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Sent: 17 November 2008 16:52
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Subject: Making Local Food Work Autumn Newsletter
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http://www.makinglocalfoodwork.co.uk Autumn Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the Autumn edition of the Making Local Food Work newsletter. We’re now
into the programme’s second year and so, without further ado, here is the latest about what we’ve
been doing this quarter:

Food Co-ops Fact-Finding Trip to Dublin

As part of the Food Co-ops and Buying Groups strand an exchange visit was arranged to Dublin Food Co-
op in September. The visit was attended by 12 representatives from food co-ops and other community-run
food initiatives from all over England, including Food Chain North East, Ipswich Ripple Food Co-op,
Stroudco, Holbeck Food Enterprise in Leeds, Croydon Food Link and Chelsea Theatre Food Co-op, as
well by groups hoping to set up new food co-ops. Dublin Food Co-op has been running since 1983 and has
over 1000 members. It runs weekly food markets on Thursdays and Saturdays, with stalls providing locally
grown fruit and vegetable and other fresh produce, home-made foods, organic wholefoods and other
products for sustainable living. It is owned by it members who participate in running the market and also
get a discount for working on the help rota. The two day trip also included talks and visits to other food-
related and environmental projects all around Dublin including Sitric Community Composting Garden,
Temple Bar Food Market, FEASTA and the Cultivate centre.
Common themes for Farmers’ Markets either side of the Atlantic
Representatives of the farmers’ market team presented an overview of the farmers’ market project to
delegates on the first day of the FARMA (National Farmers’ Retail and Markets Association) conference
held in Newcastle 9 – 12 November.

The overall aims of the Making Local Food Work programme were outlined, as well as giving delegates
specific information about the support that will be given through the farmers’ market project. The
importance of forming organisations that are capable surviving for the long-term was highlighted as being
particularly important in the current economic climate.

Garry Stephenson of Oregon State University had talked earlier in the day about the importance of
community involvement to the success of farmers’ markets. Garry, with his colleague Larry Lev, presented
research conducted by their team in the USA. Their findings echoed the vision of the Making Local Food
Work programme: Community Enterprise, linking land and people through food.

October Event
14th October saw the first ever get-together for all the staff employed on the Making Local Food Work
programme. More than 40 people from distribution schemes in the South West to CSA projects in the North
East and support staff from all six partner organisations networked and explored the vision, values and
strategic direction of the programme.
Following positive feedback and overwhelming demand from the delegates, another event is planned for
2009, this time with more of a focus on the projects, their different enterprise models and opportunities for
collaboration.

Mapping Local Food Webs Update

We all know that local food matters. It connects people to the land and countryside nearest to them. It
supports farmers and producers in supplying good, healthy food that people can trust. It can create jobs,
vitalise and regenerate places, and help healthy eating. It is associated with traditional management of the
countryside and the wider environment, with benefits for landscape character. Local food webs make it
possible to continue supplying local food as well as supporting a whole host of social, economic and
environmental benefits to the local area and people and places within it.

The mapping local food webs project will give people the tools and knowledge to safeguard their local food
webs – and help expand them by identifying local needs and opportunities. The project builds on the work
of Caroline Cranbrook, a CPRE volunteer who pioneered work into the understanding of how local food
networks – or ‘food webs’ – offer greater consumer choice, sustain communities, and safeguard local
landscapes. CPRE is developing Caroline’s ideas into a national mapping project in partnership with two
universities and Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming.

CPRE are working with researchers from Coventry and Warwick universities to compile an action pack,
which local volunteers will use to map, document and survey their local food webs – or networks - by
interviewing consumers, shops and restaurant owners, suppliers and producers.

Volunteers will be supported by eight regional co-ordinators. The coordinators will also help to run
workshops on affordability and access to local food in 24 locations including in cities and market towns
across England. Many of these will be locations where other Making Local Food Work Projects are
happening. Six pilot projects will start early in the new year in Hastings, Totnes, Knutsford, Sheffield,
Kenilworth and Leicester. Mapping of the 24 main locations will start in late Spring 2009.

The mapping process will be repeated in the 24 areas in 2011/12 to find out what has changed and why. A
key project aim is to find out whether local food webs have been strengthened and become beacons for
other towns and cities, or if they have been weakened and need more attention and protection.

The wealth of information collected throughout the project will be compiled into local case studies and
regional and national reports. CPRE will ensure that findings from across the country are circulated to the
media, and policy and decision makers, and used to support calls for the action, policies and decisions
needed to make local food webs work and thrive.

If you live in one of our pilot locations and would like to know more about the project, please get in touch
with Thea Platt, the Mapping Local Food Webs Project Officer

‘Enterprise For Empowerment’ – the Plunkett Foundation Conference

Taking place on 27th and 27th November at Wychwood Park, near Crewe, Enterprise for Empowerment is
the eighth national Plunkett Foundation Rural Social Enterprise Conference. This is the annual two-day
forum for news, presentations, debate, workshops and networking for all those involved with rural social
enterprise - ranging from community-owned village shops to development trusts and local food community
enterprises. We are delighted to be holding the event in association with Social Enterprise North West, the
voice for Social Enterprise in the North West region.

