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Relocalising the food chain: Why it matters and how to do it

May 25, 2018

Relocalising the food chain: Why it matters and how to do it

One of the positive aspects of Britain’s departure from the EU is that it has sparked off a debate on the future of UK farming, requiring us to question fundamental assumptions. Should we see food as a commodity for export, or to feed ourselves? What counts as a public good? And can we restructure our food system in a way that meets more of our needs – nutritional, social and cultural?

It’s hard to escape the growing interest in local food over the past few decades. Whether it’s restaurants boasting fresh, local produce on their menus, the rise in farmers’ markets and farm shops or the growth of box schemes such as Riverford, it’s clear that people value food that comes with a story. Even supermarkets have noticed, as Morrisons credits soaring demand for regional produce for its healthy profits last year. In order to understand the movement better, and to see where it might be headed, it is worth exploring the motivations behind it.

For there is more to ‘local’ than meets the eye. After all, nobody gets excited about eating bacon from the local intensive pig unit or white sliced bread from the in-store bakery at the supermarket. Instead the term is shorthand for a vision of food characterized by small-scale farming and growing, heritage breeds, artisan processing, family businesses and traditional skills.

It is also about self-reliance and ‘taking back control’, in the sense of using what grows locally with a minimum of inputs and rejecting globalization. It is about a sense of connection, which we have traded in for the convenience of the modern food industry, but with mixed feelings, as the Food Standards Authority’s report Good Food for All notes.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Seeds and the Commons

April 19, 2018

Seeds and the Commons

Global seed reserves are under serious threat. The recent ‘Baysanto’ merger is just another indication of the systematic consolidation of the seed market in the hands of a few select multi-national corporations. At present, over 75% of the global seed trade is controlled by just ten companies. This is not news and the Sustainable Food Trust has reported at length on the state of the world’s seeds and the innovative projects and movements which have emerged in response to this.

One such organisation is OpenSourceSeeds (OSS). By equipping plant breeders and propagators with a free, open-source licence for the seeds they breed, they provide the necessary legal protection to prevent the patenting of the seed by other parties. This is about protecting seeds from privatisation and consequent market consolidation, and reframing seed as a common good.

Comprised of activists, agronomists, lawyers and plant breeders, OSS has origins in the Association for AgriCulture and Ecology (Agrecol), a German NGO which supports organic and sustainable agriculture and rural development in the Global South. In the US, the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) works to similar ends, aiming to bring seeds back into common ownership by creating a pledge for breeders – this is, however, not legally binding like the OSS seed license, but the two organisations work closely together on this issue.

With a commitment to agroecology, OSS advocates for diversified agriculture and farming strategies which manage to meet the needs of a growing global population whilst protecting the Earth’s natural resources. Despite the fact that we know of over 50,000 edible plant species, currently 90% of human calorific intake across the globe is supplied by just 15 crop varieties.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The hidden cost of UK food: Is malnutrition a national scandal?

March 30, 2018

The hidden cost of UK food: Is malnutrition a national scandal?

According to the WHO, world hunger is on the rise again due to conflict and climate change, after falling for the previous decade. In a report published September 2017, it estimated that 815 million people were suffering from hunger, more than one in every ten people globally, 98% of whom are found in developing countries.

However, while hunger is a prevalent form of malnutrition in developing countries, malnourishment can also be found far closer to home, here in the UK, where its impact is significant and increasing. NHS England calls malnutrition a “common problem”, affecting millions of people in the UK. It is largely a concern for those with long-term health issues that affect appetite, people who are socially isolated and with limited mobility, and most commonly, the elderly. Following a study undertaken by the Office of National Statistics, which showed that 391 people died in the UK from malnutrition in 2015, former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron called it a, “national scandal that anyone is being admitted to hospital from malnutrition.” So, what is really is to blame for such high rates of the condition, in one of the world’s richest nations?

‘Malnutrition’ means, literally, ‘poor nutrition’ and technically it can refer to over-nutrition – getting more nutrients than you need, as well as under-nutrition – not getting enough nutrients or an inadequate balance of nutrients. In the UK the available statistics for malnutrition relate only to under-nutrition, hence our focus on this issue in the Sustainable Food Trust’s recently published report, The Hidden Cost of UK Food.

Drawing on published research, the report calculated that malnutrition costs the country approximately £17 billion annually. This includes the cost of treating malnourished people in hospitals and long-term care facilities, GP visits and outpatient appointments. In general, rates of malnutrition are not due to a shortage of food per se, but to a range of complex issues which include increased consumption of processed foods and reduced preparation of meals from fresh primary ingredients, part of which relates to low incomes and part of which relates to poor nutritional education and/or the lack of adequate food preparation facilities.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

First it was fake farms, now fake bakeries?

February 27, 2018

First it was fake farms, now fake bakeries?

The practice of creating a brand name to conjure up in shoppers’ minds an idyllic, but entirely fictional, farm is the favoured sleight of hand of many supermarket retailers. It encourages customers to think, for example, of pigs snuffling around leafy fields instead of the far more harrowing steel and concrete reality of a crowded meat factory. While these activities have been roundly condemned and criticised, with the NFU even filing a formal complaint against one chain, they still persist.

