Is it a case that the RASE is damned if it does, and damned if it doesn’t?
Is it better that it cancels an event which is likely to lose more money rather than ploughing on with it regardless?
Or will many people just see it as another indictment of an organisation that is out of touch and has lost its way?
The news that it and its event partner the Royal Smithfield Club have taken the decision to cancel this year’s AgriLive event will have come as a shock to some.
Launched last year, it was perhaps quieter than many would have liked, yet it was a good attempt to provide a technical and showing event for the red meat industry.
But for trade exhibitors and sponsors, finding money to attend and support additional events – and new ones at that – was always going to be difficult at a time of tight budgets.
The RASE is adamant the event cancellation is for different reasons to those which afflicted the Royal Show, and it is adamant that it is being sensible and realistic about its future role. It is to be hoped that it will find a role supporting and championing agriculture, and that it will embrace its motto of Science into Practice, producing useful, leading edge thinking for the UK’s farmers.
The RASE’s future aside, the cancellation of another show leads to wider questions. Shows are increasingly having to employ professionals rather than volunteers to deal with escalating health and safety issues, increasing costs. That is never a good thing for show societies which have often existed on the goodwill of volunteers.
Yet they are one of the most effective tools we have for showing other farmers, and the public, what we do. The day we lose that opportunity would be a sad one – but with financial reality biting, it’s a very real prospect for many events.
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