CHEESEMAKER Mary Quicke MBE has been elected president of the Devon County Agricultural Association 2012 and the Honorable George Lopes president-elect.

Each year the association organises the the three-day Devon County Show at Westpoint in Exeter.

Mrs Quicke, who is the managing director of Quickes Traditional Cheeses at Newton St Cyres, said: 'I want it to be a great big party, but a party with a purpose, and that is to celebrate farming and food — an extraordinary industry that has extraordinary value, not only in providing us with food but in making sure that we have a planet that works.

'The show is a chance to demonstrate that we're up for it, as food producers and as custodians of the countryside, and to help point towards some of the ways forward.'