In January this year, a British supermarket withdrew its own-brand, ‘everyday value’, wrapped, sliced loaf. In its place, at a similar price point of around 40p, is a near-identical loaf, marketed under the brand name ‘H W Nevill’. It made me wonder if the supermarket in question is now attempting to use a fake bakery name to convince shoppers to part with their dough? After all, its so-called ‘value’ loaf received no stars in a 2013 Guardian taste test, with the reviewer commenting that “the dough is awful, sour and claggy”, so perhaps it needed an image makeover.

Ex-bakery

On its website, the retailer boasts that, “back in 1872, Henry William Nevill founded his first bakery and started a proud baking tradition. Almost 150 years later, our hero bakers take their craft just as seriously as Henry did. Using only quality ingredients, they work through the night to create delicious bakery favourites for the whole family to enjoy.”

I decided to do a bit of digging around and found that Nevill did indeed begin as an independent company, with bakeries in Herne Hill, Acton and Leytonstone. But that was a long time ago. In the middle of the last century, it was gobbled up by industrial milling and baking giant Allied Bakeries, later to become Associated British Foods (ABF), now an even bigger behemoth that also owns Primark.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Flavour of Good Farming

January 26, 2018

The Flavour of Good Farming

Earlier this month, I was at the Oxford Real Farming Conference, where I was thrilled to be immersed in lively discussion about the power of sustainable food production systems to change the world for the better. Real farming holds the promise to restore lost biodiversity to the rural landscape, preserve critically endangered breeds, sequester carbon, reduce exposure of plants and animals to antimicrobials, pesticides and antibiotics, and secure the future health and vitality of the soil.

But there was one important element missing, and for a conference all about better food production, it was particularly striking. Flavour was absent from the discussion.

The sustainable food movement’s relationship with gastronomic considerations is problematic. No one would deny that ecologically and morally reprehensible farming systems can be optimised to provide hyper-palatable, nutritionally-bereft foods whose only appeal – other than its cheapness – is to the brain’s natural proclivity for the compelling combination of salt, sugar and fat. At the other end of the economic spectrum, haute gastronomic culture, with its £1000 bottles of wine, smacks uncomfortably of elitism.

But hiding within this emotional tangle is an opportunity to re-valorise farming that is ecologically scrupulous, biodiversity-enhancing and demanding of exemplary animal welfare through a conversation about great flavour. Critically, this is a strategy to extend the attraction of these farming systems and their potential social impact far beyond the realm of already-converted eco-warriors. If we care about increasing the reach of sustainable farming, it is our moral duty to address, and ultimately bridge, this rift between the sustainable food movement and the importance of flavour.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Honeybees: A holistic perspective on a superorganism

January 2, 2018

Honeybees: A holistic perspective on a superorganism

It is a great privilege to call myself a beekeeper. Having bees in my life, constantly reminds me to notice the sheer wonder of the world around me and often leaves me with a visceral sense of my place within this world. Honeybees have seen a dramatic rise in public awareness and beekeeping has exponentially increased in popularity, however the mindset of industrial farming is still alarmingly prevalent in beekeeping practice, and how it is discussed and taught to the next generation of beekeepers.

I trained as a beekeeper about 10 years ago, and when I started I had already completed training as an organic grower. As I studied beekeeping, I was alarmed at the similarities between the methods I was being taught and the mindset of industrial farming. I was unsettled by some of the practices that seemed to be very common. Routine use of miticide within the hive, routine disturbance of the nest space, routine suppression of reproduction and routine sugar feeding, all seemed at odds with what I had learnt as an organic grower. A defining moment was a visit to a teaching apiary to inspect the bees. We opened the hives and carefully checked through the brood nest, the area where the young bees are developing, if we found any developing queens we would kill them. Our presence obviously disturbed the bees who defended their nest space, in hive after hive that we opened, by attacking us. The bees were clearly communicating the threat they felt and I was struck by the violence of this process which was charged with conflict – even putting on the beekeeper’s suit had the feel of preparing for battle. There was a clear cognitive dissonance between this experience and my imagined harmony between beekeeper and bees.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Has ‘organic’ been stripped of its meaning?

February 1, 2016

Has ‘organic’ been stripped of its meaning?

The term ‘organic’ has come to be understood by most consumers as ‘grown without synthetic chemicals’, which to most people’s surprise, does not always mean that farming practices are sustainable. The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platformdefines sustainable agriculture as “the efficient production of safe, high quality agricultural products, in a way that protects and improves the natural environment, the social and economic conditions of farmers, their employees and local communities, and safeguards the health and welfare of all farmed species.”

Yet some organic farmers are participating in farming practices that, while still compliant with organic regulations, are not reflective of the sustainable farming practices and values on which organic agriculture was originally premised. Environmental damage, inefficient nutrient utilisation, heavy reliance on input substitution for pest and weed management, high energy use, limited cropping rotations and collapse of farmer co-operatives have been reported on organic farms spanning countries across the globe, including the Netherlands, Egypt, China and Brazil.

