TOOLKIT
LOCAL FOOD
The following Toolkit has been designed in collaboration with our patron, the UK TV chef and food writer Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
In many ways, food provides the most direct interaction between people and the planet. It is also an area in which, as consumers, we have perhaps the greatest power to effect change, purely through the shopping patterns we adopt. If we shop solely at supermarkets, even if we are buying organic produce, we are always contributing to 'food miles', the 'embodied energy' that has gone into the processing, packaging and transport.
Alternatively, if we try and source much of our food locally, closing the gap between producer and consumer, we not only reduce 'food miles' and our Ecological Footprint (EF), but support the local economy rather than the corporate global casino. We are also more likely to have a much better level of nutrition, since it will be fresh, seasonal and not in need of chemical preservatives. So, as always, the basic rule is, 'Think Global, Act Local'.
A variety of initiatives facilitate this process. For example, the UK Soil Association can provide you with a directory of organic box schemes and other local initiatives in your area, from farm shops to Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) schemes.
Farmers markets have been springing up in the US for some years, allowing direct communication between producer and consumer. Since its UK birth in Bath, the movement has spread throughout the country. The ethos of farmers' markets is that growers and artisan producers are selling direct to their local public. So in terms of accountability and transparency there's no better way to shop. This is particularly reassuring when you are buying meat - and in complete contrast to the supermarket meat buying experience, where trustworthy information about farm animal welfare, husbandry and feed regimes is almost impossible to come by.
East Anglia Food Link offers training courses for farmers and community organisations in setting up local, direct and co-operative organic food schemes and publishes a Farmers Market toolkit and Eco-op '99, which includes case-studies of initiatives across Europe that link co-operative and green practices.