The Environment
It has long been realised by Alvis Bros that to maintain a vibrant flora and fauna we only need to apply resources that will be taken up by the growing crop. To that end, whether organic or conventional, all potential inputs are carefully assessed as to whether they really are needed and if so how much. This approach allied to maximum use of natural resources, ensures all Alvis farm activities are in harmony with the natural surroundings and production is sustainable.

Conservation activity has included the planting of over 12,000 trees and numerous hedgerows over the last fifteen years; the creation and renovation of ponds and waterways; the creation of wildlife corridors around arable fields and over 30ha’s of wild flower meadows. This is partly as a consequence of a Countryside Stewardship Scheme on one farm, and on the others our own particular interests in maintaining some of the most beautiful areas in the country.

Education
Education plays a big part in Alvis Bros' farming activities. Following informal visiting arrangements with local schools and youth groups in the 1980’s and 1990’s Alvis Bros joined forces with a number of other local farmers and associated bodies and formed FarmLink with the sole intention of communicating farming, food, countryside and environmental issues to school children. This innovative collaboration was recognised recently by BBC Radio 4 with Alvis Bros being awarded best Farm Communicator of the year.

We had direct contact with 10,000 school children in the school year 06/07 and are well on the way to exceeding that number in the current academic year. To cope with the increased numbers and to be able to continue offering a completely free service to any school which asks, FarmLink has been formed into a separate company with charitable status. Following this, FarmLink was asked to spearhead the Year of Farming and Food in the South West in the hope the programme of curriculum based education and farm visits would be made available to many more children through 2007/2008. To date, the Year of Food and Farming in the South West has been a great success and FarmLink have worked with many other farmers and delivery partners to exceed the target of 90,000 school children visiting a farm in the Year.

Partner organisations include Bath and North East Somerset Council; Envolve; The National Trust; Mendip Hills AONB, South West Chamber of Rural Enterprise, Natural England, South West Rural Developement Agency and FACE.