Some researchers argue that the rapid increase of international trade in organic products has resulted in complex regulatory systems that inadvertently lock out small-scale producers, particularly in developing countries, to market access and trade. Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) offer an alternative organic certification scheme that puts sustainability and small-scale producers back at the fore of organic production.

Shifts in organic agriculture

The organic agriculture movement began as a sustainable and fair alternative to industrial food production. Through its creation of alternative models of production, distribution and consumption, organic production prioritised sustainable practices that maintained a positive impact on biodiversity and resource conservation through small-scale production, crop diversification and the minimisation of external inputs. This organic system was embedded in local co-operative markets in which farmers and consumers actively participated, creating transparency and consumer trust.

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From grower to grocer: Building community food systems

January 19, 2016

From grower to grocer: Building community food systems

Across the UK the food sovereignty movement is growing. A budding plethora of networks are challenging the current corporate control of the food system and sowing the seeds of structured community food chains and holistic food economies.

What roles do these small food chains and alternative distribution networks play within the UK food sovereignty movement? And what further collaborations between the ground, the grower and the grocer are there to be cultivated and nourished?

Setting up shop       

In 2001, a number of organisations came together to generate The People’s Food Sovereignty Statement which in part, calls for the development of “local food economies based on local production and processing, and the development of local food outlets.” Within this framework The New Leaf Co-op, a whole-food store and workers co-operative in Edinburgh, of which I am a founding member, is one example of a growing network of small businesses that are seeking ways to connect spade and spoon.

The New Leaf Co-op

Consumer and worker food co-ops, markets and online food distribution hubs are cropping up around the UK. Their aim is to satisfy an increasing demand, from both producers and communities of eaters, to make accessible fairly grown, fairly traded and fairly priced local produce.

Under a food sovereignty framework, these small-scale grassroot outlets prioritise working with equally small-scale growers and producers (both locally and further afield), independent wholesalers and co-operative food networks.

Getting to market

The food sovereignty movement advocates for democratic control of an agroecological food system by the communities who grow, produce, trade and eat food. Small-scale food economies cannot compete with agribusiness, supermarket conglomerates and the industrialised food system – nor does it aim to. Often unable – and in many cases unwilling – to meet the terms, conditions and pricing demands of supermarkets, co-op, hubs and online distribution networks provide a much more accessible and fairer way for small producers to sell their goods.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Inspiration through practice: How to start a regenerative farm

October 14, 2015

Inspiration through practice: How to start a regenerative farm

Digging ditches and planting trees across the middle of your fields? Most farmers would think you’re mad. But Nigel Griffiths is a man on a mission and not afraid to challenge farming orthodoxy. A year ago he moved to the 30-acre Landews Meadow Farm on the North Kent Downs and started by investing in a wind turbine – the first step in his vision of a sustainable self-reliant farm.

Nigel and his family began farming with no previous experience. They were inspired by what they heard on a permaculture course and by examples from Mark Shepard of New Forest Farm and Joel Salatin of Polyface farms. A year on, they are producing high quality free-range eggs, woodland-raised rare breed pork, pasture-raised chicken and duck, and honey. More products are lined up for the future. This type of ‘regenerative’ agriculture aims to increase and sustain productivity by restoring and enhancing ecosystem processes – in contrast to most modern farming systems, which rely on external inputs. Within the context of organic farming, regenerative agriculture is designed specifically to build soil health and to regenerate depleted soils. With increasing awareness of widespread land degradation, more farmers are realising that the health and productivity of their farms rely on soil fertility and they are seeking methods to address this.

To hear more about Landews Meadow and the example it sets, I went on the Regenerative Agriculture Start-up – Systems, Processes, Sales and Marketing workshop and farm tour organised by RegenAg UK. The organisation was set up in 2011 to connect experts in regenerative practices from around the world as well as around Britain with farmers and smallholders across the country. It runs a range of courses and events about soil health and farming methods, which are accessible for the expert and novice alike.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Agriculture beyond water

June 30, 2015

Agriculture beyond water

Drought is becoming more prevalent and causing havoc for food producers around the globe. Many regions have been hit by severe water scarcity over the past few years and this trend seems set to continue.

New data from NASA shows how the world is running out of water, with more than half of the earth’s largest aquifers being depleted. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that by 2020, upwards of half a billion people worldwide will be facing water stress, while US scientists are predicting an historic mega-drought unless we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. But droughts don’t only mean a shortage of water, they also lead to a shortage of food. With many farmers already experiencing crop failures, what can be done to ensure a sustainable food supply and avoid a food security crisis?

Below are just a few examples of what is happening around the world right now, and gives an indication of the scale of the problem.

California

California is in the midst of a devastating four-year drought. It follows a decade of below average rainfalls and all indications are that this is set to continue. In addition, groundwater sources are being drained by deeper and deeper drilling. An aquifer beneath the Central Valley is now being tapped by more than 100,000 wells. Measures have been brought in to curtail consumption and some farmers have agreed to cut water use voluntarily by 25% in order to avoid further restrictions. But is California doing enough?New laws forcing water agencies to prevent overuse of groundwater have a planning period of six to eight years and a much longer period before meaningful action will take place – by which time there may be little groundwater left.

 

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