Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, Makes the Case for Going to Agricultural Shows in a Rare Essay
Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, has a reputation for being one of the hardest working members of the royal family, serving as patron for over 70 charities and organizations.
Among them is the Association of Show and Agricultural Organisations, the professional body supporting organizers of agricultural, horticultural, equine, and rural events in the UK, with resources ranging from health and safety guidance to legal advice. The Duchess of Edinburgh has been the group’s royal sponsor since 2012, and her late support has come in the form of a rare essay in The Yorkshire Post. In the letter published today, Sophie makes the case for countryside agricultural shows, calling them “the greatest shows on earth.”
“Beyond the fabulous experiences they provide, they also offer an opportunity for our rural businesses to showcase what they do and how they do it, and to allow visitors to gain a deeper understanding of our important rural industry,” the Duchess writes. “Agricultural shows are a place where town can meet country, bridging the gap between what is perceived and what is real. They are a looking-glass into the lives of our rural community who work so hard to provide for us, while trying to make a living for themselves.”
As Sophie explains, the essay arrives as agricultural life and work across Britain faces stiff competition from digital entertainment and shifting public attention away from rural life. She argues that no amount of social media scrolling can replicate what a day at one of Britain’s more than 600 agricultural shows offers: a hands-on, sensory experience with food halls, arts and crafts, floral installations, live music and dancing, and barnyard animals.
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Sophie at the Groundswell Regenerative Agriculture Festival on July 1.
The Duchess has long been a champion for farming and food production. She has been a supporter of Britain’s annual farming day since 2016, working closely with Linking Environment And Farming (LEAF) as its honorary president to connect teenagers with career opportunities in the food sector. In 2023, she participated in a workshop for teenagers at the School of Sustainable Food and Farming and opened the organization’s first school at Brockhill Park Performing Arts College in Kent, which partners with a local farm to bring food production into the curriculum. She has also served as patron of the Addington Fund since 2021, a charity that supports farmers and their families in times of financial crisis, and in 2023 visited a dairy farm in Gloucestershire to meet farmers and hear firsthand about the pressures facing those on the front lines of food production.
“Much of our nation’s attention is focussed on our more populated settings, and the understanding of what our rural industries contribute is often scant,” she writes, “yet we could not survive without this important sector of our national framework.”
Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at @rk.passport.
