In a new series for Farmers Guardian, the 11 new recruits on the McDonalds Progressive Young Farmer (PYF) programme. Each month we follow one of the PYFs to see what they are doing.
McDonalds are one of the most well-known brands in the world, and pride themselves on sourcing quality produce - particularly in the UK.
One of the organisations biggest passions though is creating a strong workforce, and part of that is to establish a solid connection to agriculture and those who provide the produce.
The McDonalds Progressive Young Farmer scheme has now been running for 10 years, and this year they are continuing to be champions of British agriculture and pushing the scheme forwards, promoting the industry to people from all walks of life and showcasing to those outside the industry that farming is a great place to work.
Meet the new PYFs below.
Jack Thomas
Jack is a current student at Harper Adams University, currently in my second year studying BSc Agriculture. In July he started his placement at McDonalds on the Progressive Young Farmer Programme with potato supplier McCains. Jack grew up on his family dairy, beef and arable farm near Lands End in Cornwall, and have been involved and working on the farm full time since the COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020.
He is thoroughly looking forward to his placement year to learn all about the McDonalds and McCains supply chain and their sustainable farming practices.
Sophie Ascroft
Sophie is joining dairy supplier Kerry Agribusiness in Ireland. Sophie's passion for agriculture started at a young age on her family's farm in West Lancashire when she had the opportunity to establish her own business, supplying finishing pigs to a local farm shop. Since then, Sophie has worked with her family's suckler herd for several years.
During her gap years, she worked in the fashion industry, where she travelled around Europe, South Africa, and Australia.Sophie is currently studying Agriculture with Animal Science at Harper Adams University. Sophie is very much looking forward to the move to Ireland and the chance to delve into a new place and culture.
Adam Cusick
Adam is from Coleraine Northern Ireland. After finishing school at Coleraine he started studying business management at Queens University Belfast and is lucky enough to be commencing his placement year in the Progressive Young Farmer placement with Dawn Meats.
He has grown up in agriculture, and in the last number of years he has introduced his own flock of sheep on the farm, lambing in February time.
Max Living
Max is studying agriculture at Harper Adams University and is joining Cranswick in the pork sector on his industry placement before returning to university for a final year of study, following a passion for the farming and food industry. From a non-agricultural background based in North Yorkshire, he graduated Askham Bryan agricultural college in 2018 with experience across various agricultural businesses in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire with 2 years spent working and travelling overseas in New Zealand.
Laura Beaton
Laura is from a farming family based in North Yorkshire, where she has been brought up around livestock. As well as the farm, her parents own a multi-award winning Farm Shop, and working in the shop from a young age stemmed an interest in the food supply chain.
Laura is passionate about the agriculture industry and believes in the importance of traceability and sustainability of products that are sold to consumers, so that the industry can continue to thrive.Laura currently studies BSc Agriculture at Harper Adams University, which she finds very interesting as the course covers a broad variety of topics.
Emma Ross
As part of the progressive young farmer programme, Emma is joining Avara foods. Having grown on a beef and sheep farm in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, Emma has huge passion for agriculture and British farming and all that comes with it.Emma is currently studying agriculture technology with professional studies at Queens university Belfast. Once graduated Emma hopes to combine the knowledge and skills she has gained with her passion in agriculture, to create a bright future for agriculture.
May Smith
May is joining well-known egg company, The Lakes Free Range Egg Co LTD. May has a passion for agriculture and she is currently studying at Harper Adams University. Whilst at home in Hampshire and across her time at university May has worked on a variety of dairy farms, having fun and developing her experience. May also loves lambing time, enjoying a recent trip to the Shetland Islands where she appreciated being emerged in discovering a completely different farming system.
Chris Hinch
Hailing from a free-range egg farm in Rutland, Chris is working with Moy Park on his year in the McDonalds Progressive Young Farmer Programme. He is currently in his third year at Harper Adams University studying a BSc in agriculture, and is hoping to get involved with the local YFC along with practicing his shooting on the weekends.
Loureno Carvalho
Loureno grew up in Lisbon, Portugal, but has always had a fascination with farm life after spending all school breaks with his grandparents on the family sheep farm, helping with the day-to-day running.
This fascination led Loureno look for a course where he could work directly with farm animals, and he decided to go to Newcastle University to study Agriculture with Farm Business Management.
He is doing a placement year with Noble Foods and McDonalds, where he expects to learn a lot about agriculture, sustainability and food supply chains while gaining work experience.
During his free time, Loureno likes to travel to different countries, exercise or experience new things, like scuba diving or parachuting.
Alison Forsythe
Alison grew up in Northern Ireland in a town called Holywood just outside Belfast. She has always loved being outdoors and loved spending time on her grandfathers farm growing up. At school, she completed work experience with a food scientist at a local dairy and assisted in the lab of an animal feed company. However, she chose to study law at Queens University Belfast and later practiced as an employment solicitor.
Whilst working as a solicitor, she undertook work in the renewable energy team and was selected to be the climate change champion for the Belfast office. This work and her passion for food and the environment encouraged her to change career and pursue a Masters degree in Sustainable Food Systems at the University of Leeds. During her free time Alison enjoys playing touch rugby, hiking and cooking.
She is looking forward to applying what she has learnt over the past year and expanding her knowledge further through her new role as a Root2Food Trainee at McDonalds.
Serge Roa
Serge moved to Portsmouth from Sweden to continue his further education and studies Economics in the University of Portsmouth.
His experience working in McDonald's restaurants developed his interest in the wider supply chain of McDonalds.
Serge is in the supply chain team through the Restaurant to Corporate bridge program and his role revolves around supporting and implementing supply chain strategies in the business. He is keen to learn about supply chain pricing and stock management strategies and supplier management.
Serge likes to spend his free time playing basketball or volleyball and he enjoys experiencing new things. He hopes to integrate his knowledge in economics to support the team through providing analysis in the changes in policy or global markets point of view.
