The Government’s Food 2030 report needs to go a step further by engaging communities in food production and food security according to Making Local Food Work, a partnership of organisations which help communities to take ownership of their food and where it comes from.
Peter Couchman, Chief Executive of the Plunkett Foundation which leads the Making Local Food Work partnership said; “While we welcome this as the first major food report in sixty years, we feel that the vision set out in the report does not reflect the change in the relationships that consumers increasingly want to have with the food they eat and who produces it.”
Making Local Food Works supports community food enterprises such as community supported agriculture, community-owned shops and farmers’ markets in areas ranging from sparse rural communities to large cities.
Peter also said: “The report we feel proposes a 20th century outlook to a 21st century problem. Consumers want to be able to actively shape the future of food. The report largely omits the trend of communities across the UK increasingly taking control of food production and food security through developing direct relationships between the people who produce and consumer food.”
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For media enquiries, please contact Ema Murphy on 01993 814386 or 07733 228 038 or email ema.murphy@plunkett.co.uk.
Notes to Editors
Making Local Food Work (http://www.makinglocalfoodwork.co.uk/) is a five-year programme funded by £10 million from the Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces Programme. Making Local Food Work aims to secure the long term future of thriving communities that are strongly connected with the land, that understand where their food comes from and are empowered to respond to their own needs using community-led solutions. A consortium of seven organisations, led by the Plunkett Foundation, is pooling its expertise to develop and promote different types of community food enterprise, giving advice to people all over England looking to re-engage and help others access good, fresh, local produce with clear origins. The partnership includes Campaign to Protect Rural England, Co-operativesUK, Country Markets Ltd, FARMA, Plunkett Foundation, Soil Association, and Sustain.
The Plunkett Foundation (http://www.plunkett.co.uk/) is a national organisation based in Woodstock, Oxfordshire dedicated to improving rural livelihoods through co-operative and social enterprise. The Plunkett Foundation works with other organisations that share its aims of helping rural communities respond to challenges to jobs, services and community vitality. It was founded in 1919 by Sir Horace Plunkett, the pioneer of agricultural co-operation in Ireland and in 2009 it celebrated 90 years of helping rural communities to believe in what they can achieve together.
The Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces programme was launched in November 2005 to help communities enjoy and improve their local environments. The programme is funding a range of activities from local food schemes and farmers markets, to education projects teaching people about the environment.
The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004. It was established by Parliament on 1 December 2006. Full details of the work of the Big Lottery Fund, its programmes and awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk.