Local Foods

'As consumers we can act ... by thinking more about what we buy and where it's from - more local, seasonal food, for example.'
Rt Hon Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs,
10 December 2008

Why local food matters to CPRE

Sustainable local foods, such as England's speciality farmhouse cheeses, distinctive apple varieties and locally reared meat, can help reconnect us with farmers and producers and give us real choices about the food we eat, the way it is produced and its impact on the countryside.

Local foods can:

Encourage a more sustainable use of land, by promoting more environmentally friendly farming methods and linking the production of food to the landscape
Reduce the traffic congestion, noise and pollution - including climate-changing carbon dioxide emissions caused by transporting produce, because local foods have low food mileage
Create jobs that help ensure the long-term health of local rural economies - through the production and retailing of food, through the creation of 'value-added' products, by ensuring more money is kept in the local economy and through demand for secondary services
Link shoppers with farmers and improve access to fresh, healthy produce
Attract tourists to vibrant communities, which become recognised and valued for the food they produce and sell

CPRE wants better promotion and protection of the local foods sector.

What you can do

You can make a difference through the following actions:

1. Buy local foods

Buy local products direct from farmers' markets and other markets. Most farmers' markets require stall holders to have grown, bred, caught, pickled, brewed or baked the goods themselves and to have come from a defined radius close to the market. The National Association of Farmers' Markets has lists of markets on its website. or find local food producers via the Big Barn website

2. Encourage others to buy local foods

Contact local retailers, restaurateurs, office cafeterias, schools and supermarkets to encourage them to source and market locally produced goods. Any that do should be encouraged to advertise the fact. Examine the food/catering purchasing policy of your local council and other major employers and encourage them to support local food distribution and marketing networks.

Friends of the Peak District's 'Peak Eating' campaign promotes and supports local food networks in the Peak District National Park.

3. Make it easier for people to buy local foods

Work with others to create a local food directory if there isn't one in your area. CPRE Peak District and South Yorkshire prepared a local food directory which is free in local libraries and food shops.

4. Help set up a farmers market in your area - more and more people are doing it across this country. While it may seem a daunting task, the National Association of Farmers' Markets can give you guidance on how to do this.

5. Carry out a CPRE Mapping Local Food Webs survey, to find out how much locally supplied food the shops near you stock, and how this contributes to the health of other local services. Mapping the local food web in East Suffolk helped bring about a planning decision to reject the building of a new superstore...and local foods are now thriving in the area. CPRE have a new campaign to map local food webs in every region. In the East Midlands projects have taken place in Leicester and currently in Newark and Louth. Click here for more details.

Funding secures local foods project in Northamptonshire

CPRE Northamptonshire's bid for £5,000 of Grassroots funding has been approved by the Northamptonshire Community Foundation.

The new project, called 'Buy Local, Eat Local', is an outreach awareness and fact finding project aimed at local people. It raises understanding of the importance of local food and find out how people can be encouraged to buy more locally produced food.

The project runs from October 2009 to August 2010.

The project will build on the success of our recent FoodMiles Primary Education Pack that is helping to build awareness with school children and it will complement the current Buy Local Foods Awards scheme that celebrates local food suppliers and supporters.

As part of the project the branch is conducting a survey, talking directly with local people, and this will be used to inform the next steps in its work to support local foods in Northamptonshire.

Sally Hanrahan
CPRE Northamptonshire

'Outlook' number 22, Autumn 2009 edition
the newsletter of CPRE Northamptonshire

Food security an a beautiful countryside: two sides of the same coin

CPRE today welcomed the recognition in the Government's new food strategy, ‘Food 2030', of the vital role of the countryside in the future well being of the nation, but cautioned against a return to environmentally damaging intensive farming.

‘We have consistently urged that the countryside should be valued not only as the source of our food but also for its beauty and tranquillity. CPRE's recent vision reaffirms our call for a future countryside that is both productive and beautiful,' said Ian Woodhurst, CPRE's farming campaigner.

However, in the past, intensive production methods destroyed much of the character of our landscapes along with important wildlife habitats.

‘A lot of public money has been spent on undoing the damage caused by the mistakes of the past, for example when hedgerows were ripped out in the name of producing more and more food. A rush to introduce new agricultural technologies, such as genetically modified crops, must avoid such damage which would be costly and difficult to reverse.

‘A new "Golden Age" for agriculture will require investment in both agricultural research and green farming schemes so we can continue to enjoy a beautiful countryside alongside sustainable supplies of food.' Ian Woodhurst continued.

CPRE also welcomed Government proposals to help consumers buy more local and seasonal food to reduce its environmental foot print. One of the aims of CPRE's Mapping Local Food Webs project is to identify how this could be achieved.

Ian Woodhurst concluded, ‘Farmers can benefit economically from the increasing consumer interest in local foods and food quality but for farmers to remain economically viable it is important to ensure the power of the supermarkets is controlled.'

Lincolnshire children don their gardening gloves

CPRE Northern Lincolnshire has successfully obtained funding for an exciting new project called Let's Grow, encouraging local children to grow their own food. Thanks to the group's £2,000 grant through the LEADER programme, children at 10 rural primary schools in North and North East Lincolnshire will be starting to grow fruit and vegetables as well as plants that attract wildlife.

The branch is working closely with other organisations in order to make the project as big a success as possible:

As part of its funding bid, CPRE teamed up with a local garden centre which agreed to donate all the seeds and plant pots needed for Let's Grow
The neighbourhood serices team at North Lincolnshire Council is helping with any heavy digging and other similar jobs required at the schools that take part, on top of its usual remit of maintaining school grounds
Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust is lending a hand too, tailoring its programme of workshops at local schools so they fit in with Let's Grow
The local paper is very supportive and has already run a full-page article on the scheme.

Each school has received 2 sets of child-sized gardening tools, 20 pairs of gloves, 60 plant pots, a huge variety of fruit and vegetable seeds as well as seed potatoes and buddleia plants, compost, and watering cans.

The project started in February 2010 and ends in July.

The branch was also keen that pupils learn more about the benefits of local food. It's distributing CPRE Northamptonshire's food miles education pack in the primary schools and will run workshops on te subject.

Another part of the bid was encouraging inter-generational activities, so children will be encouraged to involve their parents and grandparents in what they are doing, too.

Through Let's Grow, the branch will help young people understand the processes of nature and how plants grown, encouraging them to appreciate and protect the rural environment.

Reproduced with permission from the April 2010 edition of Fieldwork, CPRE's member newsletter

Fiona Cowan
13 May 2010