect talked about in schools.

"The government needs to be saying that this is important, and we need this to be in our schools, or lawyers or prominent figures in our society need to be saying it because people listen," he says.

"We need to be unified in saying this is why our children should have access to it, otherwise it is impossible for that to become the case."

Life has certainly changed over the years, but his 15-acre farm in Kent is home, with his Tamworth pig and Kelly Bronze turkey business still thriving.

And to think, it all started with just one inspirational pig.

He says: "In 2013 I went to the RSPCA looking for a dog and came back with a pig, Ginger who was our first animal - she makes the book. She is an incredibly inspirational part of my journey.

"My dad was like, yes, we will take her and look after her and we had her on the farm for about eight years - we did not know how old she was when we got her, but she had multiple litters.

"When I think back, I knew absolutely nothing and had to chase her back into her pen when she broke out of it, and I worried about the piglets. But seeing her give birth for the first time was mind blowing.

"I was 23 or 24 at the time and had never experienced anything like that before.

"The number of times I called the vet for them to say, she will be fine, she is a pig she will just get on with it. But the year after I did not need to call anyone.

"You learn by experience."

Last year they sold around 310 turkeys, and pigs are sold direct to consumers. They also grow cherries, apples and pears.

And although he relishes the farming side, it has opened many more doors for JB, and that is perhaps something that others can realise too; that there is so much potential in farming.

He says: "It has been a great platform for me, and it has been a springboard for me into my TV career and becoming ambassadors for charities like the Royal Countryside Fund or working with RSPCA.

"I really valued it the most, though, when we were going through lockdown.

"With homeschooling it was so nice - for Ace in particular. If he ever got frustrated, I would say, come with me we can go and sort the pigs and come back ready to get back to structured learning.

"Even I am always learning.

"For [the kids] to be able to appreciate all of this is amazing."

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