Farm manager John Bishop has worked at Rushall Farm since 1974, not long after completing a degree in Agriculture at Reading University. He formed the John Simonds Trust for Education in 1984 to promote a love and understanding of the countryside. Each school visit is individually tailored to meet the national curriculum requirements of the pupils.

The farm also hosts a range of open days throughout the year including special lambing days and bluebell walks in the spring. John has won various awards including the Berkshire Farming and Conservation Award and being named 'Farm Visitor champion' in 2006 by the South East of England Development Agency.

• What do you do? How would you describe your business?
  I'm the farm manager at Rushall Farm and managing trustee of the John Simonds Trust for Education in the countryside. We have 800 ewes, 45 suckler cows, 300 acres of combinable crops and 100 acres of ancient woodlands - 960 acres in all.

• Where in the UK is your business located?
  5 miles off junction 12 on the M4.

• Can you give a short history of how you got to where you are now, including why and when you 'went organic'?
  I've always been interested in sustainable systems and did a lot of work using high clover leys in the 1990s. I went organic in 2000 as it was the only system that could enable us to continue farming.

• Can you describe a typical day in your life?
  It varies enormously according to the time of year, it could be shearing sheep, mending water leaks or carting corn. Last Christmas we spent time getting ready for the 1,400 people who came to a Christmas Eve service in the barn.

• Who are your customers and where are they?
  We supply a small retail outlet at Abingdon on the owner's farm and a local farm shop - also Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose and M&S. People buying our products locally often have a direct association with the farm through our visits. This year 9,000 school children have visited the farm plus another 12,000 people on open days.

• Organic principles – why do they matter?
  They embrace sustainable food production, human and animal health and long term viability for land, water and other natural resources.

• What does the Soil Association mean to you?
  We were previously with Organic Farmers & Growers as our certifying body - the Soil Association goes beyond certification to provide an excellent support service for producers and campaigns vigorously for the high profile position that organic farming should occupy for the well-being of people in this country.

• What is your greatest achievement?
  Setting up the John Simonds Trust.

• How do you plan to progress in the future? What is your vision?
  Having been awarded Farm Visitor Champion in 2006 we plan to ensure people keep coming onto farms and ensure they go away with a genuine understanding of the value of the countryside and farmers.

• If you were starting all over again, what would you do differently?
  Gone organic 10 years earlier.

• What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
  Don't let anyone get you down!

• Who or what is your biggest inspiration?
  God.

• What is the key to your success?
  Knowing that people matter.

• What do you love most about what you do?
  Being able to enjoy the freedom and beauty of the countryside.

• What keeps you awake at night?
  Sheep, cows, people, the weather!

• What single thing would most improve your life?
  Less paperwork.

• What do you find most frustrating about what you do?
  The fact that farming currently works in such a depressed climate.

• How can the organic market be improved?
  By improving the local networks of abattoirs, processors and retail outlets.

• How can we get more people to buy organic?
  By showing people what we produce and how we produce it.

• What's the main benefit of being organic for you?
  The farm is viable unit - just!

• Supermarkets – good or bad?
  Absolutely necessary in the current climate.

• What is the biggest threat to what you do?
  Being able to source skilled labour in an area which is very affluent with high house prices.

• What's the best thing about organic farms?
  Each one is unique with systems that are appropriate to that situation. It is not prescriptive farming, it's long term and needs working out.

• What's the best thing about organic food?
  It's the safest food you can buy.

• What is your favourite meal?
  Organic beef casserole.

• If I was Prime Minister I would...
  Buy a peerage as quickly as possible.

• The world would be a better place if...
  Parents did their job.

• I'd like to be remembered for...
  Being kind.

• When were you happiest?
  At university.

• What is your greatest fear?
  Letting people who trust me down!

• What is your favourite word?
  We rather than I.

• What would be your 'Desert Island' luxury?
  My diary.

• Is the customer always right?
  They have to be.