Consumer health trends, the impact of GLP-1 drugs and connecting classrooms with farmers

January 7, 2026·39 min·3 clips

AHDB's Kate Arthur reports that 49% of UK teenage girls have low iron intakes and 9% have clinically diagnosed iron deficiency anemia — while 17% don't consume enough calcium during the bone-building years.

A Christmas tree opens the gate. The presenters begin with New Year chat, a half-serious note about lingering tinsel, and the reminder that new episodes arrive Wednesday at midday. Then the food discussion starts. January gives them a reason to ask why people want healthier habits but still hit barriers when they try to change. The tone stays practical. Vanessa and Kate come in later in the nutrition thread, and the closing remarks return to food, health, and access. Cost matters here. The episode treats GLP-1 rollout as something worth watching, especially if access depends on criteria and on when the price stops being such a barrier. Then grass gets its turn. Emily Udall reports forage analysis with 12.6 ME, 22% dry matter, and 19.7 crude protein as the latest contributor average. The aim is simple enough: keep average farm cover right and hold that grass quality through the season. Farmer Tom brings the most human part. Asked whether children feel disconnected from food production, he says people have never been more divorced from where food comes from. It works because he gives the other side too. Public interest is high, from smallholding to fermentation, even as living family links to farming are now rare outside farming circles. Farmer Time sits in that gap. The charity connects farmers, teachers, and classes through video calls across the farming year, bringing the farm into the classroom screen. The episode lets the contradiction breathe: low working knowledge, high curiosity, and a simple way for farmers to meet classrooms where they already are.

As heard by us

A grounded food and farming listen that sticks with cost, time, and how people learn where food comes from.

This episode keeps its eye on consumer health and the familiar drag of cost and time before turning to Farmer Time, the charity that links farmers and classes through video calls across the farming year. That shift gives the conversation a clear center.

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Why you'd press play

A calm look at why healthy habits stall, and how food education fits into the picture.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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