Headline speakers at Enterprise for Empowerment include:

 Matthew Taylor MP, author of Living Working Countryside, the Matthew Taylor Review of the rural
economy and affordable housing
 Malcolm Hayday, Chief Executive, Charity Bank
 Peter Couchman, Chair, Plunkett Foundation
 Graham Worrell, Chair, Social Enterprise North West
 Karen Lowthrop, Daniel Heery and Ken Orchard, Social Enterprise Ambassadors
As part of the two-day conference, there will be a special Making Local Food Work dinner for delegates,
using food sourced from two local community food enterprises, Fordhall Farm and the Walton Lea project..
The after dinner speaker is Pam Warhurst, Board Member of Natural England and former Deputy Chair of
the Countryside Agency, who is also Chair of a whole foods co-operative.

For further information and booking details, please visit the Plunkett Foundation website.

Ethical Shopping – The Producers’ Perspective

4 December 2008
British Library Conference Centre, Euston
Road, London
9.45 – 17.00

This year’s conference will examine the extent to which consumers’ concerns over the ethical production of
their food have impacted on commercial practices. At a time of rapidly rising prices and concerns over food
security, has the ethical consumer movement made its voice heard down the supply chain? Are food
producers, in the UK and abroad, heeding calls for more sustainable production? How can social and
economic justice for small-scale farmers be achieved? How can we make their voice more effective in the
future? And how are communities on the ground taking action to respond to the desire for sustainable
food? The conference will be chaired by Sheila Dillon, presenter of Radio 4’s The Food Programme. In
January 2008 Sheila was awarded an honorary doctorate by City University for her work, which “has
changed the way in which we think about food.”
Speakers include:

 Peter Marks, Chief Executive, The Co-operative Group,

 Professor Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at City University,
 Professor James Sumberg,the New Economics Foundation,
 James Graham, chief executive of SAOS (the Scottish farmers’ co-operative movement) and a rich
range of thinkers and practitioners.

Conference threads:
 Future of Fair Trade
Fair Trade - one of the ethical success stories of the last decade - now faces the dilemma of satisfying
demand for an ever-widening range and volume of products whilst ensuring that its aim of empowering
small producers is maintained. How can the co-operative movement and others play a key role in
enhancing producer support and providing market opportunities?
 Developing World Livelihoods
Many initiatives to improve livelihoods in relation to rights and decent work tend to focus on 'top down'
measures such as corporate social responsibility codes. Whilst this focus is relevant it does not encompass
the entire scope of work needed to effect change. What are the real issues facing farmers and
smallholders in the developing world?
 Food Security and Sustainable Food
With a 40% rise in commodity prices over the last year, and global food reserves standing at the lowest for
30 years the food crisis is being felt right around the world. But the higher cost of food production is still
failing to meet the bills that have been left unpaid in relation to social and environmental justice. How does
our food system need to change if we are to feed the planet’s growing population?
 Community Action on Food
As consumers become more concerned about the provenance – and the price - of their food and become
more disconnected from the land and the lives of those that produce what they eat, so communities
themselves are taking the initiative. There are many inspiring grass roots initiatives across the UK. What
works and why? And do they really make a difference?
 Sustaining UK Farming Livelihoods
How can the British farmer provide us with our food, act as a custodian of the landscape and survive and
compete? How can they ensure they and their workers are paid fairly? Within a world of rising food prices
do we need farming policies that ensure a measure of food security in the UK?
 Fair Miles
Increasing trade, particularly in agricultural produce, is widely recognised as one of the most effective ways
of supporting development and reducing poverty. But is there a case for ending air freighting of perishable
food? How can we continue to support development through trade in agricultural produce, whilst reducing
the GHG emission impact of food transport and the unsustainable leaching of resources from the
developing world?

BOOKING:
To receive a booking form, please email: ethicalshopping@fairandsquare.coop, or telephone Jayne
Ormrod on 0161 246 2944

Press Coverage
This quarter has seen articles featuring Making Local Food work in The Ecologist, Permaculture
Magazine, New Sector Magazine, Social Enterprise Magazine, the West Somerset Disability
Association newsletter and the f3 Local Food newsletter.

Extranet
The Potfolio Extranet was launched at the end of October. Designed as an information sharing tool for
project staff, it incorporates a resource-sharing area, an interactive calendar and note pad, discussion
boards and interface with the online Project Management System, meaning that our staff across the
country can have the latest information at their fingertips, wherever they are.

Next quarter will see the first of a series of case studies, focusing on what the programme is doing
in a particular area, as well as important news about the first annual Making Local Food Work
conference. As ever, we would be glad to hear your requests, suggestions and feedback about
what you would like to see in your inbox each quarter.

Best wishes

The Editor

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