Feeding Manchester October 2009 Kath Dalmeny Policy Director of Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming ( Also Trustee of Growing Communities (

…CAMPAIGN for standards for food, and food education …HELP BUSINESSES to use more sustainable food …RAISE AWARENESS of food and climate change …BUILD NETWORKS to share experience and support …DO RESEARCH into food, health and sustainability …HELP GOVERNMENT develop food strategies and policy This is what we do at Sustain… …CAMPAIGN to get new legislation to drive change …HELP COMMUNITIES take back control of their food

Figure: Greenhouse gas emissions from the food chain, shown in relation to total UK greenhouse gas emissions (Food Climate Research Network, 2007) Greenhouse gas emissions from UK food consumption

Biomass of fish in 1990

Biomass of fish in 1999

Fairness in the supply chain

Self-sufficiency Self-sufficiency ratios for a sample of commodities Defra (2006) Fig 6-2, p 34

Use local and seasonal ingredients Support environmentally friendly farming (e.g. organic) Eat more plants; eat less meat, grown to higher standards Eat only sustainable fish Choose Fairtrade-certified products Avoid bottled water Promote health and well-being - cook with generous portions of vegetables, fruit and starchy staples, cutting out the junk. And of course, don’t forget energy, water and waste… What is sustainable food?

Use the power of the public purse Change mainstream food Build supportive local and national policy Help communities take control Get organised How do we bring about change?

1 in every 3 meals eaten outside the home are in publicly funded institutions (schools, hospitals, care homes, etc.); and 1 in 4 people is employed in the public sector, so has tremendous influence. Why isn’t all of our money (£2.2 billion per year) being spent on healthy and sustainable food, served by well trained staff? At the Royal Brompton Hospital, London, 24% of food purchased is local, from an organic source, and a healthier choice Use the power of the public purse

9 LEAs already use MSC logo on menu (Norfolk, Herts, Tower Hamlets, Surrey, Coventry, Havering, Vale of Glamorgan, Cardiff, Cheshire) Nearly 2,000 schools participating Over 570,000 children offered sustainable seafood regularly Sustainable fish in schools…

Change mainstream food

The problems

Communities taking control

Community food work Set up to address social or environmental need: Values driven Heavily reliant on local skills and facilities, and voluntary labour Can be supported or blocked by local policy on e.g. land / funds One way or another, having to face up to “the money thing” Service deliveryTradingGrant funding How can community food projects become sustainable* and contribute to resilience? Especially when they are…. * In the broadest sense of the word – long-lasting, but also economically, environmentally and socially sustainable.

OrganicLea: Hornbeam Centre Cookery classes and farm visits Service delivery Bridport Centre for Local Food Pumpkins on Prescription!

Communities and producers trading directly share more of the value (and values!) Trading

Trading: Growing Communities

 Growing Communities’ box scheme supplies fruit and veg to 484 households across Hackney providing sustainably produced fruit and veg to over 1,000 people in our community every week.  The box scheme and farmers’ market together provide a key outlet for 44 small-scale farmers and producers who are local and organic. This includes 4 food producers from our immediate area: our newest producer is Hatice Trugrul who makes traditional Turkish pancakes, using organic ingredients from farmers at the market.  75% of the veg and 24% of the fruit supplied by our box scheme came directly from local farms while 59% of our fruit and 81% of our vegetables are fairly traded. 780 bags of fruit and vegetables are packed each week – over 96 tonnes annually. The average distance travelled by producers to the market is 56 miles.  Over 1,500 people shop at the market every Saturday. 94% of customers at the market walk, cycle or take public transport to get to the market. Annual turnover of producers at the market is nearly £500,000.  Salad production from our sites reached 260 bags per week this year. Yields were the equivalent of 24 tonnes per hectare per year and we generated just over £8,800 from sales of Hackney grown produce – from a total land area of 0.5 of an acre.  The turnover of the organisation as a whole for last year was around £330, % of that income was self-generated. We employ 18 part-time staff. 80 volunteers worked with us over the last year along with 2 apprentice growers.  In July 2008 we introduced a Pensioners’ discount for the box scheme. We already accept Healthy Start vouchers which allow people on low incomes to get discounted veg or fruit bags. 30% of people joining the box scheme considered themselves to be on a low income. At Growing Communities, we monitor our Key Principles to see what we are achieving over the course of each year. Here are some of our results for What Growing Communities is achieving

Growing Communities Food Zones

Patchwork Farm Apprentice Scheme Starter Farms Growing Communities: next steps Replication…

We need to back it up with (here are just a few examples): land use and planning policy, protecting food growing land (and requiring it for new homes), and retail diversity public procurement policy buying sustainable food training a ‘green collar’ army in horticulture, food trading building distribution infrastructure that can work with less (or no) oil sharing models that work telling permanent stories about mutuality, resilience and trading Supportive local and national policy People growing their own food is great. People running social enterprises trading food is even better. Communities, and farmers, can make a good living that protects the environment Local food strategies can help…

Capital Growth: Food Climate Research Network: Food Co-ops: Growing Communities: London Food Link: Making Local Food Work: [Social enterprise support; Models of good practice; Research, evidence and evaluation; Governance training; Support or advice to set up food co-ops, Country Markets, co-operative farmers’ markets] Real Bread Campaign: Sustain: Sustainable food guidelines: Find out more…